Sleeping in MG4 [merged thread]

[Rolfe]

I agree with you that Lane Assist needs a physical on/off button. If you want it on during certain parts of the drive and not others, it's awkward. (Me, I turn it off before departure, every time. I do not require a car that tries to steer for me.) But it's probably not a huge issue in comparison to the good parts.

I think MG have made a mistake with the new edition, listening to knee-jerk first impressions from potential customers (and reviewers?) rather than the considered judgement of people who have had the car for some time. A rear wiper isn't really needed, and the central headrest will prevent the driver seeing out of that part of the rear windscreen anyway. Maybe they supply the headrest realising that people will mostly remove it! They'd have been far better adding physical on/off buttons for the Lane Assist and the fog lamps, than that. But we are where we are.

I must try to find my air mattress and see how practical this is. What I'd like to do is pack a box with air mattress, sleeping bag, electrical items that would make a night camping easier, and snacks, to carry so I could drive off without too much forethought and if I couldn't find accommodation it wouldn't be the end of the world.

 

[Valkosipuli]

Yep! Also if they wanted they could let us program assist on one of the two buttons on the car?

It would be sweet to have it on steering wheel but not over 10k euros sweet as this is like 10k cheaper than the ones which have it on wheel.

Just need to get customed to put it on and off the tablet. I love lane assist on highways

 

[Valkosipuli]

Please reply back if you try the overnight camping! Im really interested in this and im gonna buy the car in 6 months

 

[Rolfe]

Something that occurred to me about Bjorn's video. He didn't go into a lot of detail about what he did that night or what facilities the car did or didn't have, but it's noteworthy that he didn't say a word about battery consumption overnight. Assuming he couldn't get the lights to go off, he didn't say anything at all about battery drain. One would assume he ran the car's heating because he was right up at the arctic circle at the time and you could see snow on the surrounding hills, and if there had been any issues with the battery not being able to power the car all night, it's likely he would have mentioned it.

Edited. Yes he did cover all that, I just wasn't watching carefully enough. Covered later in the thread.

 

[brem93]

Hello,
Did anyone manage to fit this fuse switch for the DLR lights? Been car camping for a few days and just turn car off when sleeping, but would be nice to be able to turn heating on low without the lights!

 

[Rolfe]

I don't know about the lights, but you're actually doing it? The heater stays on then, without you needing to be sitting in the driver's seat? Are you locking the car from inside?

Tell us all!

 

[brem93]

Sorry about the delay to reply, busy week.

So over the 10 days in Scotland I stayed in the car 6 nights, in some below zero weather too! Depending on where I parked up and slept, I was able to keep the car on, as long as I covered up the lights with some of my magnetic blackout curtains I use for the windows.

However in windy weather these would blow off so I just turned off the car by locking it. This just meant a lot of window condensation in the morning but with a towel I wiped this down and ran heater to dry it all up. No issues at all!!

 

[Rolfe]

Thanks for getting back. So that settles it, it's possible to run the HVAC all night without anyone sitting in the driver's seat. Was there any particular procedure you had to go through to get that to happen? I presume the lights might not matter depending on where you were? Do the rear lights stay on as well as the DRLs?

How much battery did you generally use overnight when you had the HVAC on?

 

[webhiker]

A small hack for solo car camping
If you raise the floor and fold the rear seats, you can create a (mostly) flat area, long enough for me to sleep there diagonally. However, the boot floor can't hold a grown person's weight (please, do not ask how I know that ).

 

[Rolfe]

My thought was to put an inflatable cushion under the lower part of the lilo I intend to sleep on. Having the SE, I can't easily raise the floor. I've also measured the distance from the backs of the front seats (pushed as far forward as they will go) and the tail-gate and it was 1.8 metres, so that's a decent space.

At least one other person has said that the HVAC will stay on all night without anyone sitting in the driver's seat, but I'm not quite sure how you organise that. Can you advise?

