Okay it’s time to talk about the final part of the microcamper! Will and my bed! So I know it’s a huge shock that a 6 foot tall man can (barely) fit in the back of a RAV4. With the front seats all the way up there is 6.5 feet of length… Will says the length is not an issue, it’s the fact that sometimes he likes to tent his legs up and he can’t do that with Julius over him. Luckily he’s a good sport – the best sport – and has put up with my whole microcamper idea.
So one problem with the RAV4 for sleeping is that the back seats don’t fold down completely flat. They are slightly bent upwards. This means that you could pop a mattress in there and sleep with your head up by the front seats, and your feet in the trunk…. except we had to sleep 2 kids in the car. For this reason I had to hang two beds over the front and middle regions of the car, meaning our heads were better off in the back of the car near the trunk hatch. So step 1 was leveling out the back of the car with some kind of platform. This was pretty easy.
I used a level and determined how much height I needed at the back vs. the middle (where the seats fold up). (I believe the answer was 6″ vs. 3″). Then I cut some 2x6s down to the length of the trunk (-2″) and then at an angle (had to use a hand saw) so that one end was 6″ and the other end tapered down to 3″. I cut 3 such pieces and then I cut a piece of 1/2″ plywood (4’x8′) the length of my back trunk, rounding the part by the hatch on either side.


I screwed this to the 3 pieces of tapered plywood, leaving a gap at the end closest to the middle seats. In this gap I placed a 2×2 strip, 2″ below the platform. This is going to be used to hold some extensions. The extensions are 3 lengths of 2×2 that will slide out from the back trunk section and lay on the back of the middle seats that are folded down.
Finally I installed two more pieces of plywood (cut into 18″ lengths) and screwed them together with hinges (2 on the top of the pieces between the back and the middle, and 2 on the back of the pieces between the middle and the front). Oh and I cut out a place for the center console since that is behind the front seats when they are all the way forward.



Next I tackled the mattress. I had a bunch of extra 4″ Lux foam from foam factory from when I made the climbing wall padding. I took that and bought some extra to make the mattress. I cut it down into 3 24″ x48″ lengths. Well, I had to do a bit more assembling with 3M super 77 adhesive – make sure you spray liberally on both pieces you want to secure, let it sit for 5 minutes to get sticky then press together thoroughly to adhere, or at least pinch the edges together. Then let it sit for 24-48 hours.


I made the mattress casing from old scrap fabric (you might recognize the pink from my Princess Peach costume) and the blue is a bedsheet that ripped. I have to post some instructions on how to create the mattress coverings, but I essentially cut out all the pattern pieces, added a super wide zipper (like 36″ long) and then stitched it up.
Overall I would say it is very comfortable, and the slight bonus with the back platform is I can fit camping supplies underneath.
Grand total for the platform mattress:
- 1 – 1/2″ 4×8 plywood ($45.55)
- 1 – 2x6s ($7.72)
- 2 – 2x2s ($5.74)
- 4 hinges ($6.54)
- zippers ($19.99 from zipper shipper)
- 4″ lux open cell foam ($49.99 from foam factory)
- Grand total: $135.53
For perspective a Luno air mattress that fits perfectly in the back of your car costs $500, so I feel like I got away at a steal here. It folds up into the back, but takes up quite a bit of space vs. the air mattress but it’s quite comfy so I think it’s a worthy trade off.
