People who lead an active lifestyle and own personal transport eventually combine their interests and capabilities and go on road trips. Some people use cars only to get to their final destination, be it a hotel or an edge on the shore of a pond, and some spend their entire vacation traveling along selected routes. It is for such car travelers that the choice of vehicle is very important, both from the point of view of movement (fuel consumption, handling, ability to leave asphalt roads) and for accommodation in the car, including overnight stays.
The most convenient vehicles for living are motorhomes. They provide everything: sleeping places, a shower, and a kitchen. You can stop in almost any place you like with a relatively hard road surface and not waste time on equipping your living space. But it is expensive to start such a vehicle separately (even a used motorhome costs more than 2 million rubles) and rent it (from 50,000 rubles per week). If this is a single complex, then it should weigh up to 3.5 tons so as not to expand the category of rights. An option is comfortable caravans, but their weight usually exceeds 750 kg and you need to get category E. A few more disadvantages of motorhomes are not very high speed of movement, inability to go off-road, and the presence of the necessary infrastructure for full maintenance.
If you often travel, transport large groups and large cargo, you may want to consider a minivan. Most of these vehicles are suitable for daily use and have almost unlimited interior options.
The optimal means of transportation for road trips are SUVs and all-terrain station wagons. They allow you to cover long distances at a decent speed, can take owners to the shore they like, and have enough space for two or even three people to comfortably spend the night. In such cars, the berth is formed from the floor of the luggage compartment and the backs of the second row of seats (the lower parts usually recline towards the backs of the front ones). The length of the resulting platform is usually enough for the average person; in extreme cases, you can move the front seats all the way and fill the empty space with luggage. Most manufacturers strive to make the platform as level as possible, focusing on creating a comfortable loading area or as a bed function.
In terms of interior comfort and ease of movement, crossovers and station wagons are in second place. They are inferior to SUVs in terms of the ability to choose a place to rest, but are almost at the same level - in terms of interior transformation. In many of them, the platform is also level and quite long. In the crossover version, the amount of headroom can be reduced due to the low rear pillars, which designers love to give the car a sweeping silhouette.
If you are not distant relatives of the Princess and the Pea, then you can spend several nights in the interior of ordinary garden cars, hatchbacks and compact crossovers. On some of them it is possible to apply the scheme, as on station wagons and SUVs, if the back of the rear sofa is reclined. If it is fixed, then you can arrange two berths from the front seats. To do this, the seats are moved forward as much as possible, the headrests are removed from the backrests, which recline to a position flush with the rear seat. It is better to choose a direction taking into account unevenness: in the area of the body it is better to have the most flat area possible, and put your legs in places with a difference in height.
If you fall asleep on the road, you can sleep in a small car. It is extremely rare that there is enough space for a full-fledged sleeping place and you need to choose between two evils, choosing the lesser. If you have, then it is better to sleep in the front seat with the back reclined. If there is a tendency to edema, then it is better to use the back sofa as a bed, on which the legs will be at the same level as the body.
Pickup trucks should be placed in a separate category. These utilitarian cars, despite their large size, can be worse than a small car in terms of sleeping space without special equipment. Due to the fact that interior space is limited, they often cannot fold out the front seats like in sedans. You can huddle on the back sofa, or sleep on the front seat in a reclining position. In order to spend several nights in a pickup truck, you can install a special tent on the cargo bed. These are made taking into account the configuration of various models, have a soft heat-insulating base, and the canopy fits tightly onto the sides of the body.
Well, some general tips for those who plan to spend several nights in the car:
- Take a few pillows on your trip, they will help arrange your sleeping area.
- Check the interior's transformation capabilities in advance and prepare items that can smooth out any unevenness. For the same purposes, you can grab several travel rugs.
- Leave the windows at least a little open, otherwise everything will be pretty foggy in the morning. To protect against insects, you can hang a net or gauze, pressing the edges with the door frame.
- If it's cold outside, you'll have to leave the engine running. Check the fuel supply in advance and position the car so that exhaust gases do not blow inside.
- If you set the car alarm, be mentally prepared to wake up from the howl of a siren.
Today I would like to talk about spending the night in nature.
There are several options here - you can sleep in a tent, stay in a car, or visit a friend or not necessarily a friend of a beekeeper or forester (they are always happy to have guests). By the way, most apiaries and guardhouses in the forest do not have locks, since there is no point in hanging a lock anyway - they will break it if necessary. So even if the owner of the house is not there, you can always spend the night in such a house, provided you don’t spoil anything there and clean up everything after yourself. And if you also leave a present in the form of an intoxicating liquid, then the happiness of the owner of the Foreast Hotel * will know no bounds. But an apiary is an exceptional option, so let’s take a closer look at the first two.
