By William Byrd
I have a little secret: I love camping, but I absolutely hate tents. I have an intense aversion to tenting between the poles, the tarps, and everything else. It’s just not worth it, especially if it rains. What I do like is sleeping inside of a vehicle. I have driven most of the way across the country a few times, twice in a Wrangler Unlimited and once in a 4Runner. Each time, I slept in the back of the vehicle for portions of the trip. Not only does it save money over staying in a hotel, it’s a lot more comfortable than a tent.
That got my partner Kara and me thinking about RVs, and after looking at some, it’s certainly an option at some point. But we came across a company out of Canada called Vanpackers. We initially considered getting a minivan and outfitting it as a mini-camper, and they have kits for most major vans. It occurred to us that we already have a 2022 Subaru Ascent, and they sell an SUV car camping kit!
So, after some discussion with Vanpackers, they agreed to send us a kit, along with a Alpicool Y16 – 12V Electric cooler, a Martin two-burner camping stove, and their new 2’’ mattress. It all came with a nice Christmas discount, and we are super excited to get it all put together and installed. Over the holidays, we made a quick unboxing video. Comment below for things you’d like to see during our testing.
Again, let us know what you’d like to see in the installation and testing videos!
Jeff Glucker 
Kamil Kaluski