In this article I will show you how to camp with your Toyota Prius Prime and a tent, doing so in a quick and easy manner. This method will actually work with any small car. But the point is that you’ll be able to load and unload your car in a quick fashion, with minimal, lightweight gear, circumventing the burden imposed by full-scale Prius glamping, like I portrayed in my article on the subject.
This style of Prius and tent camping maximizes fun, since there’s less preparation and setup involved to get your camp up and running. It also allows for last minute trips, Friday after work trips, and trips with up to 4 people with the Prius. Heck it might even save a little on gas, not hauling around a bunch of heavy camping gear. More about saving gas, on a trip with the Prius Prime here, while briefly on the subject.
Gear Selection for Minimalist Prius Prime Car Camping
Gear selection is crucial to pulling off easy, quick car and tent camping with the Prius Prime or equivalent small car. You’re going to want to select your gear very similarly to how you would, if you were going backpacking and camping in the back country, along the trail.
Use of a Backpacking Backpack
Indeed it may actually help for you to purchase a backpacking backpack for this style of camping. The capacity of these type of packs is usually 50-70 liters, and this gives you a physical goal to work towards when selecting the rest of your gear, food and clothes.
Backpackers will tell you to buy your sleep system for the conditions you will be in first. Then buy a tent to fit this sleep system. Then buy a backpack to fit your sleep system and tent. But as long as you’re buying lightweight, light volume gear, and a standard backpacking backpack with at least 60L, you can pull off a multi-day camping trip no problem, especially since you have a car for some literal wiggle room.
My Gregory Paragon 58L pack works perfectly for me to pull off quick car camping trips with my Prius Prime, like those I went on to Lake Arrowhead and Los Padres, CA this year. I did bring a few luxury items like lights and a camping battery, and a frying pan and cooler, but for the most part 90% of my gear fit in my pack.
Sleep System Selection
Sleeping Bag
Make sure to buy a sleeping bag that can pack down small to fit in the bottom of your pack. Again these are backpacking bags designed for lower pack volumes. I use a REI Trailbreak 30 bag for colder weather, that packs down to 7 or 8 liters, but Marmot makes a warmer 4L bag and Kelty makes a colder 10L bag, as an example. Just go to the REI website, search for sleeping bags, then use the ‘backpacking’ filter to find lower volume bags.
Make sure the bag you buy has an ISO comfort rating for the temperatures you’ll be in, during your trip. If you’re a colder sleeper, you may even shoot for a comfort rating below the local temps, to account for rapid, unexpected changes in the weather.
Sleeping Pad
You’re sleeping pad to should also pack down small too. Yes, I said ‘sleeping pad’, and not ‘blow up mattress from Walmart’. You, my friend, are going light, and will be sleeping in backpacking tent.
And pay attention to the R-value of the pad, and make sure it’s ASTM rated, so you know that value is accurate. The higher the value, the more insulated you are from the cold ground. R-values in the 4 range do well for colder spring and fall nights, but will be hot for hot sleepers during the summer.
I use a Big Agnes Rapide SL wide pad myself for colder weather. It’s a super comfortable pad that gives me good sleep! But common brands for backpacking also include Sea To Summit, Thermarest, and Nemo.
Pillow
Yes, you can get a teeny blow up pillow from Outdoor Vitals or the like, that packs down to the size of your fist. Or you can go hardcore and use your extra clothing as a pillow. I personally like a compressible pillow like that from Thermarest. But, if you’re camping next to your car, so go for a real pillow if you want. This is not a place to get stingy on, regarding volume.
Tent Selection
The common theme, again, is the use of backpacking gear, so go small with your tent as well. For Prius car and tent camping definitely go for a 2 person tent, as they tend to, in reality, be 1 and 1/2 person tents, or at least, 1 person plus gear tents.
Cheap polyester tents tend to be credibly waterproof, but weigh an extra pound or so more, in the backpacking category. Nylon tents are more durable, stretch more, and are lighter, but soak in water easier. I have the best of both worlds with my 5000mm hydrostatic head rated Featherstone Peridot 2P UL Backpacking tent that’s a little less than 5 pounds. 5000mm is a really, really good waterproof (or water resistance) rating for a tent just a little over 100 dollars.
Double check that your tent is free standing, and that it doesn’t require the use of a trekking pole set to pitch. Some of the more high end tents like the Zpacks Duplex require poles to do so (unless you buy their Flex Upgrade poles).
Cook Set
We’re going super simple here, with just a JetBoil MiniMo that allows you to boil water for dehydrated backpacking food, or make simple soups, heat up a can of chili, and whatnot.
