Jack Dougherty

We built a minivan camper that slides into 2016 Toyota Sienna to give us more flexibility for long-weekend trips and long-distance bike touring. Our custom design features a small kitchen and refrigerator, a portable power station with a solar panel, and a couch that converts into a full-size bed. Watch our first-stage build YouTube video from January 2021:

Watch our second YouTube video with updates from August 2021:

Design

We designed our camper for our 2016 Toyota Sienna LE, but it should work with any 3rd-generation Sienna from model years 2011-2020. Download our Sketchup design file and open it with a free personal Sketchup web account. We are freely sharing our design as-is, with no warranty, so use at your own risk. We encourage you to improve on our design and freely share your ideas with others.

Screenshot of Sketchup design

Thanks to all who freely share their creative designs for minivan campers. Our thinking has been most influenced by these creators:

See also Professor Hobo, YouTube channel on off-grid mobile power stations, solar panels, and refrigerators for vehicles. In particular, see his reviews for the BougeRV 30-quart 12-volt refrigerator and Jackery power station and solar panel products.

Budget

Current list of items purchased for our build. We include links to provide more information. But we encourage you to buy locally whenever feasible, and we do not receive any promotional fees from Amazon or other companies.

Category Cost Item and Link
Bed-Couch-Cabinets $235 3/4” cabinet-grade plywood, we chose pre-finished maple, two 4x8 sheets
  $15 1/4” plywood for cabinet backing, quarter sheet
  $37 2x4x8’ lumber x 5, get best quality you can find,
  $35 Stocker continuous hinge stainless steel 304, 3” open width x 4’ long
  $52 AR aluminum rail table supports 30” x 1/2 tall x 3/4 wide x 4
  $25 folding hairpin legs 10.3” tall, Sevasa/Clairla, set of 4 for bed extenders
  $20 1” x 3’ Secure It Quick cinch tie-down cargo straps, 4 pack
  $14 Structural Screws GRK RSS10212HP 10 by 2-1/2-Inch, 50 pack
  $24 Ace steel closed bar holder for 2x4, 4 pieces, to turn bed into couch
  $11 Velcro heavy-duty tape 1” x 10’
  $10 cabinet magnets x 8
  $8 5” flat corner braces x 4 to attached cabinets to seat bolts
  $5 shelf support clips x 8
  $5 1”x2”x6’ pine board for single legs for cabinet tables
  $5 6 x 5/8” inch wood screws, 3 dozen, to connect piano hinge to plywood
  $5 6 x 1 1/4” wood screws, 3 dozen, to connect plywood to frame
  $5 8 x 3/4” pan head screws, 3 dozen, to connect table rail to plywood
Bedding $133 Milliard Full-Size Tri Folding Mattress with Washable Cover, 73 x 52 x 4 inches
  $30 Cylindrical bolster pillow to replace armrests 5”x13” gray x 2
Electrical $499 Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 500
  $255 Jackery SolarSaga 100W Portable Solar Panel foldable
  $36 iGreely 8mm 30’ extension cord from solar panel to Jackery
  $245 BougeRV 30 quart refrigerator DC power, opens on top, driver’s side
  $25 Revel USB camping LED lights
Kitchen $65 Portal aluminum folding camping table
  $53 Eurkea SPRK+ butane camp stove
  $2 Kovea butane fuel 8 ounce cannister
  $13 LYYZ collapsible basin and cutting board
  $40 clear plastic storage bins 8x8x6” for cabinet shelves, 4-pack
  $25 GSI tea kettle
  $10 WaterStorageCube collapsible dispenser w spigot 1.3 gallons
  $8 LifeUnion collapsible water container w handle 5 L, fits nicely in car refrig
  $25 Uco candle lantern
  $5 Uco candles
Toilet-Trash-Shower $40 TripTips collapsible covered stool, trash bin, and emergency toilet
  $16 Primode 100% Compostable Bags 6 Gallon Waste Bags, 50 Count, Extra Thick 0.87 Mil
  $20 Kunida Designs biodegradable portable toilet bag 8 gallon, box of 30, 1.18 Mil thick, black
  $79 Helio pressure shower heated by sun
Shade & Ventilation $225 HeatShieldStore gold/black set for all windows, Toyota Sienna 2016
  $40 Auto Ventshade window deflector set for Toyota Sienna 2016
  $73 8’x8’ Everbilt popup canopy tent
  $47 Polyester mosquito netting 72” wide x 15 yards (to wrap around canopy tent)
  $10 Stainless steel clothespins (to clip mosquito netting on canopy tent)
  $26 6” variable-speed fan with USB rechargeable battery and wrap-around legs
  $26 Orange Screw ground anchors large (for canopy) x 2
  $13 guy lines with tent stakes
  $10 nylon web strap 1” x 10 yard to make window vent screens
  $12 Lock in gutter guard 3’ x 4 to make window vent screens
  $8 Scotch extreme mounting double-sided tape exterior to make window vent screens
  $8 36x84” window screen (charcoal) to make window vent screens
  $5 Loctite clear silicon adhesive to seal window vent screens
Tow hitch & bike rack $219 UHaul 2” tow hitch and installation
  $440 Thule Apex XT 4-bike hitch rack (tilts down to open back hatch)
Current Total $3,297  

Why?

Why build a minivan camper? Why not other options? Your situation may be very different, but here’s how we defined our needs and decided on our best options.

As my partner Beth and I enter our mid-50s and our kids have grown up, we want more flexibility to take long-weekend trips together, and occasional one-week solo bike tours for me, in the spring-summer-fall months. During the pandemic, we discovered that even when states allowed visitors, it has become more difficult to reserve campsites, and too expensive to pay for short-term AirBnB-style rentals when we want to spend most of our time outdoors. Also, while I love self-supported bike touring, it’s not the best way for Beth and me to spend time together. Even on my solo bike tours, the pandemic has made it more challenging to transport me (and my bike and gear) to the starting point, unless I start the entire trip from home, which limits my available time.

