The Great Prius Adventure: Preparations

The most important part of this trip was getting the Prius ready for sleeping.*

The Platform

In the 2017, there is a pretty good cavity in the cargo area - almost a 3" drop from top of the folded down backseats to the bottom of the cargo area.

To deal with this, I used some scrap plywood and old 2x4s that I cut down on my table saw so that I had the correct elevation. With those screwed together, I stapled down some left over carpet.

Voila! A level sleeping area was achieved!

Back Seat Foot Area

The second thing we did was to figure out what we would put in the rear passenger foot space to extend our sleeping area.

On one side, we used two of those plastic shoebox sized containers (clothing storage) and a small ice chest. On the other, we have a small "milk crate" style box which we turned upside down -- under it are a pair of shoes and the rear headrests, which must be removed for a more level sleeping experience. During the day, a food bag goes into the crate and it is stored on the seat. On top of the crate are two more plastic shoebox sized containers, which hold all of our snacks, topped by one large thin rectangular plastic box that serves as a catchall.

*Credit to the Prius Camping Facebook group for some of the great tips that we have implemented.