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A lot of people love visiting national parks and simply being outdoors, but they aren’t big fans of actually camping in a tent. If this is you, you’re in luck! You can easily convert your car for camping.
Not sold on car camping? Here are 7 Reasons To Go Car Camping!
While you can convert almost any car for camping, we converted our small Honda Fit for camping.
Don’t have a Honda Fit? Learn How to Do a Car to Camper Conversion for Any Car!
A Honda Fit conversion for car camping is fairly easy. It’s cheap, easy to do yourself, and durable. There are a few different methods out there to convert your Honda Fit for car camping if you search around. We used bits and pieces from what we found on the internet to create our own little camper inside our Honda Fit.
It’s worked out really well and this post will cover the the materials needed, the building process, and things we would change, so you can learn from our mistakes!
Now, let’s get started on how to convert your Honda Fit for camping!
Honda Fit Camping Seat Configuration
Honda Fits are pretty small, compact cars, but they have excellent seat configuration possibilities.
For camping in your Honda Fit, you should fold down the backseats, push the driver’s seat forward, lay the passenger’s seat all the way back, and remove the headrest.
This is the best seat configuration for starting your Honda Fit camper conversion because it will allow for your to lay out all the way with your head near the back of the car and your feet by the front.
If you are camping in your car as a couple, one person can lay on an angle and the other straight so both people’s feet are on the passenger side where the seat is laid down flat.
Materials for Converting Your Honda Fit for Camping
We decided on this build for our Honda Fit camping conversion because we wanted our bed to be sturdy enough for two people and have storage underneath, but not be too expensive or complicated to construct.
We also got an extra cushion for our bed so it was super comfy. With the memory foam mattress topper and the upholstery cushion, it felt like a normal bed, and you couldn’t feel the wood at all.
6 – 1” x 7” Lumber (5’ long)
1 – 38” x 54” Plywood
1- 19” x 38” Plywood
Wood Screws
Piano Hinges
3” Memory Foam Mattress Topper (Twin XL)
4” Upholstery Cushion
Window Screens
Again, there are multiple ways you can do this, so search around the internet for the one that best suits you.
Honda Fit Camping Conversion Layout
Now that you have all the materials, you can start building. Take a look at the Honda Fit camping conversion layout and follow the blueprint below to start making the bed frame for your car.
How to Build the Camping Bed Frame in Your Honda Fit
First, you will need to cut the 1” x 7” pieces of wood to the dimensions and then drill in the wood screws to connect them together.
Once the frame is all connected and in one piece, you will cut the plywood to fit the bed frame.
Start with the small storage compartment right behind the driver’s seat. It’s 16” x 19”. Then continue with the big piece that will cover the rest of the storage and make up most of the bed frame for camping in your car at 38” x 38”.
Now that you have the plywood cut, it’s time to attach the piano hinges. One piano hinge goes on the small storage area towards the middle of the car, so it can be opened from the rear driver’s side door.
The second piano hinge is attached to the frame and large piece of plywood, so it can be opened from the trunk. This piano hinge needs to be larger as it’s responsible for more weight with the bigger piece of plywood and your bed on top.
The last piece of plywood will not be attached to anything. It will be about 19” x 54”, but it can be a little shorter if you want too. You will slide this piece under the mattress when driving and out of the folded down passenger seat when camping.
There will be a gap between the board and bottom of the passenger seat, but if you put a cooler, water jug, or backpack under it, it will support it and make your bed flat.
Building The Bed in Your Honda Fit
You will cut the upholstery cushion and the memory foam mattress topper to make your new camping bed.
First mark the upholstery cushion with chalk or a marker in the middle to cut it in half. When cut, each half laid side-by-side should create the part of the mattress where your head and torso goes. You can cut it in half with a bread knife. It’s not the cleanest, but it works well.
Now it’s time to cut the memory foam mattress topper. This one is a little trickier because it will take up the majority of the car, and you are essentially cutting out where the driver’s seat is. Again, mark it with chalk or a marker and make your cut.
Once you have cut the memory foam mattress topper, take the excess piece and put it behind the driver’s seat. If you fold it, it will match up evenly with the upholstery making for an even, cushioned bed.
Finishing Your Honda Fit Camper
Your bed frame and bed are all set, so now it’s just the finishing touches and you’re ready to roll!
Take a bed sheet and wrap your new mattress up, so it doesn’t get dirty. Throw some sheets and blankets on it to make it comfy and cozy, so it’ll be just like sleeping at home, except with less headspace. Put a few pillows in your trunk, and you’re good to go! Onto the next adventure!