Also, we recently gave away our aging 1998 Honda Odyssey minivan (which lasted over 20 years and over 200,000 miles), and our other vehicle is a 2010 Toyota Prius (with over 230,000 miles). While we’re experts at packing lots of stuff into a Prius (a Boston cop personally complimented me on this when we dropped Maya off at college), the laws of physics have some limitations.

So we considered different vehicle options, but realized each had drawbacks for our current situation (which may differ from yours):

  • Teardrop trailers work well for many people. One of my sisters loves her nuCamp TAB, and another friend built their own teardrop trailer. But it didn’t fit well with our family for several reasons.
    • We didn’t own a vehicle that could reliably tow a trailer. Although you can attach a hitch to a Prius and probably tow a light trailer, Toyota does not recommend towing in the US, yet this differs in Europe. So buying a teardrop trailer also meant buying another vehicle to tow it safely.
    • Trailers are harder to back-up in a campsite, or to park in a city. We’re just as likely to explore both types of places.
    • No good place to store a trailer. We have a small 1940’s two-car garage that barely fits our Prius and a minivan, and no other space to store a trailer when not in use, especially during the winter.
    • Less-expensive teardrop trailers place the kitchen galley under a back hatch, which requires you to go outside to prep food. We wanted indoor access to our food, especially during crappy weather.
  • Larger step vans and cargo vans work well for many people, especially those who embrace full-time #vanlife. Check out the gorgeous photos of converted Sprinter vans and similar vehicle on Instagram. But this option didn’t work well for us.
    • Larger van conversions can be very expensive, with poor gas mileage.
    • We could not park a larger van inside our garage, which has a maximum height of 80 inches, and max length of 220 inches.
    • Even if we bought a smaller cargo van that fit inside our garage (such as a Ford Transit Connect, Nissan NV200, or Mercedes-Benz Metris), it would not include passenger seats, which meant we could not transport more than two people, a problem since our older kids visit us when possible and our college-age daughter Maya still lives with us for some months of the year.
    • Cargo vans often lack side windows, meaning you can’t see outside, which kind of defeats the whole point of traveling, in our view.

So that’s how our decision-making process came back to a minivan camper. We bought a 2016 Toyota Sienna to replace our 1998 Honda Odyssey. On YouTube we saw several creative conversions of Siennas, which made excellent use of its relatively flat floor and spacious interior. Our 2016 Sienna LE is rated at 25 miles per gallon on the highway (and in practice we experience about 27 mpg). While that’s only half of the 50 highway mpg we get from our 2010 Prius, it’s not bad when compared to other minivans of its era. Although Toyota introduced its new hybrid Sienna minivan in 2021 with 36 highway mpg, our understanding is that the middle-row seats are not removable, and it’s an expensive brand-new vehicle, so that’s why we converted the more affordable 2016 Sienna.

To be clear, we are not a tall family (I’m only 5’ 6”), so we fit better inside smaller spaces. Initially, that was another reason why we leaned toward the minivan camper. But during our design phase, we intentionally tested it on taller people, such as a certain boyfriend who is 6’4”, and found that it still worked. So while a larger van makes sense if you’re really tall and spend lots of time inside of it, preferably standing up, consider whether a minivan camper still works for long-weekend trips where you plan to spend most of your time outdoors in spring-summer-fall.

Camp Stoves and Fuel

Many campers debate the merits of propane stoves versus butane stoves versus other fuel sources. Some YouTube viewers have commented that it’s possible to refill a 1-pound propane canister with an adapter to a 20-pound propane tank, and several people do it. But many YouTube videos also describe safety issues and warnings to “check local laws” before refilling propane canisters.

My goal was to find a stove that’s safe and easy for all family members to use with our minivan camper, and a butane stove addresses our needs. While it’s true that a propane stove will work a higher altitudes (mountains) and very low temperatures (freezing), that’s not where we go camping. Also, while I don’t like using disposable butane cans, we do our best to conserve fuel while cooking and seem to average about 6-7 meals per can at $3 each.

When bike touring, I use a Trangia alcohol-burning stove and purchase denatured alcohol (as we call it in the US) from the hardware store.

Ventilation and Insulation

We designed the minivan camper for long weekend trips during the warmer spring-summer-fall seasons, primarily in the Northeastern US. So far, we’ve slept in the minivan for a total of 10 nights (including cold weekends in April, and warm weekends in July), and we’ve been satisfied with these ventilation and insulation solutions:

We decided not to cut a hole in the roof of the van to insert an electric vent fan, because we don’t think we need it. Let’s see what happens when we have much warmer nights this summer.

See other ventilation solutions recommended by others:

Solar-heated Shower

Originally, we thought about building this REI DIY car-top solar camp shower, but decided against it for several reasons. First, we prefer not to carry anything on the van roof that’s not absolutely necessary, and we didn’t think we would regularly use a solar shower. Driving around with an extra 60+ pounds of water sloshing around on top of the van seemed to invite trouble. Also, while the REI design is clever, the parts would have cost me over $80, and some people in the comments had problems finding satisfactory parts that fit well together. Instead, we used our family’s REI 20% discount coupon to purchase a collapsible Helio solar-heated pressure shower, on sale for $79. We haven’t yet tried it out in the field, but one advantage is that you can carry it to a water spigot, fill it up, and set it anywhere in the sun to warm up, meaning that we can leave our minivan parked in the shade under a tree. Will post an update after we’ve used it.