Summer Car Camping in my Mach-E

[merlinwizard]

I spend an evening with my kids at a state park and decided to car camp in my MME. I bought gear some had recommended on this forum, with decent success. We slept two on an air mattress in the tent and two in the car. We drove about an hour from home, ran the A/C a few times at night, and then fast charged on the way home. Overall it was a success but there’s a few things I learned.

1. The light switch to turn off interior lights is above the center console. I planned for everything except that and it took me a minute to find it.
2. I opted to keep the car off and use the app to turn on the A/C when we needed it. Turns out you can only use that twice before the app locks up the A/C button and you have to turn the car on. It is annoying and something I wish Ford could fix in the app, but I bet it has something to do with not draining the LVB. The new architecture should fix that.
3. The back seats lay flat but it’s not a truly flat surface to sleep. In the future I will bring a yoga mat or something to lift up the floor of the trunk. I have my trunk sitting the base seeing how many folks broke the plastic support raisers.
4. Being able to charge the phones and electronics in the car is great. Makes me wish I had the option on my 24 model to get the 120v plug.

Overall it’s a pretty easy setup that makes camping easier. I store my tent and mattress in the trunk, pack the rest in the trunk and it works reasonably well for three kids and an adult. I doubt two adults can sleep in the car alone, so the tent is a must. The charging infrastructure seems to have finally caught up, even in Kentucky to make it a pretty seamless experience. Cheers!

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[Maui]

yeah not having camp and dog mode is a miss and it seem like it should be easy. Some of the non-domestic cars really have some interesting setup. I can't find the one I saw before but the entire cabin essentially becomes a bed.

 

[merlinwizard]

Agreed. It’s passable but not ideal.

 

[RickMachE]

I spend an evening with my kids at a state park and decided to car camp in my MME. I bought gear some had recommended on this forum, with decent success. We slept two on an air mattress in the tent and two in the car. We drove about an hour from home, ran the A/C a few times at night, and then fast charged on the way home. Overall it was a success but there’s a few things I learned.

1. The light switch to turn off interior lights is above the center console. I planned for everything except that and it took me a minute to find it.
2. I opted to keep the car off and use the app to turn on the A/C when we needed it. Turns out you can only use that twice before the app locks up the A/C button and you have to turn the car on. It is annoying and something I wish Ford could fix in the app, but I bet it has something to do with not draining the LVB. The new architecture should fix that.
3. The back seats lay flat but it’s not a truly flat surface to sleep. In the future I will bring a yoga mat or something to lift up the floor of the trunk. I have my trunk sitting the base seeing how many folks broke the plastic support raisers.
4. Being able to charge the phones and electronics in the car is great. Makes me wish I had the option on my 24 model to get the 120v plug.

Overall it’s a pretty easy setup that makes camping easier. I store my tent and mattress in the trunk, pack the rest in the trunk and it works reasonably well for three kids and an adult. I doubt two adults can sleep in the car alone, so the tent is a must. The charging infrastructure seems to have finally caught up, even in Kentucky to make it a pretty seamless experience. Cheers!

2) Nothing to fix. Remote start twice, then a physical start is needed. No reason to not leave the AC running all night...

3) Simply raise the trunk and put wood underneath it, front, middle, back.

4) Use 12v chargers, and USB charger.

 

[Fat Mach]

Ah, yes. Nothing says camping like running an AC and charging phones.

 

[merlinwizard]

Maybe not, but I’ve done enough family camping to know nobody is having a good time if nobody sleeps.

2) Nothing to fix. Remote start twice, then a physical start is needed. No reason to not leave the AC running all night...

3) Simply raise the trunk and put wood underneath it, front, middle, back.

4) Use 12v chargers, and USB charger.

The issue is the tail lights stay on if the car is on and running A/C and that shines into the tent. I couldn’t find a way to turn those off even with turning all the lights off. Maybe there’s a trick I’m not aware of.

 

[RickMachE]

Turn lights to OFF...

 

[Bayviews88]

I spend an evening with my kids at a state park and decided to car camp in my MME. I bought gear some had recommended on this forum, with decent success. We slept two on an air mattress in the tent and two in the car. We drove about an hour from home, ran the A/C a few times at night, and then fast charged on the way home. Overall it was a success but there’s a few things I learned.

1. The light switch to turn off interior lights is above the center console. I planned for everything except that and it took me a minute to find it.
2. I opted to keep the car off and use the app to turn on the A/C when we needed it. Turns out you can only use that twice before the app locks up the A/C button and you have to turn the car on. It is annoying and something I wish Ford could fix in the app, but I bet it has something to do with not draining the LVB. The new architecture should fix that.
3. The back seats lay flat but it’s not a truly flat surface to sleep. In the future I will bring a yoga mat or something to lift up the floor of the trunk. I have my trunk sitting the base seeing how many folks broke the plastic support raisers.
4. Being able to charge the phones and electronics in the car is great. Makes me wish I had the option on my 24 model to get the 120v plug.

Overall it’s a pretty easy setup that makes camping easier. I store my tent and mattress in the trunk, pack the rest in the trunk and it works reasonably well for three kids and an adult. I doubt two adults can sleep in the car alone, so the tent is a must. The charging infrastructure seems to have finally caught up, even in Kentucky to make it a pretty seamless experience. Cheers!

What brand & model of car camping tent did you use and how would you rate the quality? Did you have any issues with insects or humidity/precipitation coming in gaps between the MachE and the tent?

 

[merlinwizard]

We used the following tent that someone else on this thread recommended. It didn’t rain on us so I can’t comment on that. But we didn’t have an issue with bugs getting in.

https://a.co/d/03w1McOw

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