Anyone try the Luno Air Mattress?

[RonSwanson]

? that depends on what you don't mind leaving outside the Bronco sport when you're sleeping.

Roof top storage boxes and the storage boxes that go on the tow hitch in the back can really secure items if you're away from the vehicle or if you're on the inside and your stuff's on the outside. When I'm camping I don't like to leave food out even in a cooler. I am considering these in lieu of getting a pop-up tent on the roof not have me climb up and down a ladder to rest.

Considering getting a swing out cargo box that I can make some sort of kitchenette out of and Storage
= firewood

I'm planning to buy a hitch mounted (secure) cargo box, but the one I want isn't available at the moment.

I'm more looking to sleep in the Bronco Sport for overnights/breaks at rest areas during long road trips than for camping/boondocking (at least initially), so I'm trying to get an idea of the maximum gear I can fit before needing some external storage solutions (while sleeping, at least).

This review article hit on some of the ways I was thinking I could gain some space...

https://travelfreak.com/luno-life-mattress-review/

Tips for Car Camping with Your Luno Life Mattress
Load your gear into the footwell instead of using the base extenders. The base extenders are great, but you probably need the space to store things. I always car camp with a YETI Roadie 24L cooler, which fits perfectly in the rear footwell of my Subaru and is the same height as the base extender.

You could do the same with other gear you may have, like bags or other camping equipment, and put them in the rear footwell on the other side of the car.

Pro Tip: load up the footwells with your gear and then inflate the base extenders partially to fill any remaining space.

Additionally, you can move items to the front seats, front footwells, and your roof rack if you’ve got one.

Once you get your system nailed down to a fine science (it took me about two nights), it’s smooth sailing from there on out.

Sponsored

 

[AndyMac204]

we just have had terrible luck with air mattresses, they always seem to find a sharp something lol. foam is where its at, but thats just me.
that luno mattress does look hella cozy tho.

 

[ScottyD]

How much gear could you have in your BS (inside the vehicle) while sleeping 2?

I'm hoping I could move my small Dometic fridge and a few backpacks/duffels to the front seats or use them to prop up our heads in the rear passenger footwells (in lieu of the inflatable "supports" Luno provides).

I don't have a rooftop or hitch mounted cargo box currently and I'm hoping I won't really need one to sleep in the back.

I was actually thinking of doing a mock setup to see about that very topic. Problem is it's been like 4 degrees mostly and has zapped my motivation.

 

[RonSwanson]

I was actually thinking of doing a mock setup to see about that very topic. Problem is it's been like 4 degrees mostly and has zapped my motivation.

My wife and I did some recon in the garage earlier (25 degrees here ).

With the front passenger seat all the way forward and tilted frontwards to the max, I can fit my Dometic cooler in the rear passenger footwell with the seats folded down. I have to take the headrest off and the cooler doesn't appear to be sitting all the way on the floor. Rather it's perched on the door sill and front seat rails. Probably not that big of a deal, BUT it was not easy to lift out of there, at an odd angle and the cooler is already ~30 lbs. empty. Not really ideal. Maybe it would be a little easier when I'm not in my garage and can open the rear door all the way (small garage), but it seems more difficult than it needs to be and an easy way to tweak your back or something lifting it out of there.

After that, I tried putting the Dometic on the front passenger seat and it fit with no problem, even with the seat still all the way forward . I still had room for at least one backpack in the front passenger footwell with it all the way forward and could stack more bags on top of the Dometic if I wanted to. The driver's side footwell and seat also still had some room for smaller bags, albeit less than the passenger's seat because of the steering wheel.

Based on my fit test for the Dometic in the rear passenger footwells, I believe these collapsible crates should fit, which would be really convenient. They have handles to secure to the anchor points in the back. Then when it's time to sleep, I should be able to simply move those crates from the rear cargo area to the footwell. As long as the design is strong enough to carry them with 20 or 30 pounds of stuff in them, they should work.

I'm pretty sure I can get the crates at Costco for relatively cheap. Amazon and Walmart had them at much higher prices.

After figuring out those issues, I pulled the trigger on one of the Luno bundles and some extras, in particular a Jackery portable power bank to keep the Dometic running overnight as well as my wife's CPAP.

