Wife Joins Minivan Camping Adventure

My wife and I bought a minivan last year and I somehow got the bright idea to try camping in it. As insane or primitive as it may sound to some, minivan camping is growing in popularity. A Facebook group dedicated to that topic, MinivanRV Camping, now has more than 17,000 followers.

I wrote a blog story for This Retirement Life several months ago detailing my first minivan camping experience. After returning from the state park, I eagerly shared my minivan camping adventure with my wife, Kathy. She listened politely, but I could tell she wasn’t sold on the idea.

“You should go with me sometime,” I said to her, to which she gave me that special spouse look that says “Not a chance. You are crazy.”

Her lack of enthusiasm was understandable. After all, we’ve never been a camping family. While we took vacations every year with the kids when they were still at home, we never once took them camping. We’ve never owned a tent or an RV. We have always been hotel people.

Benefits of Minivan Camping

As it turns out, sleeping in your minivan (or SUV) isn’t such a crazy idea. In fact, some people who own both a minivan and and RV say they prefer minivan camping, especially for short trips.

Benefits of minivan camping include:

1. Better gas mileage: RVs are notorious gas guzzlers, and in these days when gas prices are going up and up, that’s a real consideration. You can travel much more cheaply with a minivan than with an RV.
2. Fits in your garage: Minivans have similar dimensions to passenger cars. They will fit in a typical residential garage or carport. RVs, on the other hand, require a lot of space to park and store. If you live in a neighborhood where you can’t park your RV in the yard or driveway, you will have to rent a place to store your RV when not in use, which if you are a typical RV owner will be most of the year.
3. No need for a second vehicle when camping: With motor homes and many other types of RVs, once you get to the campground and set up, it’s not easy to journey into town for groceries, dining out, or sightseeing. That’s why many RV owners tow a car behind their RV. With a minivan, you simply drive into town whenever you wish.
4. The stealth factor: Because a minivan blends in with other passenger vehicles, if necessary you can stop and sleep almost anywhere. While it’s not my preferred style, some minivan campers park overnight in places like hospital parking lots where no one will be suspicious of their van’s presence. A minivan works well for solo travelers who want to keep a “stealth” profile.
5. Less Expensive: While they have plenty of advantages, traditional RVs are expensive. They are costly to buy, to drive, and to maintain. By comparison, the cost to own a minivan is comparable to any other passenger car. You can get great deals on used minivans; that’s what we did.

Kathy Says Yes

Since my first solo minivan camping adventure, the topic came up frequently at home. Over time, Kathy’s concerns became more clear and they made good sense. With bad knees, the idea of crawling around in the back of the minivan didn’t sound too appealing to her. She also wasn’t keen on leaving the van during the night to walk to the campground’s bathhouse when nature called. Plus, while the minivan is spacious enough for one person, it’s cramped for two, especially with gear to carry. Many couples do travel together inside a minivan, but when they do the bed consumes nearly all of the available floor space.

Those are all very valid concerns. The more I mulled them over, however, I found solutions for each of them. With the modifications described below, Kathy finally said yes. We scheduled our first two-night minivan camping trip together.

For experienced campers, setting up the hatchback tent should only take 15-20 minutes.

The first major adjustment we made was to buy what is called a hatchback tent. These tents are especially made for SUVs and minivans. One side of the tent is designed to attach to the rear of the minivan, with the hatch left open. We bought the Napier Sportz Tent Model 82000. It greatly expands the overall size of your camping area. It gives you more options for sleeping. You can both sleep in the van and leave the tent for holding a table and chairs and other gear, or you can both sleep in the tent and keep traveling stuff in the van. In our case, we chose for me to sleep in the van on the single-width camping bed I normally use and for Kathy to sleep in the tent. That gave her plenty of headroom and space to move around.

We’re newbies to tents, but we successfully set it up in about 30 minutes. Our only problem was the wind. It was a gusty day, which made setup more challenging. Overall, even for first-timers like us, setting up the tent wasn’t too hard. Napier’s instructions were easy to follow. With experience, a couple should be able to set up the tent in 15-20 minutes.

For sleeping in the tent, we bought Kathy an elevated air mattress like this model from Intex. With a built-in pump, it was easy to set up. It was surprisingly comfortable. The elevated height made getting in and out less of a chore. These mattresses also come in queen size for couples. When not camping, they are handy to have around the house when grandkids or other guests come to visit.

We used a self-inflating, tall air mattress bed inside the tent.

That still left the problem of what to do about bathroom calls during the night. That issue is easier to solve for us guys, but more challenging for the ladies. Understandably, going to the bathhouse at night wasn’t going to happen for Kathy. I had to come up with a bettter solution.  There are a number of home-made and store-bought options for creating a camping toilet, but I knew the choice of toilets would be critical to whether my wife became a happy camper or not. So I bought one of the nicer models, a Thetford Porta Potti 365. While many other models sit low to the ground, the Thetford 365 sits nearly as high as a home toilet. It’s also flushable like a home toilet. Kathy gave it her thumbs up. The toilet worked well on our initial camping venture.

Success, but Lessons Learned 

Without a doubt, Kathy will always prefer the Holiday Inn Express over camping. Even so, I would rate our initial trip as a success. We already have campground reservations for a second minivan camping adventure. If Kathy isn’t a “happy” camper yet, she’s at least a “I can tolerate this occasionally” camper. That’s progress.

