Car camping is an amazing way to keep your travels on the cheap side. Whenever I go on a road trip, I usually opt to car camp over spending money on a hotel.

It’s relatively inexpensive depending on how much money you want to put into it, it’s comfortable, and easier than a tent to get all set up.

My partner and I use our Toyota 4Runner, so we don’t have any fancy RV or van to road trip in. But, we make it work.

We’ve been car camping together pretty consistently for about a year now and it hasn’t always been so easy. Car camping while on a road trip is a great budget friendly way to travel, but it can come with a lot of hardships.

Overtime we’ve developed a system for staying organized and working efficiently together while living or camping in the car for extended periods of time.

In this guide I will provide you with all the essentials and everything you need to know about getting started car camping. Even if you’re on a budget you can still have a fun and memorable road trip.

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Car Camping vs. Tent Camping

First I want to get into some of the reasons why I prefer car camping over tent camping.

Camping in all forms is especially great for all the travelers out there like myself who want to experience living more closely to nature.

I have had my fair share of tent camping experiences, they’ve always been a lot of fun and they definitely are a different vibe than sleeping in the car. You do really feel like you’re out in nature more as you’re laying on the ground and only a thin piece of plastic is keeping you from the outside world.

Car Camping is Safer

With that being said, I have personally always felt safer while car camping than tent camping. As you read further in this post you will find that in order to camp for free, we like to wild camp on BLM land in very remote areas. We have hardly ever paid to stay at campgrounds.

When we camp in these places, you never really know what or who is out there unlike when you camp at a designated campground.

It’s for this reason that I feel car camping is safer as you can lock yourself in your car during the night and there is more protecting you from outside elements.

Off-Roading Capabilities & Comfort

Yes, you can potentially car camp in a sedan if you’re by yourself but there’s no question that it wouldn’t be as comfortable as in an SUV. With most SUV’s you can lay the back seats down to create a flat bed that will easily fit 2 people.

Another helpful quality to have in a car camping vehicle is 4 wheel drive. If you are looking to camp for free on BLM land, then you will really want a car that you can take on rough terrain. You will not be able to get to most of the free campsites we’ve stayed at with a sedan.

Again, this isn’t an issue if you are only interested in camping in campgrounds because they are almost always paved or at least have packed down roads that you can take any car on.

Having an off-roading vehicle will allow you to get out to more remote areas of nature and find some solitude that you won’t find in campgrounds where campsites are often placed right next to each other.

Our 4Runner has been an awesome SUV to camp in and it takes rough terrain very well. We have been on several roads that have steep rocky inclines, potholes, and sand with no issues.

The ideal car for car camping would be a type of SUV that has off-roading capabilities. Like our Toyota 4Runner, Subaru Outback, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Kia Telluride, etc).

Stealth Camping

Another reason why I believe car camping is superior to tent camping is because it’s easier to do something I like to call “stealth camp”.

Stealth camping is when find somewhere to park your car overnight and sleep but no one knows you’re in there.

We’ve done this several times when we travel to cities and can’t find BLM land out in nature to camp for free on.

For example, many people know that you can sleep in your car in almost all Walmart parking lots for free. This is stealth camping. You can’t sleep in a tent in a Walmart parking lot!

We just get in the back, put the windshield shade up and no one knows we’re in there. It does help that all of our windows are tinted. If you are wanting to modify your SUV to car camp in, I highly recommend you invest in tinted windows for your vehicle. Or making window covers.

Camping with a Car Tent?

We also own a car camping tent which attaches to the back of the car specifically made for camping which gives us a larger space outside the car for hanging out, changing clothes, storing our essentials, etc.

This is like a nice balance between camping in the car and camping in a tent.

Although the tent is nice, we’ve found that it’s more practical and easier for us to just sleep in the back of the car and not set up the tent.

In this article I will specifically be sharing my experiences with car camping without the tent extension. I feel that camping with just your car is more accessible to people. Plus, car tents can get pretty expensive and it’s really not necessary for car camping.

Making a Car Camping Checklist

Something I like to do before our trip is write a checklist of all our car camping essentials that we take with us.

While we’re getting everything packed, I will go through the list and check off each item once they’re packed. This is just a little tip that ensures that we don’t forget anything at home! 

I even made this free checklist for you to download with all of our essentials that we take with us for all our camping trips.

Feel free to pin it to your Pinterest or save it for when you’re packing for your next trip!

