How Often Is Your Prius Your Home?

I believe the non-Plugin Gen 3 also has a cargo area that folds flat, but I have not owned a Gen 3. Perhaps one of our Gen 3 owning members can confirm. @bisco? @Mendel Leisk?

 

It almost folds flat: the rear seat back has a slight uphill slope. And carpeted. We keep an old blanket throw in there, all the time.

My sister-in-law showed up once with a bunch of boxes in a Matrix, I was impressed: with the back seats down the floor is dead-level, durable looking plastic, with longitudinal ridges IIRC. Sliding stuff out was a breeze; it was a mini cargo van.

 

We need to get champrius on here

Check Out the Awesome Gas-Saving Modifications on This Hypermiling Toyota Prius

he has a heated bed in his

 

The Prius isn’t a permanent dwelling but I do take lunch time naps a few times a week. Fold the rear down and have a pillow in the car. Best place to lay down flat

 

I've barely had my Gen2 for a month and slept in it twice so far, just took the back seats out and will be building a flat floor with build in storage where they used to be over the next few days.

I've lived in and camped out of out of busses, vans and wagons for a few years now, the Prius is the most economical by far, and the electronics are very handy

 

I used to live in a car

Much smaller than the Prius

Saturn SL2 even had leather which sucked to sleep on in a hot summer. Lived in that thing for 8 months. It took getting used to but it was better than being completely exposed outside

The Prius would actually be pretty comfortable.

When you fold down those seats I'm pretty sure you could arrange an air mattress or a large bean bag chair to sleep on

The storage bin would be good for clothes or food.

The mpg and size make that car ideal if you're homeless and single without a place to stay or just reusing to live in a shelter.

I actually did that the shelter was worse than being outside of it due to condition so I said car it is then

Hardest part is finding places to park without dealing with police.

Best to have several spots and change nightly

Anyways the Prius would be really good for sleeping if you had to

 

Banksy, you might look up a new company just re-starting called PlugOut Power, formerly ConVerdant Vehicles. Their new inverter may be of interest for camping.. even electric camping.

 

Surprised to find a thread like this here. I've used car camping and boondocking for years to save money while travelling.

I first learned it back when I was living and working as a dive master in the Caribbean. I had to give up my studio apartment in St Maarten one winter because I couldn't afford both a place and a car. I figured the car was much more important to me because I needed it to get to work, and it was also very important for me to be able to get around and experience the places where I lived. So I dumped the apartment and rented a Toyota Corolla and started living out of that while sleeping in different spots on the island every night. I traveled and lived very lightly, and I kept my dive gear at the shop all the time, so it worked out fine for me.

Then when I started in Hawaii, I found I could save hundreds of dollars a week renting a Prius and just living out of that while over there. I have dozens of discrete and favourite spots to put in for the night all over the islands of Oahu and Maui whenever I spend the winters out there. I could never afford to spend all the time I do out there if I was paying for lodging, which I would rarely be at anyway, since I am always out exploring on my free time. Why blow a thousand or more a week on just a place to crash, when you never spend any time there otherwise?

Of all the types of cars I've lived in (Toyota Corolla, Saturn SL2, Suzuki Liana, Nissan Altima, Daihatsu....something), the Prius is by far the most comfortable and accommodating thing I've ever lived in. The electricity supply in it is awesome, it's really cheap on gas, it's really roomy and comfortable in the back, the back windows can be easily blocked to keep people from noticing someone sleeping in the back there, and it blends in perfectly with the other cars in any neighborhood or overnighting spot. I can power my laptop, recharge my cellphone and use a power converter to get mild 120VAC for other small items I might need.

I don't do a lot of cold weather camping in it, but it is big enough back there to use a hefty sleeping bag in total comfort as well. Nowadays truck stops sell all kinds of appliances adapted to 12V automotive power; fridges, stoves, heaters, TV & entertainment centers, etc, for those seeking more comfort, and able to pack heavier . You don't have to be a minimalist like me to be quite comfortable in a Prius.

 

ConVerdant/PlugOutpower.com back in business. It might be useful to know about for more power.

 

it's a high power product off the hybrid battery. good for them trying to make it work again, considering how unsuccessful they were the first time.

 

What Bisco says, it's NOT just a rebranded 12 volt inverter. On my 2013 PIP, I ran a new heavy duty marine grade 12 VDC receptacle with it's own fuse (30 amp) direct off the 12 VDC battery, to a 300 watt MorningStar Sure-Sine inverter. I seem to recall that I pull about 24 amps out of the 12 volt battery, well below what the big battery voltage inverter can handle. I wired in a LED clearance light on the inverter, visible in my mirror while driving, just to make it real obvious the inverter is on, and I also need to leave the car on. Buy a name brand inverter, MorningStar is one of the best, such are used in off grid homes (I was off grid for 28 years, plus was an installer), not something from Harbor Freight or a truck stop, is my advice. I use it to charge my e bikes, which are 52 VDC, and it just seemed simpler to keep using their 120 VAC charger.

