Had I acquired a larger RV, I would have regretted it—been shell-shocked, actually—when I saw how big my first refueling bill was.
Along with their expense, additional downsides to larger RVs is that they are challenging to drive and maintain.
Just finding a parking spot for one while you are out on the road is a major headache.
At home, your neighborhood regulations may require you to store it offsite.
And unless you are living in it 24/7/365, it’s likely to just sit somewhere most of the time collecting dust. It’s hardly a vehicle you would want to use to do your grocery shopping or for other neighborhood errands.
If that’s not bad enough, many RV camping areas I’ve seen, which tend to be more expensive than tent-only sites, are grim, cheek-to-jowl parking lots that force you to get a little too close for comfort to your fellow RVers.
So when my girlfriend and I started seriously researching road-tripping-capable vehicles recently, we came up with a checklist of the key features we wanted, and built-in bathrooms, kitchens and wide-screen television sets were not on it.
Topping our list was that it be large enough to allow us to sleep inside, and to accommodate our bicycles and camping gear. But at the same time, we wanted it to be small enough to fit into less-expensive and more appealing tent-only sites at campgrounds, and into our home garage.
In addition, we wanted the vehicle to be economical and practical and reliable enough to use as a personal vehicle when we were not exploring distant regions on our birding, hiking, cycling and camping adventures.
The eventual vehicle of choice for us, the one that ticked off all of our boxes, was a Toyota Sienna minivan.
True, this soccer mom favorite, which is supposed to get 26 mpg on the highway, is not marketed or designed to be a camper. To get it into into road-tripping shape, some modifications are required.
Right out of the box, I added a U-Haul trailer hitch to accommodate a rack for our bikes. The particular rack model I bought swings out of the way to ease access to the vehicle’s rear cargo area.
In addition, I removed the van’s middle seats and made a folding plywood bed platform for the space. This spartan design allows us to use the van’s rear seats when the platform is folded forward. While folded, the platform serves as a table. The space underneath the platform is for storage.
We are planning to add a cargo case to the roof rack for additional storage.
In addition, we are planning to install rain protector/wind deflectors and homemade insect screens to the van’s rear windows. We will use the rear windows to ventilate the van while we are sleeping inside.
We’re avid campers so already have all the gear we need to do extended car-camping trips. But one new the appliance I bought for the van is a 45-quart RTIC cooler. It cost $200. But it’s supposed to keep food cold for up to 10 days on a single load of ice.
We’re looking forward to heading out on the road for our first van-based birding-hiking-cycling-camping adventure soon. I’ll provide updates to let you know what worked and what didn’t, and I’m sure we’ll figure out ways to improve the system as we go.
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| Folding platform in table mode |
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| Folding platform in bed mode |
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| Platform with the folding mattress installed |
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