Logistics of 4Runner Life

There was an issue with the camper, so we’re spending the first 4-6 weeks of our trip living out of the back of the 4Runner. We used the 4Runner for our 2017 road trip, and we camp regularly in it, but a few days in the 4Runner is very different from 4-6 weeks. It’s been (mostly) a fun challenge, because it prevented us from overpacking, and it will make moving into the camper feel like a palatial luxury by comparison. In the meantime, here’s how we’re making a very small space work for us:

Food:
Our food planning has evolved since we left; we started with a large cooler and bear can, and were cooking daily, but we quickly learned that lugging a cooler full of ice around is a pain and that doing dishes in the cold is brutal, so we now use the cooler more as food and toiletry storage. We switched to stable foods that won’t go bad at ambient temperatures for a few days. The cooler is technically not bear-proof, but we do have a padlock for it, and so far have never had any bears pay it a visit :knock on wood: Otherwise, we have a large bear canister and a large Ursack for bulky items (e.g. chips). I have to admit, I am really excited to have a proper refrigerator in a few weeks when we get the camper.

Water: 
I thought water would be a bigger stressor than it has been. We have a 7-gallon water jug and a 7-gallon camp shower. The latter hasn’t been prepared for drinking water, but it’s fine for washing dishes or boiling water for cooking in a pinch. The 7 gallon jug lasts us 3-4 days. We’ve learned that many gas stations have free potable water, and if that fails, RV parks have been very generous with letting us fill up for free. In case we ever find ourselves in a water emergency, we have a gravity water filter, but we have not yet needed it.

Storage:
Most of our clothes and gear are stored in a Yakima roof box. We keep the cooler and heavy/more fragile items on the sleeping platform in the back of the bed while driving, which is far from ideal because we have to unload and reload the 4Runner every time we make camp. We’re in a pretty good rhythm now, but we’re both looking forward to cutting down our setup/breakdown time.

Sleeping:
Years ago, Lee put his engineering skills to their best use so far (sorry, AirPods) and built a sleeping platform for the back of the 4Runner. There’s a full-size foam mattress back there, complete with a down comforter. For good measure, he also installed cupholders, battery-powered fans, and we have mesh window covers. I like sleeping in a tent, but lemme tell ya, it is true luxury to have the warmth, security, and sound proof-ness of a car.

Power:
Between the two of us we have two laptops, two cameras, two phones, two Apple Watches, an e-reader, an iPad, a lantern, a bike computer, a satellite communicator, and walkie-talkies. That’s a lot of battery-powered stuff. To charge it all, we have a big-ass battery that Lee wired to charge off the 4Runner battery while it’s running, and we have a portable solar panel for when we’re camped for a few days. We’ve never dropped below 30% in the battery, and that was only after running two fans all night, and charging both our phones, a watch, and a laptop.

Hygiene:
I’ll state the obvious: if you’re going to be boondocking, you’re not going to be at your cleanest. That said, two people sleeping in a small enclosed space begs a certain level of courtesy, so we’ve tried to find a happy middle ground. We have a 7-gallon pressurized Yakima camp shower that mounts to the roof rack and is solar heated. It’s probably our second-most luxurious camping item after the bed. Between the camp shower, dunks in lakes/rivers, nature wipes, and washcloth sponge baths, we’ve managed to stave off most of the funk. We also switched to merino wool for our underwear, socks, and much of our activewear, which makes a huge difference for odor prevention.

When it comes to going to the bathroom, we just find a private spot in the woods to do our business, dig a cathole, and have separate little compostable baggies where we throw our used TP. Not-so-fun fact: most toilet paper is not compostable, and even the ones that are take a very, very long time to break down in arid environments (e.g. California), so it’s a best practice to not bury your TP with your poo.

That covers most of the logistics. I must give credit where it’s due and say that 100% of the 4Runner’s capabilities exist solely because of Lee’s ingenuity. There is no way that I’d trust myself to update car battery wiring, or be willing to spend the money to upgrade my car’s suspension for off-roading, or bother to replace our barely-functioning camp shower with something a million times better. If I were doing this alone, I’d be roughing it and probably stressed, stinky(ier), and unhappy, so thank you, Lee, for keeping me powered, comfortable, clean, and getting us to incredible places I never knew a car could go.