As a hard-shell pop-top travel trailer, the Lightship has several unique features and design advantages. In towing position, the upper half of the vehicle slides down and fully envelopes the lower portion, like a lid on a fancy box. When parked, at the push of a button, electric motors send the upper half sliding upward, so the overall height of the vehicle grows from 6 feet 11 inches to 10 feet 1 inch. Overall length is 26 feet 7 inches, and it’s 8 feet 5 inches at its widest point. With a claimed dry weight of 7,200 pounds, a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 8,200 pounds, and tongue weight of 792 pounds, the AE.1 is towable by a wide variety of full-size trucks and larger SUVs.
One Big Room
Outside, it looks like a spaceship. Inside, it’s essentially one large room that can sleep up to four adults. A daybed surrounded by five tall windows is at the trailer hitch end, and a bathroom, complete with sink and shower, is located behind a sliding door at the opposite end. In the middle, an L-shaped sofa partially surrounds a medium-size table that’s roomy enough for four people to sit around.
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This is what you’d call an “open concept” RV design.
The AE.1 is tapered at both ends and feels bright and open inside, thanks to an interior height of 7 feet 5 inches. There are a total of 15 windows of various sizes, with rectangular windows on the walls, along with smaller, triangular and slit windows that run along the chamfered edge of the roof. Unlike pop-top travel trailers that expand up and/or out using fabric walls, the AE.1 looks and feels very solid. You don’t feel like you’re in a tent or temporary shelter.
The downside is that, while bright and airy, the overall feeling is a bit stark. Aside from the many windowpanes, there’s nothing else on the upper walls: no fixtures or built-in shelves or storage of any kind, because those walls need to slide down, unobstructed, to enable the trailer mode. That there are only windows on the walls starting from the midline of the vehicle adds to the wide-open feeling of the AE.1, but nearly every touchpoint is at countertop height or below, including all the appliances. There’s a fair amount of storage on both sides of the AE.1, behind metal-faced cabinets and drawers under the countertop in the kitchen, and under the bench seat cushions that surround the dining table. Something to consider if you don’t like bending over or crouching down to get your stuff.
See and Be Seen
The Lightship certainly does ship the light to the interior. The windows are fantastic. At the tapered, trailer end of the right, the vertically oriented panes offer excellent views outward and give a vaulted ceiling atmosphere when you’re lying down on the convertible bed. The side windows on either side are even better; four of them pop open using gas-filled struts, and they have interior screens and shades, so you have options to let all the air in. The windows also have a screen for bugs, and you can shut almost everything down and black it out for privacy and sleeping.
Made it in time for another spectacular California sunset.
As the Lightship looks like nothing else at the campground, you can expect a lot of looky-loos. If you’re attention-averse, this fishbowl isn’t for you. That said, for privacy, closing the windows from the inside is done via a hook on a collapsible pole, and blackout shades are available to pull down over the side windows, while the windows around the bed are buttoned in place. There are no shades for the roof windows, which we’ll cover later on.