I’ve also written an article which goes more in depth about our car camping essentials and more ideas on what to bring on your next trip. You can view it here.

Where to Car Camp for Free

To keep things super cheap, you can find free places to car camp. We pretty much never pay for a real campsite at a campground.

Finding a dirt road or a pull off in a National Forest or BLM land to park the car to sleep for the night is how most of our car camping nights go.

BLM Land

BLM land is land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM strives to sustain the health and diversity of public lands so future generations can enjoy the natural beauty of our world.

BLM land across the country has both developed campgrounds, which many of them charge a small fee for a permit to stay there, and options for dispersed camping, which is what we do.

Their developed campgrounds often have amenities which is why there is a fee charged, to help the maintenance of the campground.

Dispersed camping is when you camp for free on public lands away from developed recreation facilities. Most of BLM land is open to dispersed camping as long as it doesn’t conflict with any other people, wildlife, natural resources, or in areas that are posted with “no camping” or “closed to camping” signs.

You can stay at a dispersed campsite for no longer than 14 days within a 28 consecutive day period.

Dispersed campsites are mostly located along secondary roads and are not marked. You are able to tell where a campsite is by a flat area on the side of the road and you might even see a fire ring.

It’s good practice to camp only where you can tell others have camped before to avoid disturbing any other areas of the environment.

National Forests

National Forests are public lands managed by the US Department of Agriculture. National Forests are similar to National Parks in the sense that they both play crucial roles in preserving the country’s natural landscapes and providing recreational opportunities.

Land on National Forests are designed for more recreational uses such as dispersed camping, hiking, mountain biking, and fishing.

Similarly to BLM land, dispersed camping is allowed in all parts of National Forests with the exception of camping at trailheads, picnic areas, or any other developed areas of the land.

Many of these dispersed campsites are located on a pull-off of a forest access road. You will also probably see fire rings which are a dead giveaway that someone has camped there before.

How to Find Free Campsites

You may be wondering how we find these free places to camp and how we know where the National Forests and BLM land is.

We use a free website called iOverlander that shows you different spots all over the world where people have camped or slept in their car overnight for free. This is also how we find places in cities to stealth camp.

All of the spots on iOverlander are posted by real people just like us who have a passion for camping, being out in nature, and helping others find awesome places to camp.

Each spot has a description about what it was like to camp there which was written by the person who posted the campsite. This is valuable information when deciding on a place to camp.

The poster will write if they felt safe there, what the roads were like to get there, if you need high clearance, if there were any cool views, and anything else one would need to know about camping there.

Other people who decided to camp there can write reviews of what it was like to stay there as well. So if I camp at a spot I find on iOverlander, I can also contribute on the app to share my experience and give an updated description on what the site was like.

Because sometimes if you find a good spot to camp that was posted several years ago and you attempt to go and stay there yourself, there could be “no camping” signs posted. That would be something helpful to say on the app, that this spot isn’t available anymore.

This isn’t always the case but it could happen sometimes. That’s why we usually will stick to only camping in places that people have stayed at recently and written reviews about in the past year or so just to make sure it’s safe and campers are still allowed.

There’s even an option on the app to post pictures and share with others what the campsite looked like. It’s nice to show what the area looks like to other campers just to give a little bit more information on what to expect there.

iOverlander is so convenient because it will give you the exact coordinates for each campsite which you can copy right into your Apple Maps. Finding free places to car camp has never been easier!

We have found all of our campsites on iOverlander. There are other apps that can show you free campsites around the world, but iOverlander is my favorite. The app is easy to use, and we’ve had great success with finding campsites on it.

How to Stay Clean When Car Camping

Staying clean and hygiene is another important aspect to car camping that can often be hard to accomplish when you’re living out of your car. So here’s how we typically do things.

Showering While Car Camping

We use a portable shower bag made by Nemo that my partner bought online and it has worked great for us to keep several car camping trips on the cheap side.

We just fill the entire bag up with water before we hit the road.

When we are ready to shower, we lift the bag up so it can sit upright on top of our car, then use the foot pump to supply air into the bag to pressurize it. This gets us pretty good water pressure out of the hose and we are able to use it all over our bodies.

If we fill the entire bag up, it will give us more than enough water for two people to shower, so we use the remaining water to cook with and clean our dishes.

If we are camping for multiple days at a time, we are going to have to refill the shower bag at some point. So, we will usually just go into gas stations or stores, go into their bathroom and fill it up at the sink. Sometimes we’ll get lucky and get to fill it up with hot water!