On our trips, we spend the night both in a tent and in a car. It is more convenient to sleep in a car for several reasons.
Firstly, the tent needs to be set up and assembled, and if the trip involves moving to a new place every day, then this process can be a little tiring. Moreover, if the weather leaves much to be desired and showers you with fog or rain, then the tent most likely will not have time to dry out and you will have to pack it up wet and go to bed damp.
Choosing a place for a tent is also not easy - sometimes there are pebbles, sometimes pine cones, sometimes marshy areas.
Another disadvantage is that at night all the rustles and sounds in it can be heard very well. And if before that the whole evening around the fire they told stories about “inexplicable anomalies of this place”, about rassomas that attack peacefully sleeping tourists and about connecting rod bears, then especially impressionable people (me, for example) can forget about sleep.
Another drawback is that if the tent is not placed in the shade, the morning sun will drive you out of the tent very early. Although for many this is not a problem.
No matter what, I love spending the night in a tent. In the near future I’m going to write an article on and about how you can do it on your own.
And today I decided to pay attention to the equipment of the sleeping place in the car.
Sleeping in your car has many benefits. Firstly, you don’t need to choose the place so carefully - where you stand up, lie down there, the main thing is that the car stands more or less level.
Secondly, you can always start it and turn on the stove if the temperature drops below comfortable or turn on the autonomous stove that many travel cars are equipped with.
If your jeep has a long wheelbase, then the bed can be left in place even on the road. This often helps us out, the children sleep - and we move on.
The car also has light bulbs, shelves, pockets and other small amenities that make life much easier. And many even have televisions.
The meaning of organizing a sleeping place in a car is approximately the same. If you want to sleep comfortably, then you need to not just fold out the seats, but start designing a special bed.
To do this, the rear seats are either removed completely (as was the case in our short Patrol) or folded forward and a metal frame, covered with plywood and necessarily attached to the body for safety purposes, is mounted at their level. Roads are different and there have been cases when cars lay on their sides, and I wouldn’t want the frame, along with a bunch of various tourist utensils lying underneath, to end up on top of the driver or passenger. Moreover, this frame is located above the wheel arches, which significantly expands the bed, and there is enough space below where you can put things. Here's what it looks like for us:
And in this video you can see in more detail how we arranged everything:
This is the most common option for arranging a sleeping place for avid campers. However, there are other options.
Someone sleeps on the roof of a car in a special tent
We sorted this out, but what to do if outside the climber’s window is not just a forest thicket, but a fairly swampy area and there is no longer enough strength and opportunity to get to the “ground”? What if it’s briskly cold outside, at -35 Celsius?
There is only one way out - to spend the night in the car, but if you haven’t thought about this in advance, you will have to get along with the design decisions of the automaker who made a kind of curved seat with luxurious lateral support. This is the kind of thing that always unsuccessfully rests somewhere in the liver area.
Personally, I don’t want to get up in the morning feeling as if yesterday I spent the whole day saving the world from a nuclear disaster, and spent the night in the cage of a police UAZ. So, I sit down to explore the possibilities of organizing pleasant night dreams in comfort and warmth.
Well, take a seat...
In this brand new Patriot, not just a sleeping bag was built, but an entire warehouse complex for tourist purposes.
Clean: warehouse tourist complex
May the owner of this brand new Patriot, in which not just a sleeping bag, but an entire warehouse complex for tourist purposes, be built, not be offended by me. A clean interior does not evoke any associations except that when climbing into the “bed” you will have to leave your rubber boots for the joy of the bears. So as not to dirty the carpet...
The design is quite standard for sleeping bags, fortunately the trunk of the UAZ Patriot has chic dimensions for any fantasies. But, for my taste, there was a place for an excellent solution in the form of a large compartment with access from anywhere in the cabin and the ability to extend it due to the folded back sofa.
The design is quite standard for sleeping bags, fortunately the trunk of the UAZ Patriot has chic dimensions for any fantasies.
The hinged “door” of the large compartment should be hooked onto a cable and closed with a piece of aluminum. The end result would be a nice little table for preparing breakfast.
In comparison with the “oversized” cabinet, various shelves with access through the trunk and from the interior seem to be a meager addition for secondary valuables. For example, you can throw dirty slings and shackles into an aluminum box without them flying around the trunk, staining everything nearby.
