Camping Reserve SimulatorBeta

The tow vehicle’s job is to land the LightShip at a campsite with the most Total Camping Reserve it can. Where there is no electrical service, whatever you need for the stay has to arrive with you — this works out which pairing delivers the most of it on your trip.

Put in your own tow vehicle. It runs the same trip against an F-150 PowerBoost towing the LightShip AE.1, and answers one question first: which pairing arrives with the most Total Camping Reserve (TCR) — the energy aboard for living off the grid once you stop. Everything else is secondary, including the road time, which the simulator keeps as short as the TCR target allows. Range gets you there. Reserve lets you stay.

Trip

This does not look up routes. Get the driving distance from your map app — door to door, the way you would actually drive it — and type it in below. Everything else already has a sensible default.

Where are you going

Trip name

Distance miles, from your map app

Cruise speed mph — where you set it on open road

What the road is like

Your tow vehicle

Start from The default shows the Rivian R1T — the pairing most AE.1 owners actually have. It is also the weakest available EV export case (1,500 W bed outlets, no 240 V), with in-motion export off until enabled below. That is a deliberate choice to open on the most common rig, not a framing choice — pick any vehicle above to change it.

Name it

Powertrain

Usable pack kWh

Towing range mi, full pack, with this trailer

Onboard export kW it can put out, parked

Run that export to the trailer while drivingAn electric rig pays for it out of the same pack that's towing, so its range falls and it stops more

Trailer & trip

Where you're camping

Arrival reserve — tow vehicle and LightShip

Both the tow vehicle and the trailer must reach this level before you pull in. Refuelling and charging time to get there is added to the total trip time.

Draw down to % — it still has to get home

Departure SOC % of the 77 kWh pack

Base house load — travel mode, cooling aside

Base house load kW while rolling · Storage travels lighter when 110 V services aren’t needed in the cabin

Summer — LightShip air conditioner ON in motionKeeping the trailer cool while towing, on top of the base load. Runs the whole drive, TrekDrive or not. HV Solar Boost — roof array charges the pack while rollingNow a shipping software update. Helps every rig, and helps the ones that cannot export the most.

Average output watts, 24 h average · offsets house load on the road and at camp

TrekDrive

The trailer's own axle motor pushes, so the tow vehicle works less. It spends trailer battery to do it, and while it is running the trailer cannot be charged — those two are mutually exclusive. HVAC and 120 V services keep running. Applies to your vehicle only — the PowerBoost column always runs TrekDrive off, because spending trailer energy to extend truck range is the wrong direction when TCR is the goal.

Duty % of the drive with it engaged

Energy it costs the trailer

Assumptions

Fast charger 10% to 80% min at a working stall

Unhitch + rehitch min per stop · weight-distribution hitch

Gas and diesel 100% refuel min each · pull-through lane, no unhitch

Trailer DC rate kW — 150 when enabled; peak, tapers near full

Level 2 rate kW · 30 A factory EVSE cable ceiling

Charge the trailer at the same time as the tow vehicleOff by default: the trailer is charged after the tow vehicle finishes, not alongside it. Requires a second connection at the same stop.

Scoreboard

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Where the time goes

Driving is identical — stops are the whole difference

Driving Fuel Truck charging Unhitch / rehitch Trailer top-up

What the tow vehicle brings to camp

Drawn down to 25%, then it has to get you home

Ask an AI to explain it

Recommended · nothing is sent from this page

This is a complicated result, and it is meant to be. Range, charging windows, hitching, export rate, house load and cooling all interact, and no single number on this page explains the outcome by itself. Handing the whole picture to an AI assistant and asking it to walk through the reasoning is the fastest way to understand what actually drove the difference — and what would change it for the way you camp.

The button copies the results above, the conditions they were run under, and the assumptions behind them. It tells the assistant which figures are measured and which are modelled, and asks for a plain-language explanation rather than a summary of the table.

Anything specific to ask? (optional)

The reply is that assistant's interpretation, not a result from this simulator. Nothing leaves this page — the text goes to your clipboard and no data is transmitted anywhere.

Stop by stop

Every number, and where it came from

Green is the only measured column

Questions & Comments

This page is in beta and being actively developed. If you find a bug, or a number that looks wrong, please report it on the LightShip RV Owners Club on RVForums.com. I monitor that site regularly and would enjoy your feedback.