9 Pro Tips on How to Stay Warm Car Camping
Wondering how to stay warm car camping? Well, I have good news – it’s easier than staying cool!
There are lots of things you can do to stay warm in a car overnight. Some are more impactful than others, but they all add up to being able to car camp in some pretty dang cold conditions.
I lived in my SUV for 2 winter seasons. And, though I was never in the extreme cold (like Minnesota or something crazy like that), I did sleep in freezing temperatures for months at a time.
My SUV camping setup was great, and my preferred temps for sleeping were 28° to 38°F!
So, to give you all my knowledge on sleeping in your car in the cold, I came up with 9 tips on staying warm while car camping.
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The first few tips on how to stay warm car camping are straightforward. But wait for it – the last few are VERY counter-intuitive.
6 Straightforward Tips on How to Stay Warm Car Camping
1. Insulate your Bed
When you go camping, the ground will suck the heat out of your body if you don’t have insulation. When you’re car camping, your car floor will do the same.
That’s why you need some good insulation under your mattress, and there’s 3 ways to go about it:
- Use sleeping pads: this is what I did for 2 years, so I’ll start with it. It’s essentially the same as what you’d take camping – a sleeping pad per person. But then you put a memory foam mattress on top for the added comfort. This worked extremely well, and you can read all about my full car camping sleeping setup here.
- Build a sleeping platform: building a platform is synonymous with car camping for a lot of people. However, you honestly might not need to go through the hassle of building one. But if you do, SUV sleeping platforms are almost always made of wood, which is a natural insulating material.
- Get a really thick mattress: I haven’t tried this in the cold, but a lot of people do it, so it’s worth mentioning. Instead of having several layers of padding or building a whole platform, you can get a big enough mattress that insulates you just fine. A thick foam mattress could be cumbersome, though, and I have a general disbelief of all thick air mattresses.
2. Get the Right Bedding for the Season
Warm bedding is the most straightforward of all these tips on how to stay warm car camping. But there are some specifics I need you to know.
The simplest bedding you can get is sleeping bags – again, like camping.
But take these 2 things into account with sleeping bags:
- They’re rated for different temperatures, but don’t believe them! If a sleeping bag is rated for 25 degrees, it means you CAN sleep in it at 25 degrees. But believe me, you’re going to suffer. To be toasty at 25 degrees, you’ll need a sleeping bag rated for an even lower temperature.
- Sleeping bags are ideal for short trips, but not for long-term SUV camping. That’s because they’re too seasonal. A 25-degree sleeping bag would be useless in the spring, summer and fall. And when you’re always trying to save storage space, having different sleeping bags for different seasons isn’t ideal.
The bedding I used for my 2-year adventure was layered like a normal bed, and it worked great down to about 23°F.
My setup was a full set from REI that they no longer make. But it consisted of normal sheets and a blanket.
Lala and I used that blanket and sometimes just the sheets most of the year. Then, when it got cold, this comforter worked wonders and made our bed the definition of coziness.
It’s why I loved sleeping in cold conditions – all together, my blanket setup was thick, heavy and cozy.
Shop my entire car camping bed and bedding setup here!
3. Use Insulating Window Covers
Probably the most underrated car camping hack to stay warm overnight is using window covers.
You know how people put a reflective sunshade on their front windshield on sunny days? The reflective material bounces back the light and keeps the car from getting hot.
But they can also work the opposite way.
Put your window covers up with the reflective side facing inside the car during the winter.
That way, they help keep the warmth in and insulate your car EXTREMELY WELL!
If you’re interested in making your own window covers, it’s not that hard. They’re made of reflectix. Then, you glue black fabric to one side and leave the other side bare.
We used this video to guide us through making our own window covers.
But you can also buy ready-made window covers here! This link is for a Subaru Forester (my car), but that company makes window covers for a BUNCH of different cars.
4. If All Else Fails, Get an Electric (Heated) Blanket
Once it gets so cold that insulation and blankets aren’t cutting it, you may need an electric blanket (maybe you ARE car camping in Minnesota).
But I think electric blankets come with many more issues than are worth the trouble:
- Battery time: even the best cordless electric blankets (20,000 mAh) don’t last long. Great batteries last 6 hours at most on high heat, which means you’d have to be doing a lot of charging. If you have one, the best way to save the battery would be to turn the blanket on intermittently throughout the night, but that’s not ideal for sleeping.
- Power station: you could get an electric blanket that you plug in, but then you’d need a source of power. Then, you’d be using the power station for your blanket instead of your tech and having to charge the power station too often instead.
- Size: all the electric blankets I’ve seen are small. They’re not real blankets. The market for them is more “I want to be cozy on my couch” than “how to sleep in your car in the winter.”
If you’re thinking “This is a LOT,” I made a printable and clickable checklist for car campers. It’s the actual checklist I used in my Notes app, but made into something more organized.
5. Go to Bed with a Hot Water Bottle
You can boil some water before bed, put it in a water bottle (make sure it fully seals), and place it under the covers.
This is a classic camping hack and it works!
The only problem is that, first, you have to boil water before bed.
Second, it doesn’t last very long and eventually you have a cold water bottle in your bed!
Another option, which Lala used SO many nights, is to use HotHands. They’re small packets that heat up when they come into contact with air. They can get too hot sometimes, though!
6. Spoon with Your Partner
Maybe you’re already doing this, but I never do because I’m a ridiculously light sleeper.
That’s why our coldest nights made Lala happy despite everything.
When all else failed and we were squirming in the discomfort of a hopelessly cold night, spooning felt AMAZING! Even to me!
