Wheelhome Dashaway eCT Turns Your Tesla Mannequin 3 Right into a Micro Camper

Stephen Wheeler had spent years toying with camper vans, turning all types of strange automobiles into cell houses – there was a Suzuki microcar, a Vauxhall folks mover, even a Ford Galaxy. Then someday, whereas glancing at his personal Tesla Mannequin 3, he noticed the wasted area above the swooping roof. Two years later after a 3,500 mile check run round Iceland, the Wheelhome Dashaway eCT rolled off the manufacturing line at his Lincolnshire manufacturing facility. Whenever you open the pop prime and step inside, you’ll discover a correct little dwelling that may sleep two folks in consolation, prepare dinner up a feast, and hold operating for days on finish with no need to be plugged in.

The Dashaway eCT measures 3.8 meters from finish to finish, 1.44 meters throughout and 1.1 meters tall when closed – sufficiently small to park up beside the backyard shed. To tow it, you should use virtually any form of automotive; a single axle and a few intelligent suspension retains the centre of gravity good and low, even for those who’re utilizing a tiny 1.2 liter petrol engine because the tow car. Unladen, it weighs 340kg, which leaves you loads of room to stow 410kg of all of your tenting gear, water and some other necessities – after that you simply hit the 750kg restrict. Colours for the facet panels could be matched to your tow car, and there’s an non-obligatory 170-litre entrance locker that may swallow up a few folding chairs, or perhaps a week’s price of groceries.

Getting it arrange takes all of two minutes – simply drop the again stabilisers, flip just a few cranks on the deal with and – voila – the gasoline struts raise the fibreglass roof up onto its supporting poles. All of the sudden you’ve obtained 6 ft of headroom on the again and 5 ft up entrance. There’s a zipper down door that allows breezes and retains the bugs out, with a full fly display screen panel on the other facet home windows. The trailer stands prepared on tarmac, gravel or grass, with no need any of the standard pegs or man ropes.

Inside, the format is surprisingly spacious. Alongside one wall you’ll discover a comfortable two-seat couch dealing with backwards – the cushions are good and agency, the upholstery wipe-clean as a whistle, and there’s a fold-down countertop beside the couch that converts right into a large enough desk to take a 16-inch laptop computer. Lined up reverse the couch is a chrome steel sink, full with a drainer and a 10-litre water canister perched above it on a shelf. With a little bit of a flip of the spout, gravity will begin to ship the water – and for those who’d quite use a push-button faucet, an electrical pump is offered.

Behind the sink, a pull-out drawer will retailer all of your cutlery and pans, after which there’s the very helpful non-obligatory additional – a standard 200w photo voltaic panel on the roof (non-obligatory) that generates sufficient energy to maintain the lithium battery pack within the underfloor locker topped up. With a 2,600w inverter hooked as much as the system, you possibly can run a microwave, an induction range, and a kettle all on the identical time. And down in that very same underfloor locker, you’ll discover an 18-liter compressor fridge which ought to hold your milk good and funky for 3 complete days with no need to be plugged in. With the non-obligatory second battery, the trailer is sweet for every week with no need a recharge.

At night time, the couch base glides ahead and the backrest folds in flat to kind a 1.9 x 1.2 metre double mattress – six foot three by 4 foot – which is greater than spacious sufficient. Whenever you’re on the transfer, you possibly can simply go away the bedding on the mattress and stash it up underneath the entrance shelf once you get again to the couch’s regular state. A Porta-Potti will get stashed away in a cubby on the foot of the mattress, handy as you’d ever want – and you may even get to it once you’ve obtained the mattress all made up.

You’d assume that may be the extent of the storage, however nope – raise the couch cushions and also you’ll discover a large, deep bin that’s excellent for stuffing duvets and different stuff. Underneath the ground in the midst of the ground is a locker that’s obtained room for the fridge, batteries and all types of dry fine details to maintain the necessities dry. Whenever you fold down the again seats of the automotive, you possibly can slide two massive plastic crates by means of the move by means of into the boot, maintaining the garments and groceries separate from the dwelling area.

However then there’s the towing – and that’s the place Wheeler obtained an actual shock when his 2024 mannequin 3 lengthy vary averaged 308 watt-hours per mile at 60 mph with the trailer hooked up. And get this – that’s the very same because the roof pod model he examined out final time spherical – which is just about an enormous tick within the plus column. In actual world phrases, that comes out as 3.25 miles per kilowatt, or 244 miles of correct driving on a single cost – though that drops to 50 mph once you begin to run low. Alternatively, petrol vehicles honest quite a bit higher – a 1.0 litre Ford Fiesta managed a fairly respectable 42 mpg on a combined journey.

Wheelhome construct every of those models from scratch within the lovely Lincolnshire countryside. The bottom worth is available in at £26,225 which, handily, contains VAT and mainland UK supply. Then there’s all the assorted extras you possibly can add on – motor movers for straightforward towing, again awnings for a non-public little bathroom nook, second batteries for maintaining issues going even once you’re off the grid… each single choice simply bolts on with out having to vary the trailer’s commonplace 340 kilo shell.
[Source]