Building out my car
I’ve been dreaming of this trip for a long time. Twenty years, actually. But it was probably in 2018 that I started to pay attention and thinking about what life on the road may look like and feel like. My “mindless scrolling” would be on #vanlife, #subarucamping, and other searches that would lead me to ideas on how I could live in my car for a year.
I had a basic idea of what I wanted, but it wasn’t until I packed up my apartment in New York City, and then moved everything into storage in Richmond, Virginia, that I could sit down and start to sketch things out. I planned to spend a month or two in Richmond at my parent’s house. My dad, an engineer and handy person, had agreed to help me figure it out.
We spent a day looking at all of the videos and photos I had saved to my Pinterest board. Then I let him work his magic on what would be engineered for convenience, stability, and longevity.
Some things I needed to consider included:
- I wanted to be able to sleep in the car if I needed to. So this meant that the platform would need to have space for me to roll over. I didn’t want to feel like I was in a coffin.
- I wanted to be able to store clothes in boxes under the platform. I figured I would put warm weather clothes in one box, and cold weather in the other. That’s how I ended up doing it for the entire year.
- My cooler was going to take up a good amount of space. I thought I might get in and out of it while driving, however, that didn’t end up happening. I got another small cooler for road trip lunches and drinks.
- I was going to have a box on the top of the car, but I still was going to need to take advantage of every inch of the car.
Once we figured out the best option for design, then build began.
After much trial and error and brainstorming, I ended up with a platform that took up the entire back of the Subaru Outback and another that rested on the 2/3 portion of the back seat. The legs on the back seat portion had to be adjusted to be level with the rest of the platform. This created a place for sleeping if I needed it (and I did).
Under the platform, I could store 2 under-the-bed size boxes. I kept this for clothing, but it could have been handy for other camping supplies. This worked throughout the trip, but it was often a pain to have to pull the entire box out to get whatever I needed. I could have done it without a lid, but then I couldn’t keep the contents clean. It was a toss-up.
On top of the platform, I kept a sleeping pad and cooler. It worked well to prevent me from blocking my view out of the rear passenger window. Sometimes I would put groceries, or something easy to move, on the sleeping pad. But never more than I could shift to the driver’s seat if I needed the space to sleep. Space management is key and you need to think about it every time you add something to the car.
Under the platform on the back seat, I would store things I wanted access to when I was on a campsite – broom, garbage bags, tools – mostly utility items. Behind the driver’s seat, I would have space for other equipment that I just didn’t want on the top of the car. And if I was staying overnight in a hotel or someone’s house, I would pack an overnight bag that stayed there.
The front seat I would call my “office”. I would have a computer bag, cameras, small cooler, and I had a bag of things I would need on the go while driving – park passes, sunglasses, Advil, hand sanitizer, bug spray, etc.
The roof box stored my camping gear, kitchen gear, and any emergency supplies that I was grateful to never need to touch. But I knew it was there in a pinch.
I only had to sleep in the car for 2 nights of 355. Both of them were in Death Valley National Park when a dust storm rolled through. I did have to spend a few hours in the car when a bear decided to come hang out at my campsite. And I would escape to the car during bad weather at times. But more often than not, I preferred to find ways to enjoy whatever nature had to give to me.
I liked this setup. It worked well for me and I don’t have much that I would change. I know I could bring a lot less, but I could never predict that going into the trip.
If you are considering this sort of adventure, I encourage you to do a lot of visualization on what you’ll need and how you’ll access it. I had to mentally live through different set-up options before I settled on this one. And even during the trip, I would have minor adjustments because of the environment I was entering.
If you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. And I hope you make the time to explore this beautiful country via car, tent, camper, cabin…just get out and explore.