Car Camping Review: Back Seat Air Mattress

On my recent trip to South Dakota I finally had the opportunity to make good use of a an air mattress I ordered on Amazon, along with some curtains I ordered specifically for the car. This is not an affiliate review, so I do not earn anything from you buying these items – I just thought it would be helpful to talk about how they worked for me. While the main journey is to live in LuLu, my 1973 VW bus, life is filled with sidequests and this is one of them. Nomads live in a variety of situations and I’m here to share everything about my journey, even if that involves my every day driver – a 2010 Ford Focus.

To preface this, I’ll say there is something about tents that I don’t particularly like. Its possibly a combination of having to put it away when you wake up in the morning and that you can’t see out of the tent in any reliable fashion. It feels almost like you’re a sitting duck if you hear a noise outside. I do independent product review for Amazon, so when I had the opportunity to order both curtains for my car and an air mattress, I couldn’t pass it up.

Air Mattress

The Bebas Self Inflating Air Mattress with Built in Charging Pump that I’ll be reviewing can be found here.

Fresh out of the box, I was a little confused. It looked like it was a standard twin-size air mattress with three pillows. I assumed two of the pillows were to level it between the front seats and rear seat, but they looked particularly flimsy. On further inspection, I discovered that what I thought were detachable supports in the image were actually built into the mattress, essentially meaning you can’t use this as a typical flat air mattress on your floor.

As for “assembly”, I waited to look into it further until I got to my campsite. This was a mistake because I didn’t get to the campsite until after 1:00 am. I discovered that the pump came with multiple attachments, which was really cool, and I set to airing up the mattress using the tip that fit the best (small). It’s important to note that the pump is quite loud! I didn’t bother with the pillow because I had a normal pillow with me. I struggled to get it to lay flat but it was late so I accepted it and went to sleep.

The second night went a lot better. I set up the mattress during the day and I discovered I had missed two things. First, the pillows that I had left in the bag and forgotten about wasn’t a single pillow, 3 individual pillows. Second, the pump had its own little place that it lives to pump the mattress up.

With the air mattress partially inflated, I tucked the large supports between the seat. They are wide so it works a little better if your seats aren’t all the way back. Then, there’s a little compartment that fits the pump perfectly and it isn’t just for storage. Click the pump in there and press the ‘inflate’ button and voila! Your mattress inflates without any additional assistance. Two of the three pillows were the same dimensions, so I decided those were meant to level the mattress. I inflated and placed them on either side of the seat underneath the mattress. This was much more comfortable than it was the night before!

Pros:
>pump uses c-type charger instead of batteries
>average price compared to similar items
>pump can be used with other inflatable items
>inflation requires minimal user input
>fit perfectly

Cons
>pump is very loud
>instructions and packing list were unclear
>expensive enough to be cost-inhibitive
>”self-inflatable” isn’t quite accurate

Verdict

If you’re planning on sleeping in the back seat of your car, this is a really good option. I liked that it came with accessories to level the mattress as well as attachments so the pump can be used for multiple applications. While the air mattress is of good quality, its still just an air mattress. The pump, however, is the shining star. No batteries and it has its own home to store and inflate the mattress with a push of a button makes me recommend this mattress for car camping, particularly if you drive a small sedan or compact car.

Curtains

The curtains that I’ll be reviewing are described as Car Privacy Curtains, Universal Car Window Shades can be found here.

These curtains actually stayed in the bag until the night I was setting up to camp at 1:00 am. In the image on the item description page you can see that the clips are meant to attach the plastic on the pillar between the front and rear seats. I had trouble with this in my 2010 Ford Focus and I was unable to get them to stay either night. What I did find to work well was just hooking the metal clip on the window and rolling it up.

Its important to note for this product that it comes with three panels. Two of the panels, when put together, are the same length as the third panel. Again, it was unclear which windows they intended these to cover. I think the two smaller panels were meant to cover the passenger door windows and the longer panel was meant to go across the width of the car. I decided to use one set to go across the width of the car to separate the front seat and the back seat and the other to go across the width of the car covering the rear window. To cover the door windows, I used pillow cases rolled into the windows.

It took some trial-and-error to figure out how to attach it for the rear window, but once they were up I liked that I was able to tighten the slack. I was also impressed at how good they were at blocking out light being as thin as they felt.

Pros:
>block out a significant amount of light
>lightweight and takes up minimal space
>good price point
>width of the cord is adjustable

Cons:
>only includes 3 curtains
>might be difficult to find the right place to mount

Verdict

If you’re looking for 360 degree privacy and sun-block, there are probably better options out there that include 5 curtains instead of 3. That’s my biggest critique. These curtains do deliver on their promise to be blackout, even if they are not 100% blackout. I think they are a good universal option, especially given their low cost.

Car Camping Review

I wanted to end with my overall review of car camping using an inflatable mattress in the back seat. This particular method of car camping is best suited to either short people or those who have wide vehicles (or both). At 5’7″ tall, I was entirely unable to lay flat so most of the night I slept on my side with my legs tucked or on my back with my legs crossed. Lucky for me, I often sleep like this anyway.

Keep in mind its a good idea to have your windows open or at least cracked. This will help with ventilation. A fan in the window is another option. The humidity from breathing for several hours in a small space without any ventilation does make the interior of the car humid, if not downright damp. If I was to rate this method of car camping, I’d give it a 3/5 stars. In reference, I would say I’d give tent camping 2/5 stars.

If you wanna see my experience first-hand, check it out over on YouTube!

Thanks for reading and if you found this helpful, share with your friends. If you’d like me to do more product reviews, let me know down below or on any of my socials!