Car sleeping

I started a thread a while ago about the hikers dream car. Now I want to focus on something different than ground clearance. I want to know the best car sleeping system there is because this is what I like to do (and I do it for the good reasons period).

1-Sleep IN your car (you can warm/cool yourself with heater/AC, condensation issues)
2-Sleep IN your truck box (can't warm or cool yourself but no condensations issues, can bring a propane heater)
3-Sleep ON your car (http://www.autohomeus.com/ any reviews here ?)

What else ???

Thought I had found the perfect car with a Matrix which has good MPG and that has room enough so I can fit in (6'2"). It is however too small for two and I can't sit in it and read….not enough height !!! Now if I pick a truck or Honda Element which have all the room I need, it's always more expensive AND big fuel eaters.

I want to handle both -20F nights and bug swarm season.

I can fit a twin size air mattress in the back of my Subaru Outback but at 6'2" you would be hard pressed to fit two in one. However, if you extend the bed a bit, you could engineer something that would work. If you install say a Hidden Hitch hitch mount (the subarus, not being a P/U truck or SUV don't come with one) you can get what's called a T mount... Now if you know a welder, you can weld a custom height T mount to support an extendabed. Then buy or make a custom wagon extension to extend the shelter for the cooler weather and you could sleep behind a 4cyl Outback that uses regular gas and probably gets somewhere in the vincinty of 25mpg combined city/highway...

Or if you get a Honda Ridgeline, you'll probably already get a hitch mount...

Jay

car & car sleeping

For my money(cheep) Ford Escort wagon is the way to go. I removed the backs of the rear seats. Installed a piece of .5 " plywood to level things up. move the front seats forward. Put in a spare mat & sleeping bag. Perfect parking lot bivy.

Best part 30 -35 mpg to get me to the Dacks
Buy these cars relativly cheep
Low dough maintainance ...$12-$15 PADS $15-rotors, cheep tires, plenty of bone yard parts to keep the ride going

If you have a high enough clearance, you can also sleep UNDER it. I've done that when I had my van.

Beleive it or not, the most comfortable car I've had is my corolla. The front seat. Better than the van, better than the Matrix, and better than ... gee, I forget the name of that blue one. I've been doing it for at least 15 years.

I'm usually too lazy to move junk, remove/put down seats, etc. I just put the seat back and sleep. The reason I find the Corolla comfortable, is that the seat is rather low, and my legs are pretty straight. The back seat of the van wasn't large enough to stretch out my legs, and the front seat of the Matrix is too high, so my legs are bent.

Ford Freestyle -
passenger side folds flat and it is 10 feet from the glove box to the rear door...
25 mpg

Oh yeah. For the bug season, get yourself a few square feet of window screen (plastic, not metal) and you will be able to open your window for the night without the bugs getting in.

Now if I pick a truck or Honda Element which have all the room I need, it's always more expensive AND big fuel eaters.

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Yeah but think of the money you save on motels.

The Honda Element rocks, especially with the cabana attachment. Other cool features: the back seats are easily removable, the floor can be hosed out (no carpet), and the spare tire cover can be converted into a table. At 6'2" you shouldn't have any problem sleeping in it.

Pete, I sleep a lot in my corolla and I find it very comfortable with plenty of height to change clothing. I find sleeping in my corolla more comfortable than sleeping in my truck, just put the seat down. When I finish my concrete floors I take a lot of cat naps in between passes of my power troweler (45 min wait time between passes and in winter I usually finish aound 11:00 at nite). Today I got 36 mpg driving from middle mass. to Welch - Dickey.

grog

Pete_Hickey said:

Beleive it or not, the most comfortable car I've had is my corolla.

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Amen Pete.

Ive slept in the drivers seat of my Corolla countless times.. Tho I usually stealth tent during bug season cause I'm too lazy to build a mesh for my windows.

Cant say that I've ever ran the heater or AC to keep warm or cool.. but if its real cold out I get the car as warm as possible before parking and sleeping.

Yup - start looking at mini-vans. There are great for hauling lotsa stuff, have lotsa head room and can get "reasonable" mileage (i'm no expert here though....). Unfortunately, the cool factor is pretty low - like rock bottom. You can sorta convince yourself otherwise by saying this mantra 1,000 times: "function is beauty's master".