If you’re going solo or doing a 2 person trip with your Prius Prime, it doesn’t hurt to bring a cooler and a frying pan. But if you’re taking 3 other people and 4 packs, then just go for the MiniMo(s).
Cooking with the MiniMo doesn’t require a long spoon like some of the other cook sets do, but your dehydrated food bags usually do, so grab the appropriate utensils.
As far as fuel canister sizes go, since your car camping it doesn’t matter if you bring a big one or not. Just make sure it’s the IsoPro type used with backpacking stoves. You’ll find them at your local REI or outdoor store.
Food Selection for Minimalist Prius Prime Car Camping
For quick, light minimalist camping, it’s best to bring a good set of dehydrated backpacking food bags, simple carb & salt soup packs, dried fruits and veggies, as well as proteins that don’t need to be refrigerated (trail mix, tuna packs, sardines, beef jerky).
I tend to keep a dozen or so dehydrated food bags at home, to save myself from having to stop by REI or Dick’s if I decide last minute to head out and camp. These foods generally have long shelf lives, ranging from 3 to 30 years, depending on which brand and which meal you buy.
Again, if you’re going solo or with a friend, it doesn’t hurt to bring a cooler and an iron frying pan for better food options. But it’s nice to know you’re not dependent on those, as they do require more time and effort in terms of meal planning, food gathering, cooking, and clean-up at camp.
On shorter trips you can get away with any old chain drug store cooler. On trips in the 5-7 day range, and/or out in the back country, you’re probably going to want a premium cooler like a Yeti, that will keep your ice going for several days.
Clothing Selection for Minimalist Prius Prime Car Camping
You’re clothing selection is so dependent on the season, the weather, and days spent at camp it’s hard to get too specific, other than to say go as minimal as you can.
Have just one extra set of undergarments and socks to change into, while washing and drying the other, if you’re near a plentiful water source. Sea To Summit makes a backpacking kitchen sink that packs down to the size of a sandwich that could be used for simple laundry tasks, if you have the water to spend. And a few clothes pins, some thin gauge paracord, and a few small carabiners go a long way in drying stuff out at camp.
Nikwax waterproof your down puffy jacket, and rain jacket and pants shells to minimize drying time for these essentials, so that you need not bring duplicates of such during acclimate weather.
Simple, shallow stream crossings mostly on hop rocks, during hiking, entails you could likely just get away with Gortex waterproof hiking shoes and nothing more. Deeper crossings, where your ankles and calves are definitely going to be submerged, entails having closed toe hiking sandals, like Keen or Griton brand waterproof sandals, at the ready in your hiking pack, secondary to your normal hiking shoes.
Miscellaneous Items for Minimalist Prius Prime Car Camping
Hygiene
I’ve been using a Sea To Summit 10L Pocket Shower with good success when camping in the summer. It allowed me to clean up for some in-town, wine and beer tasting, part of the day, without looking too disheveled on a Los Padres trip. A small bottle of biodegradable detergent for hair, body, dishes, etc also came in handy and took up little space. Campsuds is a common brand for that sort of work. And of course a microfiber buff or towel can sub for a full sized towel. PackTowl Personal Towel fits the bill.
Lighting
A Black Diamond Spot 400-R headlamp can easily take the place of a lantern, and can fit into the lid of your pack. One charge seems to last forever on it; I can’t remember the last time I charged mine up, and I walk the dogs every night with it. I’ve used it at camp for hours, cooking and doing chores too, without the charge being much affected. It’s a solid light that can go from super bright spotlight mode to super soft red LED mode.
Chair
The REI Flexlite Air Chair is your best bet on bringing a small but credible chair with you. I know Helinox makes one also, but the way the legs are configured on it, it feels like you’re going to tip backward in it to me.
Water Filtration
If you know you’ll be near clean, running water, instead of lugging around those big jugs from the grocery store, try just bring a water filtration system from LifeStraw or Sawyer alongside a Smart Water bottle.
Everything Else
All your ditty bag items should also be reduced as were you backpacking. From meds, to a backpacking poop trowel, to a mini sunscreen stick, go light. I have a more comprehensive list of items I keep in my Gregory pack at the ready for a trip on my article on the pack.
Further Reading
Check out my Prius Prime Car Camping page, which houses such articles as Toyota Prius Prime Battery Discharge Rate When Sleeping In Car With AC Running.
Hope this gave you some ideas on how to camp with your Prius in the future. Take care!