One big problem with sleeping in the car is ventilation. I tried sleeping in the car with the windows up once because it was cold, and I’ll never do it again. It was almost impossible to sleep, and the car was gross in the morning.
Keeping the car running overnight is pretty wasteful, bad, conspicuous, and not allowed in most cases, so the ventilation pretty much needs to come from the windows. But keeping the windows down overnight risks rain and bugs (especially mosquitoes) getting into the car. And when it’s hot out, even rolling the windows down all the way won’t keep you cool enough.
My solution was to put up rain visors and magnetic mesh window screens, and use a pair of small fans inside to keep the air circulating. Rain visors are good for keeping the rain out while driving too, but the screens only go on when we’re sleeping in the car.
Rain Visors
For JK rain visors, there are a lot of options out there. Basically they fall into two categories: in-channel and tape-on. I was initially drawn to the in-channel ones, since they snap in with no adhesive, making them very removable and transferrable. But it seems like a lot of people have trouble rolling their power windows up with those in, which presumably puts strain on the window lift motors. Plus, they don’t cover the entire rear windows because of the fixed glass sections, which I think looks marginally less cool. From what I’ve read, it sounds like the adhesive ones with 3M tape will stay on for years and not leave any marks or paint damage, so I decided to go the tape-on route.
I looked into a lot of different brands, and eventually settled on the Auto Ventshade 94249 Original Ventvisor Side Window Deflector Dark Smoke, 4-Piece Set for 2007-2018 Jeep Wrangler JK based on the reviews. I went with the Smoke color since it’s slightly transparent for the added visibility, which makes sense in my head, but almost certainly does not actually make a difference. Except that I think it looks cooler.
Window screens
For bug protection, I bought a set of Skeeter Beaters for the front windows. They’re essentially just mesh screens that are sized for the Jeep’s windows, with magnets around the edges to stick to the door. They definitely fit better without the rain visors, but they still work with them on. It might be possible to order a larger set of screens to fit better over the visors, but it works either way.
If it’s cold or windy, I’ll just crack the windows about an inch or so, and it is just enough ventilation without letting out too much heat. And the curtains help to block the wind as well. When it’s hot out, I’ll roll the windows all the way down.
Fans and Powerbank
For air circulation and cooling at night, I bought a couple of inexpensive USB fans, which I zip-tied to my ceiling grate. When it’s hot out, we’ll run both fans with one pointed at each of us. Usually it cools down during the night and we end up turning them off after a few hours. When it’s cool out but not windy, we might run one fan, pointed away from us, to get some extra circulation without making us cold.
Rather than running these fans off of the Jeep’s battery, I plug them into my Anker Powercore+ 26800, which I can slide above the ceiling grate. 26,800mAh is the largest capacity powerbank you can buy and take on an airplane, and it has plenty of power to run the fans all night. It’s a little heavy (1.3 lbs) for carrying in your pocket all the time, but for our purposes it’s perfect– it has enough power to charge our phones, headphones, GoPros, and other electronics several times on a charge, which is great when you’re off the grid for days at a time.