LightShip Serial Production Factory Tour

[Kevin D Pem]

I am seeing the same silliness over on the Airstream Forum. A guy keeps repeating the same meme that he does not like the product because it reminds him of a coffin. Here is the link.

In the end many of these empty criticisms relate to individual affordability.

What's your handle over on that airstream forum?

I agree that only time will tell. Chenks only appear after the first real world battle.

An airstream from the 50's can still be rolling down the road, still can be buffed up to look better than new.

Will the systems you see as marvels still be trouble free (assuming they will roll off the line that way) and working without issues in let's say 5. I hear cann buss components can fail and bring down the entire system. That would be a nightmare.

Will that sleek body Crack at some overlooked stress point, the way it does in all other RV's or do engineers without years of experience offer insights in manufacturing that others, whose these insights seem to elude them.

Then again the guy that sits on the side of a stream thinking about the gold that might be in front of him, will not come home with the nugget.

Then he who takes out his pick and shovel, has a chance to pluck a nugget, or get the experience.

Who knows! If I could have 200,000 that didn't matter to me, maybe, just maybe! Nah! Not a chance!

But then again, is it another DeLorean?

 

[josephpRV]

When I pulled the prototype with my F-150 PowerBoost we did not use a WDH. LightShip was rock solid on I25 with significant cross wind. No evidence of sway. The F-150 has electronic trailer sway control. It can be toggled on and off.

Here is the Curt 17052.

I suspect they choose the chain style since it eliminates a firm connection to the tow vehicle. They want all trailer towing forces to translate through the hitch sensor, not through attached structure of the WDH.

That makes more sense. I was wondering why they'd go with one of the lower quality WDH's, and figured it was because of the tongue box, but I think you're right, they can't have anything interfering with the torque sensor for the TrekDrive to operate properly.

 

[Holdmybeer]

When I pulled the prototype with my F-150 PowerBoost we did not use a WDH. LightShip was rock solid on I25 with significant cross wind. No evidence of sway. The F-150 has electronic trailer sway control. It can be toggled on and off.

Here is the Curt 17052.

I suspect they choose the chain style since it eliminates a firm connection to the tow vehicle. They want all trailer towing forces to translate through the hitch sensor, not through attached structure of the WDH.

A WDH is not for sway control. A WDH with a sway control attachment is for sway control. Otherwise, now would be good time to figure out a WDH solution and had they done so, you'd know about it. The notion that any WDH configuration would not interfere with the trek drive sensors at the hitch I suspect to be magical thinking.

 

[turbopilot]

Until @josephpRV posted that LightShip was using the Curt 1702 WDH, I was not aware what WDH would be on the initial LightShip deliveries. The Curt 1702 is a WDH that does not include sway control, but some WDH's advertise that capability.

The last time I talked to Ben Parker, the technical head at LightShip, he said they were testing various WDH's and finding that some WDH's interfered with the hitch mounted force sensor. I suspect those that did interfere with the force sensor had built in sway control.

LightShip is doing extensive sway testing with the LightShip "mule" at NASA's Crows Landing Airport in California using an F-150 PowerBoost. So they most likely have the data to confirm the choice of the WDH and that no separate sway control is needed. I have seen video of the tests at 70 MPH using the mule to induce sway. It is rock solid. No sway.