There have also been times were there are water spigots located near the Visitor Centers of National Parks that you can get water out of for free so we usually always keep an eye out for those.

Off the top of my head I remember Canyonlands and Joshua Tree both having water fill up stations which was so helpful on our road trips.

Not the most luxurious way to do things, but when you’re on a budget and still want to travel, you have to figure out ways to take cheap showers.

Using the Bathroom

Not much to say on this other than we just go outside. There are no pit toilets or any type of bathroom available when you are dispersed camping. We always be sure to bring enough toilet paper, a shovel, and hand sanitizer with us on each camping trip.

Washing Dishes

To wash our dishes after we cook, we use this collapsible camping wash bin to hold our dirty dishes to make it easier to scrub them. This acts as a sink which helps us waste as little water as possible.

We just use a regular sponge, liquid dish soap, and our leftover water from our shower bag to wash. We be sure to bring an old towel with us for drying the dishes when we’re done.

How to Cook Out of Your Car

For cooking we use a portable two burner camping stove that runs on propane. We use this one made by Coleman. It is easy to get set up and all you need is a can of propane and a lighter to get it started. Having two burners is so essential to making good quality meals while camping.

Most of the time we just set our stove in the back of the car and cook right out of the back like how you see below.

How We Organize Our Food

We typically have two food bags when we go camping.

One larger and heavy duty bag which zips close (here is the one have) to store the bulk of our food including canned soups, pasta sauces, pasta, rice, canned veggies & fruits, peanut butter, etc.

We have a second bag (which is just your typical reusable bag that you use at the grocery store) that holds all of our snack foods. This bag we keep close to us in the backseat for easy access if we get hungry or need a little snack while driving.

We also bring a cooler with us on every trip. Depending on how long of a trip we’re taking, we have a small one and a large one. We usually always bring our essentials like plant milk, eggs, berries, and . And our small cooler is just big enough to bring all those items.

If we’re taking a longer trip, we will take our larger cooler and fill it with more of all the above items plus anything else we can think of that will fit.

If you want some meal inspiration, I have an entire article on what kinds of foods we cook for ourselves while camping and living out of the car. Check it out here.

How to Store Your Essentials

We purchased this second hand rooftop cargo unit off Facebook Marketplace for $60 and it has been a great addition to our camping set up.

Having an extra spot to put our equipment is so useful because it frees up more space in the back of the car. It’s also convenient for holding items that we don’t use very frequently.

For example, we put our stove, lawn chairs, our big bag of canned food, shower bag and other bulky items we bring all in our rooftop storage unit.

We only use those items a few times a day compared to our other items like our water jug, our snack bag, and backpacks which we are constantly getting out and putting away while on the road. We keep those items in the backseat for easier access.

I would definitely recommend having extra storage up top so you aren’t forced to leave any of your belongings outside the car when you’re sleeping at night. It’s also nice to have less stuff in the backseat which makes it easier when getting our bed ready at night.

Best Way to Sleep in the Car

We love to car camp as you can see, so we invested in a few foam mattress pads like this one that we always keep in the back of our 4Runner.

We just wrap a fitted sheet on top of them, put some pillows and blankets on top and call it a day. We keep the fitted sheet and blankets on the mattress at all times for convenience.

It’s simple but it works and it’s very comfortable.

To fit everything else we need in the back of the car, we roll the mattress and secure it with bungee cords so it doesn’t come undone. This way it only takes up half the space in the back.

As you can see in the above photo, having our mattress rolled up in the back lets us have the rest of the space to store our cooler, water jug, backpacks, snack bag, and any other smaller items that won’t fit in our rooftop storage unit.

This also makes it convenient for us to cook out of the back of the car since we have room to put our propane stove.

When we’re ready to go to sleep for the night, we move everything we had in the back seat (cooler, backpacks, water jug, etc) to the driver and passenger seats. Then we unhook the bungee cords and unroll our mattress, set up the pillows, and then we’re ready to go to sleep!

These photos may make it look like we have a nice organized set up in our car but after living on the road for days at a time, here’s what it can realistically look like…

That’s just how it goes when you’re living on the road and camping for several days! It may get a little messy at times, but it’s all worth the priceless experiences you get from traveling and seeing new things.

Well there you have it! My ultimate car camping guide for cheap! I hope you found the ideas in this article helpful and are able to incorporate them into your own camping regimen. Thank you for reading!