Camping with Mach-e - tent extension

[NihtCat]

I watched the video and just have to ask,
If you’re taking the time to set up a tent, why bother attaching it to your car? Seems like a needless extra step. Especially when I see all the ways you have to connect the tent to the roof rack, the wheel well, and the hood. What’s the gain over a tent that you don’t attach to the car?

Because I like being able to crawl out of bed (back of the car) and still have some privacy to stand up and change clothes in the morning. Mostly for trips where it's big group camping that happening do I use this, otherwise I use my backpacking tent or mid size tent if staying put a few days in the woods carless. All depends on the camping trip.

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[NihtCat]

Attached to the car you can use the car's HVAC for climate controlling the inside of the tent.

No, I didn't and wouldn't likely. I live and mostly camp in the Pacific NW where it's cool at night.

 

[JamieGeek]

Now there’s a serious battery drain. Let’s just heat/cool this big uninsulated space ?

That is why you get the ER battery

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

Because I like being able to crawl out of bed (back of the car) and still have some privacy to stand up and change clothes in the morning. Mostly for trips where it's big group camping that happening do I use this, otherwise I use my backpacking tent or mid size tent if staying put a few days in the woods carless. All depends on the camping trip.

I assume you’re using some kind of mattress pad in the back of the car. Wouldn’t this have the same effect as putting the mattress pad on the ground in a tent not attached to the car? Is there an advantage? Not being challenging. Just an old guy who has camped a lot and trying to understand. It looks like you’re doing everything I would do to set a medium sized 4-6 person tent (poles, stakes, rain fly) THEN attaching it to a car and placing a mattress in the car. Seems more expedient with just set the tent, throw the mattress in and call it good. Untill I watched the video I thought maybe the tent deployed from the back making for a quicker set up.

 

[AlpaChino]

Now there’s a serious battery drain. Let’s just heat/cool this big uninsulated space ?

Many campsites are outfitted with a 30amp/50amp outlet perfect to keep the AC running all night and still charge the battery for the morning.

 

[sockmeister]

Many campsites are outfitted with a 30amp/50amp outlet perfect to keep the AC running all night and still charge the battery for the morning.

All we need is a camp mode (to avoid keeping the car itself running)! I can see them adding that.

 

[Jim D]

I always questioned the value of these tents. When I am on vacation I want to go places and do things, often that means driving so I would have to disconnect the tent from the car wouldn't that leave the side of the tent open?

 

[dtbaker61]

... I noticed at night that there would occasionally be noise form the front of the vehicle

I just did an overnight, and I slept in the back.... had 6' with front seats in up position. I used foam floor tiles, and stuffed the gap between front seat and folded down back seat with duffle bag.... I think I might put a stiff backing on the foam tiles to bridge the gap next time.

and yes I had to turn off lots of things to prevent the periodic clicking and clucking of relays as the MME fell asleep. Steps I took were:
- 'airplane mode' on phone to stop BT
- 'force stop' the FordPass app
- disable the alarm and walkaway lock warning

I also brought along an inverter and teapot to see if I could make coffee and consider 'flameless' cooking in the future. Jury is still out on that as I had to turn the MME 'on' and disable the 10-minute auto-off to get the HV dc-dc to send full power to the 12 connection ports. I need to do a little more testing as I got it working one morning, but not the next.

 

[dtbaker61]

Because I like being able to crawl out of bed (back of the car) and still have some privacy to stand up and change clothes in the morning. Mostly for trips where it's big group camping that happening do I use this, otherwise I use my backpacking tent or mid size tent if staying put a few days in the woods carless. All depends on the camping trip.

I did not bring a fly on my first trip.... and I gotta say, you have to be quite flexible to get changed inside the MME... there is not a lot of headroom. I ended up removing one of my 'floor' tiles so I could stand, bent over the passenger seat, to change pants and shoes.

The other reason for at least a fly would be for ventilation since you can't leave the windows down if it rains or there are bugs.....

 

[NihtCat]

I assume you’re using some kind of mattress pad in the back of the car. Wouldn’t this have the same effect as putting the mattress pad on the ground in a tent not attached to the car? Is there an advantage? Not being challenging. Just an old guy who has camped a lot and trying to understand. It looks like you’re doing everything I would do to set a medium sized 4-6 person tent (poles, stakes, rain fly) THEN attaching it to a car and placing a mattress in the car. Seems more expedient with just set the tent, throw the mattress in and call it good. Untill I watched the video I thought maybe the tent deployed from the back making for a quicker set up.

I wouldn't be able to start gaze through the great panoramic roof then. But we actually are thinking to leave the tent separate on this trip because it's suddenly hot as hades here. I really wish Ford had added the camping mode for recirc without turning on the car.

 

[dtbaker61]

I wouldn't be able to start gaze through the great panoramic roof then. But we actually are thinking to leave the tent separate on this trip because it's suddenly hot as hades here. I really wish Ford had added the camping mode for recirc without turning on the car.

as far as I can tell, we will HAVE to turn the MME 'on' to fire up the heat pump for heating/cooling. You will also have to turn 'off' the time-out setting so that it STAYS on... and be aware that being on, and running the cabin heat/cool will consume *some* battery.

The amount of battery consumption will depend on how much the heat/cooling runs of course, but it will be negligible compared to driving. My WAG would be somewhere between 5-10kWhr consumed overnight.... somewhere between 2%-5% of battery capacity. ... if you try it, let us know ambient conditions, what you set temp to, and how much energy it consumes overnight to remain on and maintain temp !

 

[NihtCat]

July 4th weekend car camping went great. I did use the tent again, loved looking up at the stars and watching the sunrise over the evergreens. The normal cool NW nights are back so no need for cooling unless taking a day nap. No need to turn on the car at all. Also used the signal blocking back for the FOB and turned off phone Bluetooth, no wakey wakey car in the night like before. Slept great!

 

[miata]

I did not bring a fly on my first trip.... The other reason for at least a fly would be for ventilation since you can't leave the windows down if it rains or there are bugs.....

Can you explain what you mean by "fly"? I'm thinking a simple canopy that hangs over the rear hatch that gives some privacy for dressing but can be easily removed would be a useful invention...is that what you're referring to?
A small "pop-up" could be useful with a MME as well and sets-up/tears-down much easier than a tent.

 

[dtbaker61]

Can you explain what you mean by "fly"? I'm thinking a simple canopy that hangs over the rear hatch that gives some privacy for dressing but can be easily removed would be a useful invention...is that what you're referring to?
A small "pop-up" could be useful with a MME as well and sets-up/tears-down much easier than a tent.

yeah I am thinking of a super simple canopy=fly.... drawstring around the hatch, and roped out at the far corners. Possibley adding two poles, and optional drops for bug screening and/or nylon for privacy tent.

 

[miata]

yeah I am thinking of a super simple canopy=fly.... drawstring around the hatch, and roped out at the far corners. Possibley adding two poles, and optional drops for bug screening and/or nylon for privacy tent.

I'm thinking 3 hinged PVC pipes just contacting the ground with a few magnets to seal it at the roof and sides.
The bulk of the body is steel, right, not non-magnetic aluminum?

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