Building out a Car Camping SUV for Under $550 While Keeping Second Row Seating

Enjoying dinner at Kelso Dunes before a sunset hike and sleeping under the Milky Way.

Shortly after Tara and I moved in together in the summer of 2017, we started going on trips with a group of climbing friends in New Mexico. We would go to Pie Fest in Pie Town, yes Pie Town, a New Mexican rite of passage. We would go climbing in Percha Creek and Sitting Bull Falls. Through these trips it became apparent very quickly that our tent camping setup was cumbersome and did not compare to all of our friends who could simply crawl into the back of their SUV or Truck Bed for a more restful night's sleep with no setup or breakdown needed.

We soon were on mission to trade in my Ford Fusion for an SUV that would allow us to car camp comfortably and efficiently. When deciding on a car camping setup you should be realistic with your needs and what you will use it for. Our needs included the following:

• More than 6 feet in length from the back of the driver side headrest to the back windshield.

• Have 2nd row seating that we could keep in place or remove depending on the length of the trip and who was coming with us.

• We went with an SUV because we didn't want to have to get out of the car to get into the bed if there was inclement weather, this would not be possible with a truck.

• Have enough floor to ceiling space to allow for large totes to fit under the bed, but still have 2 feet of clearance between the mattress top and the car ceiling.

• Finally, we wanted a 4x4 vehicle for offroad travel with decent gas mileage and clearance off the ground.

After a month and many test drives of research this led us to land on the Honda Pilot as a perfect fit for us, specifically in the years ranging from 04-07. We ultimately landed a 2006 Honda Pilot with 92,471 miles for $6,700 on Craigslist.

Tools and Supplies Used for the Bed Platform:

1 - 8 foot x 4 foot 3/4 inch thick sheet of plywood

2 - 2x4 (inches) x 8 feet long

6 - Door hinges

1 Pack of 3/4 inch screws

1 Pack of 2-inch screws

A Battery Powered Circular Saw - Dewault is our brand of choice. We used Ryobi tools for this build and wow do we wish we upgraded sooner for durability, power, and ease of use.

A Battery Powered Electric Cordless ScrewDriver - Dewault

A plug-in sander.

Speed Square

Tape Measure, of course

The Platform Blueprint:

Supplies We Bought for Car Camping:

These totes are clear to be able to see through and are durable

This electric cooler lasted us 5 years and made ice last way longer

Bug nets that go over the windows, as well as a moon/sunroof if your vehicle has it

Reflectix as window coverings for shade and heat/insulation

A nice rechargeable fan

5 Gallon water jug

2 Gallon soft sided water jug for making washing dishes easier

Coleman 2-burner camp stove

Full Bed futon mattress

Not included in most Car Camping builds: a box of hair found under the 3rd row seat. A story of which we will never know.

The buildout plan was then pretty straight forward. The driver, passenger, and second row seating row stay intact as we still wanted to be able to use this as a daily driver and takes friends with us on day trip adventures and shorter weekends. We had to rip out the third-row seats, the 3rd row floor, and the 3rd row plastic inserts that took up a lot of space for no storage. These plastic parts and the floor are held in place by plastic clip in parts, wedging a screwdriver under them will help pry them up.

After the demolition we then designed a bifold platform that would fold back on itself with door hinges to be stored on the bed platform legs in the 3rd row, allowing the 2nd row to stand up right. To accomplish this, the legs in the 3rd row of the pilot were full length 2x4s cut to about 18 inches. The legs that would support the front of the bed were actually angle cut 2x4s on the door hinges that would rest on the back of the 2nd row seats when they were folded down. This made sure that the second-row legs or legs at the front of the bed did not hit the ceiling when the platform was folded back to the 3rd row. So, when folding back the platform on to itself, you would also have to fold in the legs on the hinges that supported that platform.

Left: Shows one of the legs attached by a door hinge, this leg went right over the second-row seats. Right shows the first two parts of the platform folded back on each other by 3 door hinges connecting the plywood. We used a total of 8, 2x4 support legs for the platform, but it was extremely sturdy.

Finally, we bought our totes and an electric cooler that would plug into a 12v cigarette lighter in the 2nd row for longer trips when we would take the seats out for more space. The totes I would say are mandatory for storage, really any cooler could do. You could also get fancy and buildout custom draws under the bed.