Various shelves with access through the trunk and from the interior seem like a stingy addition.
The curvature of the walls of the luggage compartment is enhanced by small compartments on the sides of the sleeping bag, which can be accessed both from the side and from above. Such small compartments are well suited for storing various necessary junk, the prompt retrieval of which is not included in the plans.
Now the most important thing is the sleeping bag itself. The old Patriot interior was distinguished by the ability to convert the rear sofa into a bed. The new UAZ salon no longer provides this opportunity, but it has become much more comfortable.
We fold the back of the sofa forward, thereby obtaining an almost flat surface with a sleeping bag shelf for an air mattress and bedding.
We fold the back of the sofa forward, thereby obtaining an almost flat surface with a sleeping bag shelf for an air mattress and bedding. At the same time, there is still room for bags and belongings in the legs of the rear passengers, niches, and some of them can be transferred to the front seats.
Chistyulya 2.0: sleeping tourist complex
The leather interior of the Patrol directly requires the corresponding materials of the sleeping bag, so the fabric covering was replaced with leatherette, but the essence of the shelves remained at the level of the previous design in the UAZ Patriot.
In the leather interior of the Patrol, the fabric covering was replaced with leatherette, but the essence of the shelves remained at the level of the previous version in the UAZ Patriot.
All sleeping bags are made in accordance with the wishes of the customer, so the interests of the latter prevail over apparent convenience or suitability for certain purposes. Here there is nowhere to put the outboard motor, but this is my stingy man’s tear about the inflatable boat and motor lying in the garage. Otherwise, the boxes are quite relevant for a professional traveling flea dealer.
The principle of spreading out the berth is similar to that of the UAZ - the back of the rear sofa folds forward to form a kind of horizontal surface for reclining.
In fact, the Patrol and Patriot sleeping bags are similar in philosophy, but differ in the individuality of execution.
In fact, the Patrol and Patriot sleeping bags are similar in philosophy, but differ in the individuality of execution. I won’t be surprised that some reading this article will have a third similar option with their own solution.
Expeditioner: expeditionary complex
We also reached heavy artillery. This sleeping bag is organized in a Toyota Land Cruiser 105 and has already explored quite a few destinations.
At first glance, it is clear that the shelf format is simplified to the point of disgrace, but there is a logical explanation for this. The spacious central compartment was not left for the sake of saving money - its dimensions exactly correspond to the aluminum boxes in which everything necessary for travel is transported: food, dishes, etc.
I would never have thought that it was convenient if I had not personally taken advantage of its charms on a trip to the Arkhangelsk region, when we carefully took the box by the handles and took it with us to the hotel. Thus, we not only protected the food from freezing, but also organized a late dinner prepared in our room.
If the luggage space here is organized in a simplified version, then the unfolding of the sleeping bag has been improved. Special folding panels are laid on top of the folded back of the rear seat and finally level the surface. Thus, the folding panels eliminate the chance of pushing through the backrest and distribute the load more evenly.
The entire structure can be removed from the trunk with a few turns of a wrench.
The panels of the sleeping bag open, and if necessary, the entire structure can be removed from the trunk by a few manipulations with a wrench. The weight of the entire structure is only 7-8 kilograms. Not bad?
All that remains is to lay out the air mattress and lay down the linen...
Gryaznulya: trophy complex
By calling this option “dirty” I openly risk getting hit in the face, so I’ll quickly turn out that it’s dirty – not because it’s dirty or for dirty people, but because this Toyota Land Cruiser 73 is prepared for serious off-road conditions and periodically sets out to conquer it by plunging into adventures to the very tip of the antenna. Don't believe me? Then I recommend reading: “Pinega Tract”, “Three Regions”, “The Unlost Land”.
This Toyota Land Cruiser 73 is prepared for serious off-road conditions and periodically sets out to conquer it, plunging into adventures to the very tip of the antenna.
An inquisitive eye will already notice that the organization of the luggage compartment is somewhat reminiscent of the previous option. Right! When the time comes to change from the expedition version to the trophy version, this is where the boxes with tourist junk are loaded and fall exactly into place. Comfortable?
Further - it tastes better. It is very difficult to organize a full-fledged sleeping bag in a box. Although the 73rd is not entirely short, it has not partially avoided this problem. Therefore, the folding shelf of the sleeping bag here consists of several parts, which are placed on special “rails” along the cabin. Without them, nothing worthwhile would have come of it, or a new Boeing would have had to be built.