A couple weeks ago we had a rare power outage in my area, I of course at least had 300 watts of AC power. In a small plane I have I also carry one of my e bikes, I had a custom voltage converter made, so I can charge the bike battery off the 12 volt plane system. E bikes and Prius go together like bread and butter, my Montague folder I converted to e power easily fits in the area where the passenger seat was, and I can have it out and be riding off in about 2 minutes. A big scrap of my blackout window fabric totally covers the bike up, nothing to cause drag outside and theft proof too. Locally my e fat bike hangs off the rear, Beauty and The Beast, it's an odd combo, but the great mileage makes long drives exploring new places in Idaho to ride, very compelling. Not to mention I can camp in it also of course. Any passengers sit in the rear, and have a ton of leg room! With my basic sleeper setup in back, I have a mini motor home that gets mid 50's MPG, is stealthy (nothing more benign then an all white Prius, tinted windows of course). I have never felt more secure on a road trip then in the PIP, knowing I can pull over at any time, and have heat or AC for several days, assuming I have a reasonable amount of gas in the tank. It makes conventional cars, that supply heat or AC only when the engine is running of course, seem so 20 th. century. Another most favorite thing about my Prius, it's CVT tranny, it's ALWAYS in the right gear, never lugging or over revving, and drives the mountain I live on, near a ski area, better then any rig I've ever had

 

delete

 

I have a 2015 Toyota Prius and a 2019 Tesla Model S. When I got my Prius in early 2016, I really liked how quiet it is and that made me do the complete shift to e-vehicles(because I have a hearing condition). I still use the Prius sometimes but I already gave it to my wife when I got the Tesla. I always sleep inside both of the car as I also have a sleep condition and I was suggested to sleep whenever I get sleepy. I still use my custom earplugs from Big Ear from time to time as my dog always barks when we travel and the barking really agitates my Hyperacusis. All in all life is good with e-vehicles.

 

Not very often but once in a while I travel to Florida and do sleep in my Prius with my wife when we're both tired of driving. LOL

 

Most I've done is ~45 days in a row. After the first week, it's just like sleeping anywhere. Showered everyday w/ $25/mo gym membership unless I was off grid for a few days in which case the river was fine + cooked vegan everyday using an Instant Pot and stored any leftovers in a cooler. As a minimalist formally trained by years of backpacking and international hitchhiking, I also packed up all my belongings and stored them under the cargo cover during the day so I could leave the whip parked in the streets while venturing out and about without thieves smashing the windows.

I find that most Prius dwellers online showcase vehicles that are obviously being lived in to the naked eye, but with the right minimalism you can also do it without leaving a trace. It's just a slight inconvenience to pack/unpack the trunk area each day. I ran a bungee cord between the grab handles to hang black felt at night behind the front seats if I was stealth camping and stored both items in the glove box during the day. I made blackout window cutouts (rear only) out of cardboard + felt for $3 total, and stored those under the cargo floor mat during the day.

I spent the night next to $50k+ off-road SUVs w/ $7k rooftop tents on mountain BLM land (just coast @ 5 mph on the county rds and sing a song...you'll get there, just not as fast as the cool trucks), woke up to a blasting sun slowly rising over vast mounds of sand dunes retracting their magenta shadows from the middle of the Mojave desert, and went to sleep watching the sun melt like a golden egg yolk over the horizon at a Pacific Coast beach....all in the span of a few days. Try doing that with hotel reservations and rental cars.

I'll have to post pictures some day, but the stealth on these cars cant be beat. Crashed in front of a police station once just to test the limits and still didn't get 'the knock'. I couldn't have done that on any of my motorcycle trips where hiding away in a wooded area was the norm and many a' crazy neighbors would call in the calvary if they spotted my small cooking fire from within the thicket. Honestly, I could have left a trail of empty Sailor Jerry bottles all the way to my driver's side door and I bet the local townspeople and sheriff would have assumed I was off taking a Kale break after picking up litter in the neighborhood at 2AM. I think the Prius's stealth cheat code is mostly due to the fact that it still looks like a very polite car...you know, the sort of car that the high school Hall Monitor would roll up in at the local drag on a Friday night...and nobody suspects a full grown adult is sleeping on a pillow with a flashlight and book beneath a blanket fort in the rear seat area because...well...what kind of sane person would do something like that?

 

Geez, every Prius tells a story.

 

my prius and i sleep in separate bedrooms...

 

I know some couples sleep in separate beds, but separate bedrooms is a new one. You'll never find me in an empty bed, or bedroom...at least not until the motor dies.

 

Digging up an older thread, but I have a question for you @PriusCamper

Does the gen 4 really have a center console separate from the dashboard that can be removed, or did you actually mean the gen 2?

Thanks in advance!