All in all, our total build cost us less than $550 including all of the items to make it a comfortable experience. Just the lumber for this build would be under $100 even with 2024 inflated prices. The pilot lasted us almost 4 years, it traveled 81,194 miles while we owned it, we spent over 348 nights in it through those years, and it saw 49 states (all but Hawaii) and most of the Canadian Provinces. It was a rather small investment for a huge payout of memories we will never forget. Not too mention 348 nights of not having to pay for a hotel or campsite, as we always freely camped.

Some Lessons From Living for a Year in an SUV

Over the course of the next few years and all those nights/days living in The Tarantula we certainly learned some things through trial and error. The first being, car camping protects you from the elements, but sometimes too much so. The nice thing about sleeping on a mattress in a car is that it is very insulating and certainly has an R value. That being said, you're sleeping in a box. You have to consider moisture and humidity in a car whether you're in a van, truck, or car. Over the course of a night that humidity level will rise with your breathing and depending on the outside weather you may hot box your car and completely drench your belongings/mattress in the process from the moisture content coming from your humid breath.

To combat this, you need airflow. Luckily, we had a sunroof, so cracking this allowed for great airflow. If it was hot outside and we needed better ventilation, we would put our bugs net coverings over our car doors to allow us to roll down the windows without the threat of bugs entering. We also put Velcro (one side Velcro, one side sticky tape) all around our sunroof and then cut a bug screen and put the same Velcro around its edge to create a bug proof sunroof. If we needed even more airflow or cooling, we would then use our rechargeable fan that was shockingly strong for its size. Car camping in the winter or cooler weather is amazing as the insulation rises the temperature in the car significantly from outside, but in the summer or warmer months the temperature in the car will also still rise and will create an uncomfortable environment if you don't take the necessary steps.

For further insulation in the winter and to allow you to sleep in later than the sunrise we highly recommend using reflectix for window coverings. This stuff is thin insulation that comes in a roll, allowing you to measure and cut the perfect piece out for every window of your car. I would cut the reflectix just a little wider than you think so that you can really wedge it or jam it into the window frame so that it stays. In the summer we would actually still use reflectix on all of the windows that were not drawn down for airflow. In the summer, you will notice the second you take down the reflectix off the window that faces the sun the car will instantly get 15 degrees warmed. It is an amazing difference.

We initially were going to use a bed mattress on the platform, but bed mattresses are thick and rigid. This means it will be difficult to find one that fits your space perfectly and you will lose space between you and the ceiling making it feel more like a coffin the thicker the mattress. Instead, a futon mattress is generally only 3-4 inches thick, and they are floppy and not as rigid, so as your bodyweight lays on the mattress it will conform perfectly to your space and slightly spread out. If the space is slightly smaller than the futon mattress then this is also not a problem as the flexible sides of the futon mattress will just fold and contour slightly up the wall. Some of the best night's sleep of our lives was in the Pilot on a futon mattress.

When it comes to cleaning dishes, we had a separate 2-gallon water jug that was collapsable with a nozzle that could be turned to adjust the water flow. We would usually sit this jug on a picnic table or the back of the pilot and twist the nozzle so that just a trickle of water was running out. This way after we had finished washing the dishes with soap, we had the perfect station for rinsing that would not run out of water too quickly. We then reserved our 5-gallon water jug for drinking water or boiling water on the stove.

We get asked a lot about showering and going to the bathroom while car camping. No, we did not have a bathroom in the Pilot, and we wouldn't recommend one. You're already limited on space, don't waste it with a 5-gallon Home Depot bucket that you may smell in such tight quarters. We used trailhead bathrooms, nature, and gas stations for this. For showering, we really would just shower in lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. It is amazing how your body will regulate itself and before long you really won't feel the need to use shower products (shampoo, conditioner, or body wash) and you honestly will not feel the need to get in water nearly as much. I know it sounds gross, before car camping, I don't know if I ever went longer than 2 days without a shower; however, car camping showed me just how overkill this was as well as damaging to my skin and hair.

To avoid paying campground fees, we typically would sleep at trailheads known for backpackers. Luckily in the West United States, we have access to large swaths of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land that is usually free to camp in up to 14 days. We took advantage of BLM land as much as possible, camped at trailheads practicing leave no trace, and when on the East Coast we would sometime resort to large hotel parking lots as they are usually quiet or even surprisingly a hospital parking lot. Being in an SUV allows you to blend in a lot more than a van, which nowadays everyone assumes has someone sleeping in it.

As far as our build goes, we really wouldn't have changed the way we did it at all. Life in our SUV was surprisingly comfortable, and the versatility of our build still allowed us to live our normal lives and cart around family and friends. The Pilot was great to us and we often find ourselves fondly looking back at all of the memories we made in it.