Anti-stealth Prius camping - going large...

I was in an attic once with that stuff stapled to some of the rafters, and outside the sun was shining, and boy could I tell the instant I moved from an area in the attic where I was under the stuff to an area where I wasn't. All totally enclosed under a shingled roof!

 

Wow epic story! Not many get to be that close to such a creature

 

disney learned that lesson the hard way

 

I like how open your camp setup is. It's giving me ideas: How to put together a camp like that with the minimum amount of gear.

A Prius Camper by itself can be a bit claustrophobic. At night, it would be nice to be able to easily get out of the vehicle to stretch out every once in a while. Your hatch release string fixes that problem nicely.

 

Mine came factory with a hatch release string, maybe an Australian legal thing?

I use a similar gazebo camping but I havnt got the screen room for it, makes for a nice flat comfy bed in the car, and plenty of room outside for lounging or cooking, I havnt used it with my Prius yet but here it is with my old Subaru (I usually put it behind the car)

 

I would've expected that mosquito netting would be mandatory there, esp for camping in the outback.

So far, I've only used my setup for chasing solar eclipses. Otherwise, I only carry a pup tent. My amateur astronomy kit is not organized enough to use on a regular basis. It barely fits in my vehicle and takes too long to set up...

...which is why I am looking for new ideas. Thanx for the pics.

 

...And that's another great idea! The light-weight stuff really doesn't take up much space at all. I recently received some samples of super light-weight netting and I just happened to be researching this very subject when you started posting your photos. I'm thinking about using the fly setup (shown in my photo) with my new Prius and adding mosquito netting to it. It would be much smaller than your setup but easier to make camp.

 

Actually it took some trial and error before I figured out how to erect it. The fly that I use is for a ten man tent, and it normally relies on the tent for support. However, with practice it can be fairly quickly set up stand-alone, as shown in my photo... ...IFF (if and only if) there is no wind. On windy days, it's right near impossible, so I need to come up with some new tricks to do that. One nice thing tho is once it's up, it STAYS up. If you use pet stakes, not even gale force winds can take it down (even when everything underneath the fly gets blown away).

Best of all, the fly takes up very little storage space - just the bag for the spring-loaded tent poles and stakes. The fly itself can be stuffed down to less than a quart size ziplock bag which gets stowed with the poles. Mosquito netting (/w your Velcro strips) would be about half that.

I'm really interested in the other things you've done tho - like the exhaust setup. As with other cars, you normal don't have to worry about CO in a Prius unless you are in a closed environment, like a garage. However, I'm like you. At night, when I get settled in, I worry about it anyhow, and will go to lengths to dispel the thought of not waking up the next day. I use a CO monitor and keep my windows cracked open, but even then it still bugs me. When you come up with a final configuration for the exhaust system, I would like to know what you ended up doing with it.

 

Ice, I have used a clothes dryer exhaust hose over the exhaust pipe to lead fumes away from the car. Not perfect, but it works pretty good and is easy to setup and take down. If you also have the CO alarm... you are likely more than safe.
Also, to be commercial, have a look at my company, PlugOut Power.

 

Thanx. However, I am trying to restrict myself to items that can be collapsed for stowage. Maybe a duct equivalent of the "bullet hose" (a duct whose liner - not the duct itself - can be pressurized with a hand pump to keep it from collapsing, and then vented for storage).

PlugOut Power? I googled it but didn't see anything...

 

I'm considering drilling a couple of extra holes in each leg so there are more locking positions available on mine.

It takes me longer to pull the bag out if the car than it does to set up without the mosquito netting, I may buy the available net walls in future but I've been pretty lucky so far camping in bug free environments.