The picture above is the setup in the back of our Tucson in 2024. I built a platform for the bed and we stored our totes under the platform. This was way more comfortable and gave us a lot of leg room. I highly recommend getting tips and pulling out the powertools to make one. One the side windows, you can see shades that I made with reflective innsulation and a thick material that I sewed together.
- Windows
- Buy mosquito nets for your front door windows, a foldable sunshade for your windshield and blackout curtains for all of your other windows.
- If you are considering car camping a lot, buy SnapShades or QuickSnap for the front windows. They are a lot easier to manage.
- Get rain guards for your front doors so you can crack your windows at night while letting your car run for climate control (if that’s your thing).
- Buy mosquito nets for your front door windows, a foldable sunshade for your windshield and blackout curtains for all of your other windows.
- Beds
- Standard Car
- Lay down the backseats and sleep with your feet in the trunk.
- Memory foam mattress pads are the best! Cut them down to fit in the back.
- Lay down the backseats and sleep with your feet in the trunk.
- SUV/Crossover
- Lay down back seats and build a platform!
- Make your platform tall enough that you can slide short totes under. This makes set up and break down at nighttime so much easier!
- If you aren’t good with powertools, that’s ok! Just try to condense the amount of totes that you are using and set them in the front seats at night.
- Get a memory foam mattress pad for your backs, you won’t regret it. You can usually find them for about $50-$100 at Home Depot.
- Lay down back seats and build a platform!
- Standard Car
- Clothes
- Store all of your clothes in totes
- Learn the Ranger Roll method of folding to save you space
- Use trash bags for dirty clothes and stick them at your feet.
- Store all of your clothes in totes
- Showering & Bathrooms
- Make “Bathroom Boxes”
- We used 6qt totes and drilled holes in the tops and the sides for aeration.
- These boxes are big enough to store a rolled towel, soap, shampoo, conditioner, razor, deodorant, hairbrush and a straightener/curling iron.
- Take showers at a Planet Fitness or Anytime Fitness – we had a membership and you can just go in and take showers anywhere across the country.
- When you go hiking, spread your towels out over the exterior of your doors and catch them in the door so they don’t blow away. They will be dry when you get back.
- Take an extra roll of toilet paper for emergencies. Sometimes you find yourself in weird places with no bathroom nearby and having a roll of toilet paper is a saviour!
- Make “Bathroom Boxes”
- Parking
- Park at Planet Fitness or whatever gym you use. They can’t ask you to leave since you are a member unless it is posted otherwise.
- This allows you to have a bathroom all night and you can shower before or after bed easily.
- Park inconspicuously
- We have parked in some places that I am not positive we were allowed to but we were out of the way and no one batted an eye.
- Don’t take the closest parking spot to things and no one usually cares.
- We have parked behind stores in a pinch and it usually didn’t cause an issue.
- If no other choice, we would buy a camping spot at a campground.
- Park at Planet Fitness or whatever gym you use. They can’t ask you to leave since you are a member unless it is posted otherwise.
- Nighttime Setup
- Practice before you go
- If you’re like us, nighttime in the woods can creep you out. So it’s nice to have your setup practiced before you hit the road.
- Practice getting your totes in the right place, setting your nets and getting them to catch on the doors, getting the curtains to sit correctly and quickly and unfolding your bed (if you are in a situation where you have to fold it up every day).
- Also, some cars have quirks that you need to figure out before you go.
- My car required the seatbealt to be plugged in and the emergency break to be engaged while idling for more than 2 hours. Otherwise my car automatically turns itself off and won’t let me turn off my headlights.
- Also, some cars have quirks that you need to figure out before you go.
- Turn off your headlights! It’s more inconspicuous and it’s also polite to the area around you.
- Practice before you go
- Storage
- We used totes for pretty much everything.
- They are easy to store and stack, just buy ones that will fit in your front seat and in both the front and back floors when you have your bed set up.
- Trash bags are great for dirty clothes and can be squished anywhere.
- We store the curtains and mosquito nets in the respective door and the sunshade for the windshield in between our driver seat and the middle console area.
- We used totes for pretty much everything.
This is our last day of our first trip in 2020. I was super sick coming due to some food poisoning. This was very dangerous and I don’t recommend, but we got home and all was fine. This picture is the only pic we have of the setup in our Altima and it was a very rough learning process. But we enjoyed every moment of this trip and I still can’t belive it was 6 years ago.
Feel free to contact me with comment or questions!
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