How To Make Car Camping Comfortable And Safe

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In my post about building a car camper, I mentioned that I’d done some things to make it more comfortable and safe. Today I want to talk about those things more in depth.

Optional Items for My Car Camper

These are optional items I purchased that make the car camping experience better for me.

Shower

If I’m going to be camping in a car, I still want to be able to shower. I purchased the Nemo Helio LX Portable Pressure Shower at an REI Garage Sale, knowing I was building this car camper and would want shower capability. If you click on the words “Nemo Helio” in the last sentence you’ll go to Amazon and can buy one. That’s an affiliate link and if you buy anything through it I will receive a little bit of money to help run this blog.

• I like the Nemo Helio showers because it is collapsible but also includes pressurization. And the pressurized water stream is really pretty good! Most of the collapsible showers don’t have pressure, so they rely on gravity to create the water stream. They will gently rinse you off but you shouldn’t expect to clean out shampoo (or dog shampoo!) with one. And a lot of the other showers with pressure include a hard bucket, so they take up much more space. While my car camper includes some decent storage, it’s shorter than bucket height and I’d rather not have a big bucket taking up bed space. If your car camper has more space, the bucket option can save you a lot of money.
• The Helio LX has a 22-liter tank. If you don’t want to spend that much and can’t find one at an REI Garage Sale like me, you could look at the regular size (11-liter) Helio shower. This is probably what I would’ve bought if I hadn’t found the Garage Sale one. Alternatively, you could try this much cheaper generic pressurized shower. I’ve only tried the Nemo Helio showers, though, so I can’t speak to the quality of the generic one. The reviews are good, though.

Fabric hung to block prying eyes

I just took some fabric I had from another project to build a hammock tarp. I plan to make something a little more permanent for the car camper in the future.

• You can use any cheap fabric you find (fabric stores will sometimes have fabric as cheap as $1/yard). If you want something thick enough to fully block light, it may cost more. I had 9 yards of nylon ripstop and it was much more than I needed for the Fit. Six yards probably would’ve been enough, but of course you’ll want to measure first.
• I hung the ripstop using binder clips. Again, I wanted something easily removable and with no trace left behind. In order to attach the clips to the car, I clipped the fabric and then wedged the handle of the clip into the plastic that surrounds the roof of a car. A picture is probably the best way to communicate this…

• I used that method because I didn’t want to leave discernible traces of my privacy screen. If you don’t mind leaving something behind, the best option I’ve seen is strips of Velcro that have been attached above the windows. Then you put a corresponding strip on the fabric and just stick them up before going to sleep.

Instead of hanging fabric, some people like to cut windshield screens up to fit each of the windows. This is a good option, too. It will take a little more time to implement than hanging one big piece of fabric, but the nice thing about this is if one piece falls during the night it won’t pull down the rest of the covering with it.

Camping chair and Hammock

In addition to the camping table I talked about in the post about building my car camper, I also have room to carry one or two camping chairs. I have both an extra large, very comfortable camping chair if there will be campfire time, and an ultralight low-to-the-ground chair if I’m going to be hiking.

I also have a few different hammocks to choose from. Mostly they are ultralight hammocks for backpacking, but if weight isn’t an issue I’d go with one I bought at Costco a few years ago for $20. It’s a thicker fabric so it’s heavier but heartier.

Cooking

If I’m using my car camper for a road trip, I don’t really need anything to cook with. But if I’m using it to travel to a national park or something where services are limited, I’ll want to be able to cook. I have a variety of camp stoves in my backpacking gear closet, but there’s one in particular that I’d use for car camping. The Jetboil Minimo is really fast, really easy to pack, and really easy to operate. It’s shorter than the normal Jetboils so it’s a bit easier to cook in and eat out of, if needed.

Jetboils can be expensive though, so if you don’t need one for another purpose (like backpacking) I recommend going to the Walmart camping section and finding a heavier and possibly larger, but much cheaper camp stove. If weight isn’t an issue you can actually create quite a nice setup!

What Isn’t Great and What I Plan To Change

Depending on the weather where you are using your car camper, you might end up getting really hot or really cold. The cold is easily solved with the right mattress and bedding. I have sleeping pads and sleeping bags rated for 0 degrees, so that’s not really an issue. But warm and humid temperatures are a whole other beast.

You obviously don’t want to keep the car on all night to keep the AC on. It’s loud, dangerous, and wasteful. A battery operated fan is one option worth considering, and I might buy one if I use the car camper during the summer.

Another option is opening the windows, which can help create a breeze. But this option leaves you subject to bugs/small animals (likely and annoying but probably not dangerous) and large animals/humans (unlikely but more dangerous).

I originally tried to fashion screens out of some fine mesh fabric, but I ran short on time and didn’t finish them. I ended up using tape to hold the fabric in place. This was good for keeping the bugs out when it stayed up, but tape doesn’t attach well to fabric so overall it was ineffective. I need to figure out a better solution for keeping the car windows open at night without letting bugs in. Honestly I’m more worried about people than bugs, so I don’t know how comfortable I will ever be keeping the windows open. I’m still thinking through this one.

Where to Sleep When Car Camping

I’m no expert here, so proceed with caution.

If you are using your car camper as a pseudo-RV to go hiking, you can either park overnight in an RV park or, if you’d like, you can park for free on Bureau of Land Management land. Again I’m not the expert here so I like to use resources like this one to find places to stay.

Some rest stops also allow overnight parking. You’ll want to check when you pull in (or ahead of time) whether or not you can park there overnight. The nice thing about rest stops is that many include 24/7 restrooms and some even have basic services like vending machines.

Alternatively, a really popular choice for many RVers is to stay overnight in a Walmart or Sam’s Club parking lot. If you plan to do this, please check with management before staying overnight. A phone call is fine. Generally they will allow it but some city ordinances prohibit it.

Speaking of city ordinances, generally you do not want to just pull into a neighborhood or parking lot to sleep overnight. Many city do not allow this. I doubt you’ll get into trouble, but you may be woken up and asked to move and who wants that?

Have you car camped before? If you have any tips and tricks for car camping to share, please leave a comment!