Camperizing a Nissan Pathfinder SUV

We came back from the camping trip from Mexico with a desire to do more boondocking style camping. The Yaris is a great little car, but its clearance for back roads leaves something to be desired and it is pretty hard to sleep in it with any amount of camping gear. To that end we picked up an older (2002) Nissan Pathfinder. Using a sheet of Baltic birch plywood (5' by 5'), two piano hinges, and odds and ends left over from renovations, including curtain rods from Rani's old house and some old table legs, I built a sleeping platform with storage under and a fold out food preparation/cooking shelf. The set up has to operate in three 'modes': eating, sleeping, and driving. The following pictures  show the vehicle in each of these modes.

The first design dilemma was how high to make the sleeping platform. Ideally you want it high for lots of storage but not so high that you cannot read a book in bed or are always banging your head when you sit up. We chose a 9 inch height below the platform that is large enough for small storage totes but still leaves some headroom above the platform when sleeping or reading.

Cooking platform extended with room for a stove and a small food preparation area

Underside of cooking platform showing the curtain rod supports. The cooking platform is hinged where it joins the sleeping platform and again in the middle so that it can fold down out of the way when driving or sleeping

The next issue was how to have some sort of cooking platform extending outside the truck that would not be in the way when sleeping or driving. I considered using drawer slides but this would have cut into the storage room below and been a bit wobbly. I ended up using piano hinges and initially thought the platform would fold up when driving or sleeping, but the angle of the rear hatch door makes this impossible, so I had to cut the cooking platform in half and hinge it again at this point. I used curved curtain rod brackets and the curtain rods themselves (cut down) as slide out shelf supports.

In sleeping mode with thermarest mattresses under (not visible) covered by a home made comforter that Rani's Mum sewed up and then a sleeping bag.

View from the side door where one would enter to go to bed. Still need to make bug screens for these doors.

We will eventually get a locking food storage container and cooler because these will probably live outside the vehicle in sleeping mode and need to be bear proof.

One limitation of the LE version of the Pathfinder is that the driver's seat automatically moves to the fully back position to make it easier to exit the vehicle for large people. This means that the sleeping platform is limited to just under 6 feet. This is not an issue for us smaller people and you can move the seats forward at night to get more head/leg room. If I was 6 foot plus, I would add in a folding extension at the forward end to make the platform 6 inches longer.

Initially I planned to use 2 by 4s or 4 by 4s for the legs, but I had a set of table legs I had saved when I cut up an old table to make a work bench. I cut these to length on the table saw, using different sections of the legs for 5 different leg supports. The middle of the platform is supported on small lengths of 2 by 3 inch lumber that rest on the wheel wells. 

Detail showing table leg support at front. These are simply screwed to the platform from above with longish deck screws.

 I will probably buy a couple of containers such as those used to store clothes under a bed to better use the long spaces under the sleeping platform. What is shown in the pictures below is just an attempt to understand what sort of space we need to fill.

About to go into driving mode with cooking shelf cleared and ready to fold away and cooking stuff stowed under the sleeping platform.

In driving mode with cooking shelf folded down and stowed.

In driving mode, the bedding is simply rolled up. There would normally be clothing duffel bags as well on the sleeping platform and these would end up on the front seats at night.