It will be cozy and we'll have to be mindful with how we pack, but I think this should allow us to "car camp" during road trips without needing some sort of external storage box/rack.

I put some links above in case anybody wanted to reference those. The dimensions for the crates are in this link though that seller is trying to rip people off.

 

[ScottyD]

My wife and I did some recon in the garage earlier (25 degrees here ).

With the front passenger seat all the way forward and tilted frontwards to the max, I can fit my Dometic cooler in the rear passenger footwell with the seats folded down. I have to take the headrest off and the cooler doesn't appear to be sitting all the way on the floor. Rather it's perched on the door sill and foot rails. Probably not that big of a deal, BUT it was not easy to lift out of there, at an odd angle and the cooler is already ~30 lbs. empty. Not really ideal. Maybe it would be a little easier when I'm not in my garage and can open the rear door all the way (small garage), but it seems more difficult than it needs to be and an easy way to tweak your back or something lifting it out of there.

After that, I tried putting the Dometic on the front passenger seat and it fit with no problem, even with the seat still all the way forward . I still had room for at least one backpack in the front passenger footwell with it all the way forward and could stack more bags on top of the Dometic if I wanted to. The driver's side footwell and seat also still had some room for smaller bags, albeit less than the passenger's seat because of the steering wheel.

Based on my fit test for the Dometic in the rear passenger footwells, I believe these collapsible crates should fit, which would be really convenient. They have handles to secure to the anchor points in the back. Then when it's time to sleep, I should be able to simply move those crates from the rear cargo area to the footwell. As long as the design is strong enough to carry them with 20 or 30 pounds of stuff in them, they should work.

I'm pretty sure I can get the crates at Costco for relatively cheap. Amazon and Walmart had them at much higher prices.

After figuring out those issues, I pulled the trigger on one of the Luno bundles and some extras, in particular a Jackery portable power bank to keep the Dometic running overnight as well as my wife's CPAP.

It will be cozy and we'll have to be mindful with how we pack, but I think this should allow us to "car camp" during road trips without needing some sort of external storage box/rack.

I put some links above in case anybody wanted to reference those. The dimensions for the crates are in this link though that seller is trying to rip people off.

Curious which Jackery you bought (I know this is getting slightly off topic)? I ended up getting the Anker Powerhouse 400 on a flash deal on Amazon. I've only put it though some basic tests so far like running the battery down using a USB lightbulb (lasted for a couple days), and charging it with a BigBlue foldable solar panel. So far it does everything as advertised.

 

[RonSwanson]

Curious which Jackery you bought (I know this is getting slightly off topic)? I ended up getting the Anker Powerhouse 400 on a flash deal on Amazon. I've only put it though some basic tests so far like running the battery down using a USB lightbulb (lasted for a couple days), and charging it with a BigBlue foldable solar panel. So far it does everything as advertised.

I was considering the 500, but I found a $100 off coupon on Amazon for the 1000 with two 100w solar panels and went with that. I also get 5% back on everything I buy on Amazon via their store card. It was still very expensive, but every little bit helps.

The 1000 is overkill for overnight car camping (wife's CPAP and Dometic), but I also plan on using it for a variety of other things like tailgating with a TV (without having to run the vehicle), an emergency power source during power outages (a backup generator isn't an option for me), to power/recharge tools, etc.

We did a lot of day trips in the national parks out west last summer and the Dometic struggled to stay cool without any power when the car was sitting in the sun. With the extra battery capacity in the 1000, I won't have to worry as much about the cooler draining the Jackery's battery so much during the day (when the car is parked and not running) that I have to recharge it before we can run a CPAP off of it through the night.

If the initial car camping goes well, the 1000's extra capacity will facilitate doing more remote camping/boondocking. Having the solar panels to replenish the battery in that scenario without burning fuel was a big consideration.

 

[JamesT]

How was the air mattress?

I slept in the BS BL last night using the Luno air mattress and the door screens. With the seats all the way forward snd tilted, I was able to stretch out completely (6 feet). It is easy to adjust the size inflation amount on each side (left / right) which is a nice touch. Really happy with this setup.

I keep finding nice design touches in the BS. Like the shape of the ceiling makes it good for sitting up on the mattress. And there’s a nice clip for keeping the rear seatbelts out of the way.

I love this vehicle.

Sponsored