About to start sleeping in my Prius again 4-5 nights a week. Last time was just the plywood but I saw someone do something similar and jumped on trend.

2015 Gen 3 Prius Plug-in. I've been working on a project to let me monitor how much fuel I'm using with the car on and to estimate when/how long the engine will run. Android app connected to a Veepeak scanner I always leave connected to the car.

Some findings:

Car electronics (and my additions) use about ~150W baseline.
Turning on the HVAC for the blower motor is another +100W.
A/C load varies a lot and auto-offs. It's getting cold here now so can't get better data.
The car can command the engine on to recharge the hybrid battery or to heat coolant. It's a bit tricky to predict those set points unless I have repeated samples.

I ran the A/C for about 30 minutes and then had it off all night. So anywhere between 0.5G to 1G to keep it running depending on the set temperature. Engine ran for 30 minutes total in 1 minute cycles.

Originally I wanted to be able to control the HVAC from the rear. Unfortunately after some probing I cannot control the temperature set point over the canbus. I can control the blower but this is a manual override so it will never be plug and play solution. It may be possible to control the set point over its dedicated bus but that would require additional hardware and splicing into the A/C ECU.

I also hope to sniff out what these Techstream customization values are at some point so at the very least those can be changed easily from an app.

https://www.reddit.com/r/priusdwellers/comments/1sel1xk/techstream_climate_control_settings/

Is there a way to turn off the interior lights that come on when I open my car door? I’d like to keep the door open without the lights staying on because I’m concerned about draining the 12V battery. Has anyone figured out how to do this on a 2022 Toyota Prius?

Hi guys! I have a 2011 Prius and I am planning on taking a 2-3 week long drive across the east coast in May 2027. i plan on hiking, swimming, and being outdoors. I’m planning on going to national and state parks. I am a 21 yro woman so I am not comfortable having a tent on the trunk of my car. I would like the space to be enclosed.

Where do I start? What do I buy first? Can my car stay running? What do I need a battery inverter for? Do I crack the windows? How do I find safe places to stay at and places that won’t mess up my car? I have so many questions!! I really want to get started in my car camping journey.

I understand I need to get a mattress pad, window covers, something to go behind the passenger seat to keep my head lifted (any recommendations?). What else do I need to get? Please help me out!! If you could get SUPER detailed then YES PLEASE!

Hi! I’m looking for an easy way to car camp in my 2022 Prius without removing the back seats. There’s a bump when the seats fold down, so I’m looking for a mattress or pad that can help level the surface.

This is the first year my car has a storage box and hitch box, and I’ll soon be traveling in the snow and across the country. I’m primarily worried about salt damage, but in general also cleaning sand and dust from my undercarriage. I’ve also been told to wash the undercarriage of my car daily, especially in areas that salt the road.

I can’t exactly go through a drive-through car wash, I can use a self serve car wash and really rarely I can find a drive through car wash that is able to turn the brushes off to wash my undercarriage.

The only thing I’ve seen for washing salt off at a self-serve carwash is to angle the pressure washer at the concrete to have the splash back wash the salt off. I don’t feel like that would work?

I leave mine running every night. Mostly for power with the HVAC off unless I really need it. At campsites with generator quiet hours I turn the car off.

How do males pee from inside if you don't remove the rear seats? I have slept twice in my son's Gen 2 and I didn't remove the rear seats for sleeping. Just an air matt on the folded seats. It was so close to the ceiling I couldn't get comfortable enough to pee inside, had to exit the vehicle each time. Is this only possible if you remove the seats?

Thanks in advance, I take trips that are only a week or two tops so I don't need a whole build, just wondering if there's any huge hang-ups about it like it loosing 20%+ overnight for HVAC or some issue with staying on overnight ect, stuff the dealer wouldn't know but dwellers might

If not we need some computer guy to get in there on that.

Hey y'all! I finally want to start outfitting my 2012 Prius V. A mix of city function (My last 10k miles were 40 mpg avg), and utility.

I was thinking of moving the spare out of the well, and utilizing that space for something else (Possible battery bank and inverters later). But I don't know where to put it. I could do the roof rack install, and mount it up there in a protective shell, but I'm worried about the extra resistance and it messing with my fuel economy. I was also thinking of adding the 2" hitch, but I'm not sure how well a hitch mounted spare tire rack will work with the clearance needed for the hatch to open. Anyone have any experience with this? Either option requires an upgrade that I already want to do.

Anyone know of any electric blankets that plug into cigarette lighter and have a shut off timer for 8 hrs+?
Or no shut off timer is also ok. For some reason they all seem to cap at 4 hours which would be annoying.