Make sure to get the window screens listed in the materials too! These are lifesavers and provide great airflow when camping in your Honda Fit, while also keeping out the bugs.
Benefits of the Honda Fit Camper Conversion
After converting our Honda Fit for camping, we found out that there were many benefits to it!
Not having to set up a tent every night is a huge benefit to converting your car into a camper. It was nice rolling into a campsite late and being ready for bed fairly quickly. It also stayed warmer than a tent on cold nights.
Aside from setting up a tent, it’s easy to “take down” in the mornings too. If you are trying to get up early for a hike, sunrise photos, or just trying to get back on the road to your next destination, not having to take down a tent is really nice, especially in inclement weather.
These benefits of our Honda Fit camper conversion are also some of the reasons you need to go car camping!
After figuring out how you want to store everything and getting the hang of moving some gear from on top of your bed to a different area for sleeping—we mostly put stuff under the bed in the storage areas or in the front seats or dashboard—you can set up your Honda Fit camping bed in only a few minutes.
Converting our Honda Fit into a camper also saved us some money because we didn’t have to rent an RV or campervan. While they look really nice and have obvious amenities our car camper didn’t…bathrooms…a car gets way better gas mileage and was able to go to certain areas RVs or even some high roofed camper vans cannot!
Making our car into a camper was definitely a wise decision, especially since we’ll be using it again and again on future trips!
However, there were some things we would change too…
Things We Would Change on our Honda Fit Camper
One thing we would change would be adding a little pullout table to the back of the bed frame. It would have been nice to have a little table for dinner or to play cards on when there wasn’t a picnic table available at the campsite.
This will be something we’ll look to add, or invest in a small, lightweight, portable table for camping that can be stored in the car without invading our sleeping space.
We’d also like to make the 2 middle storage compartments more accessible. It was hard to store too much in there because you had to lift up the entire back panel with the bed on top to access them. This was heavy with the bed on top and became mostly a 2 person job. Maybe if we have gone with only one layer of cushioning for the bed it would have been more doable.
Luckily though, we put some snacks and toiletries in packing cubes, so this made them easier to grab out the back storage areas.
We would also buy a windshield sun protector for our Honda Fit camper conversion to keep the sun out in the mornings and add a little more privacy. Plus, it would keep the car camper from getting hot in places like the Badlands.
Overall, we love our little Honda Fit camping conversion. Hopefully, you will love your’s too if you decide you’d like to travel this way!
Please contact us if you have any questions on converting your car for camping!
38 Comments
Hey, this is great. I have Honda Fit which I was planning to turn it into a camper, but wasn’t sure how, where, what etc. this post gave me back some confidence to go ahead and do it finally! Yay!
That’s awesome! We’re glad we could help inspire you. It’s definitely worth it and is fairly easy! Let us know if you have any questions! Make sure to get those window screens. They’re perfect for getting some airflow in your car camper.
I like your setup. My wife has a question about getting up in the night to use the bathroom. Any way to go without leaving the Fit?
Thank you! Unfortunately, you have to leave the Fit to go to the bathroom…at least with our setup.
Well, you could wear diapers.
Lol that would be one solution to the problem!
I’m considering this myself. Thanks!
You’re welcome! It was great for car camping and something we’re definitely going too use again soon!
Hey guys! Thanks for the tips! Planning to do this with my Honda <3
You’re welcome! Good luck with making your Fit into a camper! It’s such a fun experience.
looks great! can i ask – how tall are each of you?
Thank you! We’re 5’11” and 5’4″
What is the height from the bed to the roof? Many thanks.
We don’t remember the exact measurements off the top of our heads, but it’s about 2 feet. We used the upholstery cushion and the mattress foam topper. If you only used one of those, you would have more space between the bed and the roof of the car.
Should the box frame be made with a slight incline? The fold down seats are not completely flat, actually slightly elevated. Thanks.
Hi Jerry! Our’s was for a 2016 Honda Fit where the seats lay flat, so we didn’t need to make it on an incline. However, in different Fit models, the seats do lay on an angle when down, so you might want to cut the bottom of the box frame at an angle.
We have a 2013 Fit RV. We did our simple build too. As empty nesters we pulled out the rear seats that gave us room for our fridge under the bed. We also have a pullout table in the back. We do use a pop up shower tent for shower, porta potty, changing room. Believe it or not we also have a folding tandem bike that fits in the Fit! We love love love our RV!
Wow! That sounds like an amazing build! We love how you incorporated a lot of other ideas, like the fridge and a pullout table!