Otherwise, a station wagon (long ago i had a mid-size Taurus wagon and it was excellent) ala the Audi Avant, Ford Taurusa X, Subaru Forester, Volvo XC70 or similar can possibly fill the bill.

fm

I've slept in the front seat (driver or passenger) of my previous small wagon several times both in winter and summer. Should also work in my Subaru Outback. Reclining bucket seats can be very comfortable...

Doug

In my Element

I have a Honda Element, which is a most all-around useful vehicle. You can fold the back seats up, and put a pad on the floor, or you can fold all the seats down, and sleep on top of them. Moonroof on 4WD models pops up for ventilation.

I've hauled furniture, building materials, as well as outdoors stuff. Carried winter mountaineers with full backpacks & overnight bags. Tight but reasonably comfortable. Car-topped 3 boats.

I'd love to see them make this with a hybrid engine, or with the V-6 that shuts down to a 4 or 3 cylinder at cruising speeds.

PS: about the heater

I would never use a propane heater or other portable fuel burning appliance inside a car or other enclosed space. And if you run the engine for heat, you'll want to be sure not to have windows on down-wind side open, due to possibility of exhaust gases eddying into the interior. The solution: use a sleeping bag with an adequate temperature rating.

I've lived in a car or two in my younger days and learned a big lesson.
It was far better to sleep on the flat than curled up on a back seat.

Perhaps that was a bit more often than you have in mind, but even sleeping in reclined seats found me in the hospital for physical therapy having thrown my back out from always torgueing it out in poor position.
After that I always prefered vans or station wagons.

Occasionaly I would sleep in my brothers vw bug ((old style) he had removed the passenger seat and put a board on top of a milk case and you could sleep on that.

about vans ....I'm old enough to remember a very popular bumper sticker...

........"if this van is rockin don't bother knockin"...

Pete_Hickey said:

Oh yeah. For the bug season, get yourself a few square feet of window screen (plastic, not metal) and you will be able to open your window for the night without the bugs getting in.

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And a couple of magnets - cut the soft nylon screen to a few inches larger than the window opening, then just use some magnets to hold it in place. Works great! I was doing it long before this ever came out, and cheaper too.

Anyone ever used one of these gizmos??? They had my interest for a while but I never ended up buying one, since usually where I'm staying, you must have a tent set up on the site to retain "possession" of the site...

Why not get a small travel trailer? You have everything you need from a fridge, heat, AC, bed, table and couch plus a bathroom. What makes them nice is the fridge and heat run off the propane. The lights and pumps for water run off batterie wich can be recharged with your car. You can get some nice trailers that are small and light and can be pulled by a car. If you get caught in a snow storm you have everything you need to stay comfy at the trail head for a few days.

fritz said:

For my money(cheep) Ford Escort wagon is the way to go.

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I put 147,000 miles on the one I had... "inexpensive, and built to stay that way!"

snowshoe said:

Why not get a small travel trailer?

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Personally, I think they're a great idea for campgrounds, but for trailheads I'm not sure you could even successfully park one, and at least in the Whites, you'd be in big trouble right away as camping (which includes sleeping in your car) at trailheads is not permitted. You might get away with it in your car if you're discrete, but a trailer isn't discrete.

MichaelJ said:

Personally, I think they're a great idea for campgrounds, but for trailheads I'm not sure you could even successfully park one, and at least in the Whites, you'd be in big trouble right away as camping (which includes sleeping in your car) at trailheads is not permitted. You might get away with it in your car if you're discrete, but a trailer isn't discrete.

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You can use them at FS campsites (free) like Haystack Road, Cherry Mountain Rd. etc...
I would add that there are not that many that can be towed by small cars - we have been in the market for a pop up camper and there are not too many models under 1800 pounds dry...I do recall one small one that was around 1100-1200 dry...

Best car sleeping ever was my 1977 Cadillac Eldorado . At 5'11" I could lay flat across the front OR back seat without touching the doors ! I spent quite a few nights upstate NY and down the Jersey shore in her .
I'm sure glad I don't have to fill up that 24 gallon gas tank matched with a 501 cubic inch motor anymore . My friends called it " The Environmental Assault Vechicle " .