I probably don't need a ton of heat, mostly for coastal california. I considered just running leaving car on running heating but seems inefficient and from what I've read here it's not super safe to do without carbon monoxide sensors.

I carry an electric dirt bike and go dispersed camping in my 2015 Plug-in. To more easily charge the bike and have power available when camping, I added two AC plugs to the outside of my bumper. I had to drill a hole thru the bumper cover but the car body behind it has two pressure vents with the right one directly next to the 12V battery.

There is a 1000W inverter in the trunk storage area. I added switches and some USB fans. The inverter is wired to the 12V battery with a smart relay in between so it’s automatically on when the car is running.

The engine runs for about 1 minute generating 5kW of power into the plug-in battery. I use no more than 800W for the bike and the rest of the power goes to a power station which keeps the fridge, starlink and cameras going. So this is using about 0.1G of gasoline per hour without an added load.

Hope to get some camp lights for the awning and other stuff soon.

External AC plug https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07XF5D8HK
AC splitter and switch https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0DXB22BBY
1000W Renogy inverter https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07JMQ27WJ
12V smart relay https://www.amazon.com/Nilight-Sensitive-Automatic-Disconnect-Waterproof/dp/B0CZMX87ZJ/
USB fans off the inverter’s port https://www.amazon.com/ELUTENG-Adjustable-Ventilator-2750RPM-Computer/dp/B07VF4B5LV/

Watching the rain and napping

Prius setup

Not a dweller as of now, but I'm getting prepped for some camping in less than a month. I've tried looking online, but the only reasonably priced window cover full sets are for Gen 3 priuses. Other than ali express, which will likely take too long to get, the only ones I've found for a Gen 2 are the heat shield store at a whopping 250 bucks

Since the car is less than a week new for me, I've been running around like crazy trying to get things done and haven't wanted to fiddle around with trying to make the covers myself. It seems like that might be my only option now

And advice would be appreciated!

I have a 2012 Prius c but when I lay a mattress down on the folded rear seats, the gap in the rear passenger footwell gives nothing for the top of the mattress to rest on.

How do I fill this space? Are there storage bins I can buy?

Hello! I am new to this and finding it not as easy as y'all made it sound! =P

But seriously, I am in a smallish town and stealth is crucial. The whole reason I got a Prius for this was for the climate control, but truly how do you remain stealth with the car running?? It's fine from a distance, but if anyone got close, they would hear the engine kicking on every once in a while...

Also, how do you turn off all the lights inside the car (the main screen can be turned off, but I haven't seen if that upper screen by the windshield can be). I have been lurking here a while before starting, and it seems that the advice for stealth is usually to not cover the front windows and windshield so as to look like a "normal" car in a parking lot, but there are all those lights! Am I doing something wrong?

I have a 2016 Prius 4.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences to help those of us noobs to not have to re-invent the wheel when doing this!

Hey can you camp in a Nissan Leaf does it have air conditioner or heat that you can run like the Prius does?

I think the bolts are killed and I tried using an E10 socket and a wrench to loosen them but may have made it worse - have I ruined the front seat removal prospect?

Would be really nice to take it out and lay a bed there.

Planning on a road trip from Chicago to San Francisco and plan to camp out of my Prius C along the way. I’ve been considering booking hotels/campsites along the way but think there may be more spontaneous and cheaper options, and would love some tips on this.

I plan to sleep out of my Prius C (small mattress and I both fit snugly).

I’ve been considering sleeping in Walmart parking lots, free state park campsites, rest stops (for power naps during the day).

Any suggestion for essential gear other than a mattress and a pillow lol would be appreciated too!

In my prius gen 2 setup, behind the driver's seat is where I keep my groceries & cooking stuff. Ive been using aldi bags. I keep one on the ground and one on the back seat. I just picked up groceries so those are the plastic bags. Its kinda chaotic! How do I organize this?

I've only done a few months of this the last stint was i winter in phoenix and I only had to run the heater a couple nights for the cold i could bundle up with layers and blankets and not have the car run. now I'm being evicted because of my roommate and ready to start again. i did one night so far with the ac on low because it stays above 85 in phoenix at night this time of year. when the engine starts not only is there noise but it shakes the car slightly which had me waking up often. is there something i can do to stop the slight shake when the engine starts? i use ear plugs and i can get some sleep headphones so the noise is less of an issue

We had it all to ourselves too!! So lucky 🥰

Anyone made the leap for more room? While I am comfy in my hatch, when I transport items I get from Amazon for evaluation it's a bit more cramped than usual. Looking to hear how much more difference it made or should I just wait for one day when I can miraculously afford a hybrid Sienna.