3 Counterintuitive Tips on How to Stay Warm Car Camping
7. Take Your Socks (and Clothes) Off
You may have heard before that a secret to staying warm while camping is to take your socks OFF. It’s counterintuitive, but it actually works!
If you haven’t, now you know.
There are several reasons people say it works:
- Your feet won’t sweat
- The socks won’t “trap” the cold
- Your body will regulate your heat by itself
And there’s more, but the reason I personally take off my socks is too keep from sweating. I guess I have sweaty feet.
And the same thing applies to clothes – you’d think more is better in the cold, but it can be the opposite.
Because the worst thing that can happen while you’re car camping in the winter is start sweating.
Okay, it’s not even close to the worst thing that can happen.
But sweating in the middle of the night sucks because it just makes you colder!
A quick biology lesson: sweating is one way our body regulates its temperature. We sweat and when it evaporates, it cools down the body.
So, how do you regulate your body’s temperature properly?
I’m not saying you should sleep naked while you’re car camping. What you should do is keep from putting too many clothes on all at once.
How do you know what to put on?
- It’s trial and error: get to know your setup. You’ll be cold some nights and you’ll be too warm on others. But after a while, you’ll get to know how well your bedding works and how much warmth you need to add depending on the temperature. For example, Lala and I know we start using our comforter at 50 degrees. At 35 degrees, we might need a fleece jacket (although I still wear shorts). And we have to start spooning at 25 degrees (yep, still in shorts and no socks).
- Start with less and slowly add more: a sure-fire way to start sweating is to go to bed with all your winter gear on. It makes sense when you’re freezing cold, but it’s not a good idea. Start with a lighter layer you think could work for you. Then add clothes (very lightly) if you’re still cold after a while.
- Be patient: getting under the covers can be traumatic because it’s initially so cold – even with great bedding! You need to let the bedding and your body create a cocoon of warmth. Only then will you know if you need more or less clothing.
8. Open Your Windows
Your car is going to be very cold whether or not you open your windows.
So, you might as well open them to maintain some airflow and keep moisture from accumulating… everywhere!
Believe me, moisture is way worse for the cold than wind. It’s essentially the same problem as sweating.
Built-up water just sucks all your warmth!
And one of the biggest problems with sleeping in your car is that your breath and slight temperature differences between the inside and outside cause beads of water to build up everywhere.
So, keep your windows cracked open to stay warm, even in the winter.
Pro tip: put rain guards over your windows so that you can crack open your windows with 0 stress. It keeps water out but also helps with the wind!
9. Wash off the Sweat
Reading this, you might be thinking “DUH!” But splashing water on your body is VERY counterintuitive when you’re out there, freezing cold!
It’s the last thing you’ll want to do, but it helps SO much.
Once again, the point of this is to wash away the sweat.
Your sweat from the day’s activities (hiking, swimming, rock climbing, etc.) will feel icky at night and make you colder.
So, get rid of it.
And you don’t have to actually splash water on yourself.
During the coldest months, we make sure to have body wipes stocked in the car. A quick wipe-down with them (make sure you get your armpits, chest and back), and you’re good to go!
BONUS Tip: Go South
Lala and I spent some time car camping in very cold conditions: like in northern Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the Grand Canyon.
But, for the most part, we escaped the coldest winters!
I’m not gonna lie – car camping is already hard and doing it in the winter makes it even tougher.
We spent most of both the winters we lived in our SUV in the Southwest.
We explored parts of Texas, Arizona, southern Utah, New Mexico and southern California. Those areas have some of the most spectacular and underrated places to visit in the US.
It still gets cold in all of them, but nothing like what you’d experience in the northern states.
So, yeah, the winter is a great excuse for a road trip to the Southwest!
Gear I Use to Stay Warm in a Car Overnight
Here’s everything Lala and I used to stay warm car camping.
No electric blankets, no generators – but we were able to sleep in freezing conditions comfortably with these winter car camping essentials:
- Of course, the most important thing is a good SUV sleeping setup. You can read all about ours here!
- Comforter: this is part of my sleeping setup, but it was the MOST important part, so I want to mention it. It’s a pretty average comforter, but it was fluffy and made our car SO cozy.
- Long Johns: I used these really thin long johns sometimes, and they were almost too warm. Highly recommended!
- Fleece jackets: when we got cold as the night wore on, we would sit up, put on our fleece jackets and go right back to sleep. This isn’t the exact one I used, but it’s essentially the same thing.
- HotHands: Lala used the tiny Hot Hands during the day and then they helped her stay warm at night. But the Body Warmers would work even better (maybe too well?). If you’re going old school with a hot water bottle, get a Nalgene because they let go of all the heat, which is the idea.
- Body wipes: use body wipes like these to “bathe” before going to bed. It makes a big difference! We didn’t use the ones I linked… we bought ours at Walmart.
- A second human body generating lots of heat!
More SUV Camping Resources
If you’re seriously considering SUV camping, whether it’s for weekend trips or long-term travel, I want to help!
I’ve written a lot about SUV camping based on my 2 years living in my Forester, and want you to learn from all my experiences. These articles might be useful to you:
- My full SUV camping guide, which covers everything you need to know.
- The specific camper conversion I used to camp in my Subaru Forester.
- The simple kitchen setup I used for 2 full years.
Let me know how your winter car camping adventures went and if you got any sleep at all!
And if you liked this guide, you’ll like The Gomonos Guide. It’s my personal vault of resources like maps, checklists and discounts to help you go on more affordable adventure.
Just sign up here for instant access to all of it:
