Well friends. It is time for me finally to tell you about the maiden voyage of the Toyota RAV4 microcamper. Memorial day weekend we went camping at Shawme Crowell State Park on the cape. It was fabulous! Well it rained pretty much every night, so it was great that we were in a car. We had a grand time though just tooling around the cape, cooking over a fire, playing at the awesome campground at the campsite and reading books (with my actual eyes!) I think I might love cooking over a campfire, especially with this lodge cast iron camp cooking pot that my mom picked up at the thrift shop (for like $13!) It was in great condition and I was able to re-season it over the fire too. We also discovered that while everyone in our family likes the idea of s’mores no one in our family actually likes s’mores. Patricia and I did eat a s’more though for the sake of camping.
So how about the microcamper? Well I will say it was very easy to put together especially with two people doing it. It was definitely faster than putting up our tent. For a camping trip though it was a bit silly to take everything out of the car, put it on top, set it all up, sleep and then reverse the process so we could drive around. If we weren’t going to drive anywhere for a couple days or felt comfortable leaving our food out at the site it would have been easier. I’m not convinced doing THAT entire process 3 times was faster than setting up and taking down a tent once. It might be since we didn’t have to let the car dry out or anything like we need to do for a tent…
So how do you sleep 2 adults and 2 kids in a RAV4? Great question! So for the kids sleeping area I custom made hanging cots that hang from the roof racks. The first one fits above the front seats with them all the way forward. The second cot hangs over where the back seats are. For Will and I we are sleeping with our heads against the rear door and our feet towards the front seats (under the second hanging cot). Unfortunately when the RAV4 seats are all the way down the flat part of the back slopes down toward the trunk, which means in this position our head would normally be lower than our feet… Not good. Instead I built a platform that corrects the slope (and is as low as possible. It has some 2x2s that extend out and boards that go on top of them to hold the mattress up. It platform itself actually looks pretty nice in the back and works as storage underneath. I then made a 3 part custom mattress to fit on top of the platform I made. It is in 3 pieces to sit in the back when not in use. Because the platform and the 4″ mattress foam lift us up above the wheel wells it is not too tight for Will and I to both sleep side by side here.
As for commentary on the sleeping situation. The kids LOVED it. They were crawling all around the entire cabin like it was a playground before bed and they slept very well. I also thought it was very comfortable (after we bought some $3 pillows from Target since we forgot ours at home the first night). The problem was it was a bit claustrophobic for us adults. There was plenty of space, but in our RAV4 there is no way to open the back hatch from the inside. This means the only method of egress is from the rear passenger doors… which are under Julius’ bunk. This meant Will is mostly stuck when Julius is asleep. I can slide under the bunk and get out while Julius sleeps but it’s still not perfect. Luckily Will is not claustrophobic… but apparently I am a little bit. The second night I told Will “time to get back in the coffin” and he laughed.
What about airflow? I got window rain guards (for $60 from Amazon) that allow us to put the windows down an inch or so without any rain getting in. It was really the perfect temperature for sleeping. We all slept in sleeping bags (and we put insulated sleeping pads on Julius and Patricia’s cots) and no one complained about being too hot or cold. It ranged from 45 to 50 all the nights. I fear it would be hot in the summer so I’m going to need to get those window screens working. (I already bought a giant battery and fans…)
And how do you store everything?! My parents have been lending us their Thule rooftop carrier and the hanging platforms fit perfectly in there. We can also fit the sleeping bags and pillows up there with them. The back is mostly taken up by the mattresses. Oh and to set all that up we have to remove the car seats and put them somewhere. For this trip we moved both kids to boosters so they could fit into the Thule carrier after we take out the sleeping equipment.
Overall I think having a way to open the back hatch would have solved 90% of the things I had problems with on the sleeping front. I’m working on that fix before our next attempt.
Oh, back to the cooking situation. Since we didn’t have a fridge I made meals that required no refrigeration: pasta, canned goods, veggies, fruits, hard cheese etc. For breakfasts we did fruit and oatmeal and instead of building a campfire I brought along my giant battery and induction stove. I was able to boil water for my tea, and multiple packs of oatmeal using 1/5 of the battery life. The cast iron pot I brought can also be used on the induction cooktop in a pinch (say if there were a red flag warning or something). For lunch we had pb&j and ramen (the kids’ favorite). For dinner one night we had pinto bean fajitas (with peppers and onions and shredded cheddar) with roasted corn and the other night we had pesto pasta and three bean salad. In lieu of salad we had cucumbers and tomatoes every night which are some of my kids’ favorites.
I hope this gets you all excited for a camp out! We’re camping out with the scouts this weekend but alas this time in a tent (so I still have time to install that hatch opener).
Oh and Happy Birthday to the Birthday Dog! 12 years young today!
