Airstream Basecamp 16X Towing Report

[kpett]

My wife and I drove from the Portland, OR area up to Olympic National Park (Forks, WA.). We rented an Airstream Basecamp 16X on Outdoorsy to see how we liked the trailer and how well it performed. The first bummer...the trailer had a huge dent not noted in the listing. No leaks though. Other than that damage, an amazing trailer and a great owner to work with.

First the numbers: 675 Wh/mi was our average over 540 miles at the speed limit and average temp of 70 F. Prior to loading it up with our gear, I got around 500 Wh/mi driving from the renters home to my home 25 miles away. During the trip this meant charging to a max of 80% for time savings giving us up to 96 kWh with a reality of 85 useable kWh to avoid hitting 0 before landing at a SuperCharger. In simple terms, 125 miles between stops. This meant multiple stops per day during the round trip. We could have stitched the run a bit further, but not having experience with the route and trailer, we played it safe.

The experience: The acceleration was unbelievable but the need to charge so frequently took away from our adventure time. We did find a great butcher shop during a charge in Aberdeen and had a nice walk during another.

The attention: As anyone on this forum with a CT knows, you get attention. Throwing the silver streamer behind increased it two fold. Lots of smiles and thumbs up. Even the other campers (only two campsites at this Airbnb property) said they saw us on the road and were excited to be at the same site.

Our plan based on this rental: Skip the Basecamp as it is too heavy and not aerodynamic enough. This also rules out some trailers on our list like the SylvanSport Vast, inTech Sol Horizon and Safari Condo Expedition. Still on our list, The Polydrops P21, Safari Condo A2124, or the power assisted trailers like the upcoming eStream or Pebble.

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[RoboTaxi]

The setup looks great but the numbers make it miserable. Maybe a Aliner(hard side pop) would get better range.

I wonder what the range extender KW size will be.

 

[Cybertruck 1974]

Did Oregon trip too with our 20x from Bay Area to Salem, Tillamook, back to home through redwood forests in 9 days. Got 150 miles out of 100% charge. Brought my Wall charger and used RV hook ups to charge truck. Yep, it sucks down towing and anything over 65mph without towing you lose 30% of charge.

 

[Cybertruck 1974]

The setup looks great but the numbers make it miserable. Maybe a Aliner(hard side pop) would get better range.

I wonder what the range extender KW size will be.

Exactly, anything taller than truck has a huge effect on mileage.

 

[Mrp911]

Why bring your wall charger when you have the mobile charger with foundation series? I found we would get the 32 amps 240v typical for rv parks with ours.

 

[Cybertruck 1974]

Why bring your wall charger when you have the mobile charger with foundation series? I found we would get the 32 amps 240v typical for rv parks with ours.

because the small mobile is slow and takes 5 days to charge my truck. The wall charger I have allows 80 amp charging but have it down to 50 amps(as we all know rv camps only put out 50) and only takes 6hrs to charge on 50amp.

 

[Spacenoddle]

Did Oregon trip too with our 20x from Bay Area to Salem, Tillamook, back to home through redwood forests in 9 days. Got 150 miles out of 100% charge. Brought my Wall charger and used RV hook ups to charge truck. Yep, it sucks down towing and anything over 65mph without towing you lose 30% of charge.

How to use the wall charger in the RV park?

 

[tcmeyers]

We just did a test towing loop 240 miles total, pulling a Bowlus Terra Firma. We selected that one because it is very streamlined (no bulges, tapered aft) and lightweight. I started at 100% SOC (first time ever, normally 80%) and returned home again with 18% remaining. With 60 miles left to go, we supercharged for 7 minutes, adding 20% battery SOC (25 kWh, $11) to add comfort pad.

Correcting an earlier mistake, this is about 2 miles per percent of battery charge unless I goofed again.

 

[Cyberus]

5 days to charging at 240v 30amp?? I think there may be an issue with your CT.. ?

because the small mobile is slow and takes 5 days to charge my truck. The wall charger I have allows 80 amp charging but have it down to 50 amps(as we all know rv camps only put out 50) and only takes 6hrs to charge on 50amp.

 

[Spacenoddle]

We just did a test towing loop 240 miles total, pulling a Bowlus Terra Firma. We selected that one because it is very streamlined (no bulges, tapered aft) and lightweight. I started at 100% SOC (first time ever, normally 80%) and returned home again with 18% remaining. With 60 miles left to go, we supercharged for 7 minutes, adding 5% battery SOC (25 kWh, $11) to add comfort pad.

Unless I’ve made a mistake, this is about 2-3/4 miles per percent of battery charge.

Wow, that is only 504w per mile. But still bowlus is out of my budget for a trailer list.

 

[Spacenoddle]

because the small mobile is slow and takes 5 days to charge my truck. The wall charger I have allows 80 amp charging but have it down to 50 amps(as we all know rv camps only put out 50) and only takes 6hrs to charge on 50amp.

If it really takes you 5 days to charge your CT with 240 v 30a, i think your adapter is faulty. It happened to me with the faulty 14-50 adapter.

 

[tcmeyers]

Wow, that is only 504w per mile. But still bowlus is out of my budget for a trailer list.

That’s about what the Trips panel shows. Yes, it is ridiculously expensive but we financed it. We just paid off our house so we are pretending it’s our vacation home.

 

[Pops]

If it really takes you 5 days to charge your CT with 240 v 30a, i think your adapter is faulty. It happened to me with the faulty 14-50 adapter.

I suspect they are using the 120v adaptor, 5 days is about right at 120v.

@Cybertruck 1974 The mobile charger comes with a 240v 14-50 adaptor in the box. That should be able to charge to full overnight. But if the wallcharger works for you, keep at it, it is faster.

 

[Cybertruck 1974]

I suspect they are using the 120v adaptor, 5 days is about right at 120v.

@Cybertruck 1974 The mobile charger comes with a 240v 14-50 adaptor in the box. That should be able to charge to full overnight. But if the wallcharger works for you, keep at it, it is faster.

Yes, the mobile is maxed out at 32 amps vs 48 wall charger on a 50amp 14 50 plug, way faster and going from 3 to 100% takes well over 14 hrs.not enough time on a road trip to charge that's why.

 

[HaulingAss]

We just did a test towing loop 240 miles total, pulling a Bowlus Terra Firma. We selected that one because it is very streamlined (no bulges, tapered aft) and lightweight. I started at 100% SOC (first time ever, normally 80%) and returned home again with 18% remaining. With 60 miles left to go, we supercharged for 7 minutes, adding 5% battery SOC (25 kWh, $11) to add comfort pad.

Unless I’ve made a mistake, this is about 2-3/4 miles per percent of battery charge.

25 kWh is not 5% battery SOC, it's 20% of your battery capacity. Which means you used 102% of your total battery capacity for the 240 miles (125.5 kWh).

That's 523 wh per mile or 1.91 miles per kWh. Still very good for such a large trailer, with the caveat that we don't know your speed.

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