A really useful post you’ve written. Seriously thinking about constructing a platform for my Honda Jazz (Fit is called Jazz here in the UK) and really enjoyed reading about your conversion. Dream is to get some experience car camping in the highlands of Scotland, then to hit the road in mainland Europe. Now you’ve had experience with your setup, curious as to whether you consider 7 inches under the platform to be enough or would you prefer more while sacrificing head room? Also, what’s the thickness of the plywood platform? Thanks.
It would have been nice to have a little more room under the platform, but as you know, you’re sacrificing head space. It’s really whichever one is more important to you. The plywood was 1/4″ thick. Make sure to keep in mind how much padding you’ll have for the bed too as that will play a role in the head space, as well as if you want all your gear stored underneath the bed.
Thanks for your feedback.
You’re welcome!
This is such a great post! Thank you! I’m curious though, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could you detail the exact dimensions to cut the 1″ x 7″ boards? Or did you leave it out because different models are different or something? I’m struggling a bit with that math.
Our’s was a 2016 Honda Fit. The main portion of the bed is 38” x 38” and the small storage area behind the driver’s seat is 16” x 19”. Make sure to double check to measure your car too, just in case. Good luck, and let us know if you have any other questions!
Do you ever take out the wooden frame and turn it back into just a car? I just got a Fit and I think it’s great to sleep in it for camping, but I only go on maybe 1 or 2 trips a year and the rest of the time would need just a car. Also, it would be only me and my small (20 lb.) dog, and I’m under 5’2″, so I wouldn’t need the extra length and width. So something portable to add a sleeping platform for half the back would be enough for me. Thoughts?
Yes! We usually have the wooden frame out and use it as a normal car. It’s a snug fit, but easily slides in and out. On your other questions, if it’s just you and your dog, you could probably get by with just the mattress pad and no platform. We needed it with 2 people, so we could store our gear under it. Good luck on your car camper build, and let us know if you have any other questions!
I’m so excited after seeing the interior and reading the instructions it is so easy to construct. I had seen some other conversations but your is simpler and I can add my own touches
Thanks so much for sharing all your hints / changes / ideas. Next year will be a camping delight. As I do most of my traveling alone, who needs a hotel!
Thanks again c
Thank you for the kind words! The build was actually much more simple than we originally thought it would be. It’s definitely not the most luxurious car camper build out there, but it worked great and was perfect for us since we could take it out when we weren’t camping!
I am going to take my Fitt on the 101 this was very helpful. Thank you for sharing!
You’re very welcome! Happy it helped, and good luck on your adventure!
I love this so much I had no idea this was possible!!! My only question is how do two people sit in the front to drive if the passenger seat is folded with the bed on top of it? Does it have to be removed and put back when driving and camping?
We designed our Honda Fit camper to have the part of the bed that goes over the folded down passenger seat to be removable when driving, so both front seats were useable. It was basically a thin piece of wood that wasn’t connected to the main bed platform. We would slide it out on top of the laid back passenger seat when sleeping, and slide it back under the bed when driving so the passenger seat could be upright. Let us know if you have any other questions!
Thank you so much!!! I have 2013 Honda Fit and I hope to do this soon for my boyfriend and I!
You’re very welcome! Good luck, and let us know if you have any other questions!
This is awesome thank you! We have a 2015 Honda Fit and recently went camping in it and now we’re hooked! So we’re looking for ways to make it more comfortable; I do have a question and is as far as humidity goes…do you use anything to help with them ? We went for just one night and the car smelled humid for several days afterwards…we live in Florida so that’ll definitely be an issue lol and we did use window coverings and mini fans to help with ventilation
You’re welcome and thank you! Unfortunately, we don’t know a specific item to help with the humidity other than fans and window coverings. With Florida humidity, we can imagine it gets really sticky! We’ll let you know if we ever come across anything.
Hi! Nicely detailed summary of your build.
Why didn’t you use the underfloor storage space where the spare tyre normally used to be? I drive a slightly larger HR-V from the same year so I assume that your Fit has the same underfloor storage. Maybe I wrong about that…
I am drawing my ideas for solo camping next year. I already tested this year my mobile kitchen and fridge (I slept in “cheap” hotels which were still quite pricy), so next year I’ll be adding a sturdy DIY foldable bed with adjustable backrest (no need to have the passenger seat laid flat) so save on overnight stays. I’m 6’3″ so I should fit barely.
Just need to find a way how to open the backdoor from the inside…
Thank you! We ended up not using the space where the spare wheel is stored because we decided to keep the spare in there. As we weren’t traveling in our Honda Fit camper for an incredibly long time, it worked out well for us, but if we travel for longer, we would definitely want to use the space!