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Have you ever slept in your Rav?

14K views 18 replies 16 participants last post by  volosong 
#1 ·
I have a 16 XLE, 3 days ago I went to the lake on a midnight drive, near an RV park. so I parked my rav near the lake, opened the moon roof half way and had my windows down just enough of my window deflectors. I had to take off the privacy cover and store it. I kept a blanket in my trunk that I stole off an airplane lol. used my gym bag as a pillow and took a 3hr nap with the sound of the waves. I might even make a small setup and do this more often!
 
#3 ·
I sleep in my RAV4 all the time! Fortunately, I am short, so the back part makes a comfy bed. I keep a sleeping bag, pillow, and inflatable mattress in the back at all times. I live in NH and I hike a lot. No worries if I want to drive to the mountains on a Friday night after work to get an early start of a weekend backpacking trip. This was one of the main reasons I bought a RAV (and not a CRV) - the back folds down absolutely flat! It's perfect.
 
#10 ·
I sleep in my 4.4 all the time (in between classes, overnight sometimes while camping). For the short naps I'll just recline the driver seat all the way back and that'll do the job.

For actually sleeping, I pull out all the stops: I'm 6'2" and what I usually do is recline the rear seats and then pull the tonneau cover over the back, and either use a blanket or cardboard box to block light from the end of the tonneau cover to the front seat headrests (I can't sleep with lights on). After that I grab the pillow and sleeping bag and the cargo area is my bed. I have a thicker sleeping bag so the imperfections in the floor aren't noticeable, and its angled downward which works fine for me. Admittedly I haven't done this in a few months so I don't remember exactly how much room I have (whether I have to curl my feet or not) but what I do know is that it was plenty enough.

In both cases, I'll ventilate with the two front windows cracked to the window visor, and I'll pop the moonroof up while pulling the shade forward a couple of inches. I've had one case where a bug flew in and bit me -- I woke up to it buzzing around the cabin -- so I may consider getting some mesh and just taping it or otherwise.
 
#11 ·
... I'll ventilate with the two front windows cracked to the window visor, and I'll pop the moonroof up while pulling the shade forward a couple of inches. I've had one case where a bug flew in and bit me -- I woke up to it buzzing around the cabin -- so I may consider getting some mesh and just taping it or otherwise.
In my early dyno traveling days my tow vehicle was a Mitsubishi Expo, a car essentially RAV4 size. Since it WAS my home on the road I'd taken out the rear seats and built a wooden platform to sleep on. That's more involved than we're talking here but my ventilation/cooling system worked very well. I mounted two electronic equipment 12V fans on a thin board cut to fit tight in a rear window opening and covered the fan openings with window screen. Worked great. Just place it in the window and roll the glass up to hold it. Took so little power the car battery didn't run down overnight. (Battery booster on hand in just case.)
 
#12 ·
Did a test run in the garage one day. Didn't really sleep, but lowered the rear seats to see if indeed I would fit. I'm 6'3" and found that I would fit on the passenger side just fine if I moved the front passenger seat forward a bit. Not all the way, maybe halfway.

However, the rear seats do not lie totally flat. Pretty close, but there is enough incline that I know I'd have a fitful night's sleep. Since it's just me, and possibly a passenger at times, I'm considering removing the rear seats and building a platform in its place. Once that is flat, but can be opened for access to some storage space.

For ventilation, I installed a set if Weathertech rain shields. This allows all four windows to be lowered about an inch, but from the outside of the vehicle, one could not tell.

.
 
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#16 ·
Did a test run in the garage one day. Didn't really sleep, but lowered the rear seats to see if indeed I would fit. I'm 6'3" and found that I would fit on the passenger side just fine if I moved the front passenger seat forward a bit. Not all the way, maybe halfway.
I'll be doing this this weekend. What about the gap between the front seats and the middle row? Was there a big gap there or was it small enough that it wouldn't matter?
 
#18 ·
I might be able to do in in my 4.3 RAV with on an air bed but because the second row seats don't fold level with the rear floor it wouldn't be very comfortable. And I'm a quite light sleeper.
 
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