On the plus side, we enjoyed the pleasures of camping. Our good friends John and Peggy own an RV and camped alongside of us. We started a fire at night and shared s’mores together. We took a hike in the woods. John and I rode our bikes around the park. Since Wi-Fi wasn’t available and my cellphone reception was sketchy, the weekend trip gave me a much-needed break from screen time, social media, and work. As camping should be, it was a relaxing, enjoyable experience.

Here are some lessons we’ve learned:

1. Weather concerns: The weather has to be just right for minivan camping and even more so for tent camping. I’d call this the Goldilocks test. It can’t be too hot or too cold. While we enjoyed delightful blue-sky 60s and 70s temps during the day, it got down to the low 40s at night. I was fine inside the minivan, but even with an electric heater and quilts, Kathy was cold during the night. To prepare for future outings, Kathy has since purchased flannel sheets and a comfy fleece blanket.
2. Tents and rain: We thankfully had no rain on our camping trip, but while putting the tent up and taking it back down prior to leaving, I couldn’t help but think about how horrible this could be if it was raining. Folding up a wet tent would be awful. Without the tent, minivan camping works fine in the rain, but once you add the tent, it complicates things.  We carried rain apparel to wear to keep us dry, but what do we do with a wet tent?
3. Our agreement: Kathy and I have come to an understanding to guide us on future trips. If it’s too cold or raining, we will abort our camping plans, even if it means forfeiting the fees we paid, and go find the nearest motel. It’s not worth the hassle.

 Improvements Since My First Camping Trip

In addition to the purchases described above to accommodate Kathy’s camping needs, I have made several changes to my routine since writing about my first minivan camping venture several months ago.

Here are the main changes to my minivan camping setup:

Windows inside the van are covered with Reflectix insulation. Bed is made from heavy-duty garage shelving, topped with a folding foam mattress.

1. Window coverings: When camping in a minivan (or SUV), you have to devise some way to provide privacy while changing clothes and sleeping. Initially, I rigged up a frame made from PVC piping and hung house-style drapes from the frame. It was fine in terms of providing privacy but too bulky and took up valuable space. Like many of my camping tips, the idea for using PVC-and-drapes came from other campers on the MinivanRV Camping Facebook group. Another privacy idea I found there was to cut window coverings from a thin insulating material called Reflectix. A roll of Reflectix is inexpensive and easy to cut just using household scissors. There are several good YouTube videos, like this one, that guide you through how to size and install Reflectix window coverings. For the windshield, we just used a sunscreen. If using a hatchback tent, you don’t need a covering for the rear glass. The new window coverings worked great. They are lightweight, easy to store, and as an added bonus, they provide some insulation value against cold and heat. For me, it’s a much better solution than the PVC piping and drapes.
2. A new bed: On my first camping trip, I used a Coleman cot we already owned, with a foam pad. That worked OK, but I was intriqued by an idea I read about on Facebook of building a lightweight, easily storable minivan bed using heavy-duty garage shelving and a tri-fold foam mattress. I had to make some modifications to the shelving legs to level the bed, since a minivan’s flooring in the cargo area is not level. Once these adjustments were made, my new camping bed worked great! At 24 inches wide, my bed may be too narrow for some campers, but I’m not a big guy and don’t toss and turn too much. I slept fine on it. The shelving unit I used was something like this one, with shelves measuring 24 x 36 inches. When you build two bedding units, each using two shelves (top and bottom), and stack them lengthwise, it makes a bed that is 24 inches wide by 72 inches long. You can buy wider shelves if you want a wider bed, but 24 inches is a good choice because you could put a second bed beside the first one (most minivans are at least 48 inches wide on the inside) and top it with a full-size mattress to sleep two people. Make sure the shelving is sturdy enough to support your weight. The above unit from Walmart will hold up to 300 pounds. After hearing rave reviews from other campers, I bought a Milliard tri-fold foam mattress. There are cheaper look-alike foam mattresses elsewhere, but Milliard uses high-quality materials that don’t sag or sink. You won’t have a happy camping experience unless your bed sleeps well. This one was great. I recommend a carrying case for the mattress to keep it clean while in storage and during travel.
3. A folding bike: Those of you who follow my blog know I’m an avid bike rider. When I travel, I nearly always take my bicycle along. My full-size electric bike wasn’t easy to fit into the back of a minivan even when it was empty, but when it’s fully loaded with camping gear, carrying a full-size bike was nearly impossible. We didn’t want to put a bike rack on the back of the minivan because it interferes with the hatchback and would be a nuisance when trying to use the minivan with the hatchback tent. The solution? I traded in my full-size bike and bought a smaller e-bike that is foldable. It fits in the minivan much better. There are several good brands of folding bikes, but I purchased a Magnum Bikes Premium II Low-Step model.

A small, folding e-bike is the perfect camping companion.

Would Kathy and I enjoy owning a “real” RV? Probably, but unless someone wants to give us a nice Class B or Class C model, it’s not likely to happen. Even then, it would be a burden storing it and maintaining it. For now, I’m a happy camper in the back of my minivan, or at least in reasonably fair weather. Kathy is a good sport and willing to accompany me occasionally, but she’ll always choose a hotel when she can.

* * * * *

Note: This story includes affiliate links. If you buy an item mentioned in this story from Walmart.com after clicking a link in the story, I receive a small commission. It does not affect your purchase price. These are all items I personally own and recommend.