When you start to think about how to sleep in your Toyota Prius, one of the first things you will need to figure out is how to fill the void between the front seat and rear seat when folded down.
My solution is easy and low cost!
I originally used a piece of Birchwood cut 24″ x 19″, some paracord, and two clips to fill the gap to fill the gap. When I left June 19, 2020, drove 48 states, that setup worked fine. The 48 state trip was my first time sleeping in a car, let alone my Toyota Prius.
When I finished the trip, the thought of now going back to each state and taking them in for some time, versus just the Welcome to the State sign,, begin to make me think,, ‘how can I optimize my setup”? And here we are.
I read a blog about a couple who used wood inside of their van build and after time, mold had grown on the wood materials due to wood holding in moisture and then not having in their words, “ventilation holes”. Considering the birchwood isn’t holding up long term I’m 6’2″ nd weigh roughly 250lbs, needless to say the wood was not designed to handle what I am putting it through unless it was thicker or possibly other wood.
After using ABS plastic in my build I decided t replace the wood with ABS and I am happy I did. Not only should I ibe less susceptible to mold but its stronger and I don’t feel like if I sit u on my elbow will the Birchwood break and not support me
My suggestion do not get any ABS thinner than 1/4″, anything thicker would be stronger I just think anything thicker would be too bulky. You only need one 24″ x 48″ sheet to make both parts.
When I removed my rear seats, it was perfect because I had additional storage space but after a few instances where hard breaking was required, everything slid forward. So far the only way I figured to fix this was to mold a thin sheet of ABS plastic and incorporate a “wall” to help items not slide forward.