We move the front seats forward, install a power cross member - so as not to fall into the dungeons of terrible dreams while sleeping, and lay out the panels along the structure. Then it's a matter of little things...
By the way, it was in this 73 that I spotted a cool idea - an ordinary household outlet is installed on the dashboard connected to a 220V inverter, into which an ordinary household electric fumigator is installed as scheduled and kilograms of mosquitoes die. Take note while I'm good.
In this 73rd I spotted a cool idea - a utility socket is installed on the dashboard connected to a 220V inverter, into which an ordinary household electric fumigator is installed and mosquitoes die in kilograms.
Learning materiel: the possibilities of a sleeping arrangement
If you don’t have a sleeping bag, but really want it, then it’s worth exploring the capabilities of your car even before you go on a long voyage with it. For example, some models can lay the rear sofa in such a way that, together with the luggage compartment floor, a certain plane is formed.
So, for example, in Nizhny Novgorod at the BarabanOFF Trophy, the two of us managed to organize a sleeping bag in the Range Rover Evoque. And in mid-size crossovers this function is present quite often.
The downside of this “alignment” is that all the belongings folded in the trunk will have to be transferred to the front row of seats and this may cause problems (depending on the amount of stuff you take on a hike).
Because the planned trip by car involved a certain amount of autonomous movement in places quite remote,
depending on the person’s location, and besides, I didn’t really want to be dependent on hotels; in addition to fuel supplies and food supplies, I also needed somewhere to sleep.
The natural solution would be to spend the night in a tent, but there is one “BUT”, because... It was planned to go at the end of September, i.e. in a not-so-warm season, it might be uncomfortable to spend the night in a tent.
Therefore, the idea arose about sleeping in a car that could not be turned off at all. I had previously come across a number of articles about organizing a sleeping place in a car, but now I decided to take a closer look at them. Plus, the experience of previous trips showed that the principle of “all-things-in-one-pile” in the trunk, to put it mildly, is not entirely successful. and the sleeping place is naturally combined with the layout of things on 2 floors, which is much more convenient.
I even came across people who make custom-made luggage systems. It looks very good, but the price, in fact, is very high - 36K
In addition, the system is not removable, and we still have to “carry strollers.” I read the forum, looked at the pictures and decided to try to do everything myself.
The simplest option was to buy timber, plywood and carpet and do it like that (clumsily, of course, but not much time) 
No sooner said than done. I bought 3 bars 40x50x200, two (for some reason) sheets of 9 mm plywood 150x150, corners and self-tapping screws. And I encountered the first problem: after screwing long screws into the beam, it simply cracked.
We got 2 such legs, but the plywood on them sagged a lot and there was a need for stiffening ribs, and 3 bars ran out. 
I thought and thought and decided that it should be made of metal. Aluminum is a great thing, but how to secure it?
There are two options: bolted and riveted. I decided to learn a new tool for myself: a riveter.
Cost ~300 rubles + rivets ~100 rubles per package. I bought tools from Leroy, aluminum pipes 25x25x2000, bolts.
Go 
We got legs like this 
For some reason, two stiffening ribs now across were not enough again, and then the aluminum pipes ran out. Crap!!! 
Because I carried out all the work outside the city, I went to the surrounding construction markets to look for a profile. There was no aluminum on the markets, so I had to take a metal profile 20x20x300, thickness 2mm (for some reason it turned out to be the same thickness as aluminum, there may be tolerances, but oh well). They cut it to size there with a grinder, it was crooked, but oh well.
Now the stiffness is fine. 
We try on the plywood and cut out an additional piece. 
The most expensive part of this design turned out to be carpet: unfortunately, there were no black pieces, so we had to buy it without discounts. It came out to about 900 rubles. 
Plus a stapler with staples for another 250 rubles in the same Leroy.
In total, consumables turned out to be ~ 3-3.5K
Work ~2-2.5 days including the first version.
The design is completely collapsible, the sleeping area turned out to be ~170x120, i.e. quite myself. Assembly and disassembly takes 10 minutes (in the photo without the side) 
Canisters with additional fuel, tools, food, chairs, tiles, and water fit perfectly underneath.
Clothes and a folding table go upstairs. The berth can be unfolded in 5 minutes; the things on top are either placed under the awning or placed on the front seats.
The design was successfully tested during the trip and proved to be excellent. There are several nuances that need to be improved: for example, some of the plugs so as not to scratch the interior trim, holders for the folding part of the berth, but these are minor things.
ZY I still had to take the tent, because... Three people still can’t fit in the car....