 

[webhiker]

My thought was to put an inflatable cushion under the lower part of the lilo I intend to sleep on. Having the SE, I can't easily raise the floor. I've also measured the distance from the backs of the front seats (pushed as far forward as they will go) and the tail-gate and it was 1.8 metres, so that's a decent space.

At least one other person has said that the HVAC will stay on all night without anyone sitting in the driver's seat, but I'm not quite sure how you organise that. Can you advise?

Haven't tried it yet, but I'm used to tents with no HVAC ?

 

[Rolfe]

When it gets a bit warmer here, I'll experiment.

 

[sila0164]

Hejsa

How tall are you?

I'm curious as I might take trip around Jutland this summer, and was considering just doing this instead of having a tent. Does that seem viable?

I'm fairly short, about 175 cm myself.

Regards from Næstved

 

[webhiker]

Hejsa

How tall are you?

I'm curious as I might take trip around Jutland this summer, and was considering just doing this instead of having a tent. Does that seem viable?

I'm fairly short, about 175 cm myself.

Regards from Næstved

That should be OK.
Easy test, move passenger seats all forward, lay down back seats, enter via rear doors NOT boot door and lie down. Make sure your bum doesn't put all of your weight on the boot floor.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm 170 cm and I can lie stretched out in the back without having to go diagonally. Word of warning though, You have to do something to fill in the rear footwell space in front of the rear seats. I'm thinking a flight bag or something like that. When I finally get round to trying it I'll post some photos.

 

[sila0164]

Cheers lads, that might just be the plan then. I dont have a MG yet, that's why I'm asking.
But it sounds promising, might be possible to just build some kind of wooden frame, that can give a completely flat bed.

 

[Rolfe]

What are you planning on sleeping on? I have bought a lilo (same colour as the car!) and my plan is to fill in the footwell with a small suitcase or flight bag - I'd be carrying this anyway - and simply to prop up the other end of the lilo with a blow-up cushion if necessary. Bear in mind that the tailgate slopes, so it might actually turn out better to sleep with your feet slightly lower so as to fit in under the tailgate.

Still not warm enough here for me to want to go out and try it.

 

[sila0164]

Idk really... I would probably just take a cheap/simple/compact matress, and fill out the footwell with something I have lying around. Potentially I would build something, like some kind of wooden frame that would elevate the part in the boot and possibly just extend over the footwell, ultimately giving a completly flat bed.
It depends how much I end up sleeping in it. (and whether I get rid of my current car before summer)

I would think temperature isn't an issue, you have full aircon/heating for really cheap in an EV. You just have to make sure you have the charge to get going afterwards.
Does it struggle to heat the cabin when its cold or is it just a question of turning the thermostat high enough?

 

[Rolfe]

What I'm referring to is the question of whether there is enough vertical space at the foot end, just inside the tailgate, to accommodate that end of whatever you're sleeping on. (I think my lilo was about 12 euros.) If you raise the floor in the boot, you might end up not having enough space.

The issue isn't whether the car is able to heat/cool effectively, it definitely is. The issue I'm not sure about is whether the damn thing will turn itself off after a while because it thinks you've just gone away and forgotten to lock it.

The member who mentioned having actually slept in the car during a short holiday in the north of Scotland seemed to imply that it did stay on normally though. He said that when he didn't want the lights showing (that is something we haven't figured how to get round, the DRLs stay on) he did turn the car off, but then the windows fogged up.

 

[sila0164]

Thats where I’d have to have a car to measure in. Does the boot lid really taper in that much?
I don’t know what a lilo is, and a google search didn’t help. Haven’t heard it before, sorry. Might be an English thing? Is it similar to a sleeping bag?

I’ve read that one, and I don’t think the DRL’s would use any noticeable amount of power. As long as it can stay on without anyone in the drivers seat, which is again something I’d need a car to play around with, it should be doable.

But the fact the space is there makes it worth exploring to me. Especially as evs doubles as camper vans really nicely with regards to climate control.