Stealth camping for solo travel

I added some accessories to my 2005 to make it a stealth camper. This allowed me to avoid airports, airplanes, hotels and rental cars during the pandemic shutdown while travelling about 15,000 miles in total. I've since purchased a 2019 Limited so have given the 'old' one to my daughter who uses it for weekend overnights as well as her daily driver. I'm starting similar mods for my 2019 but will use ideas from other PriusChat posts to improve the window covers.

I built a frame using 1x4s, 1/4" birch plywood, drywall screws and glue. It's easily removable making for quick conversions between camper and normal. The dots on the frame are felt to keep the plywood from rattling against the frame.




This works fine for my wife but I'm 6'1" and needed an extension and the passenger seat all the way forward. The legs on the extension are hinged so it folds flat for storage.



A custom trimmed 4" foam mattress rests on top of this frame.

A rear seat bottom cushion was acquired from a junkyard and cut so that it matched the 40% seat back on the driver side allowing third passenger capacity when the mattress platform is in place.



The wife made window covers using 1/4" Reflectix bubble insulation covered with black felt on one side and fabric for the interior. They stay in the side windows fine but need a tensioned curtain rod in the center of the rear window to keep it in place.


A metal bar was fitted to the interior contour of the headliner and held in place by tension as it slips over the existing plastic pillar cover without screws.


A blackout curtain cut to the appropriate shape has magnets sewn in the perimeter which allows it to hang down behind the front seat backs when the seats are pushed forward. Steel washers are screwed into the pillar covers for the magnets to grab.


We arrived at this arrangement so anyone looking into the car from the front will see both front seat unoccupied and only blackness behind it.



Both my wife and I made many solo trips in this manner. It would be a really tight squeeze to travel together this way. We found the best places to park overnight to be hotel parking lots and truck stops such as Travel America, Love's or Pilot. Truck stops are most convenient as they are open 24 hours and have showers for rent but they can be noisy.

So easy to pull off the highway and take a comfortable nap or watch a movie while bad weather passes or traffic clears up.

Hope this is helpful. Happy trails!

 

I think I used six pieces of 1"x3"x96" furring strips (I mistakenly stated 4" in my original post). Since I no longer have the car I can't make measurements of each piece. The process I used was to cut the rear most piece to length, find flat spots where the legs would land, measure, cut and screw each leg in place and then proceed forward from there. Note that one piece has a small arc cut out to clear an obstruction. I think a seat belt anchor point.

When I do this for my new car I will make it long enough to butt against the center console and try to position the forward most legs such that they allow the best possible assess to the storage area beneath the platform.