Teach me how to sleep in my Suburban - Cot content

No I'm not becoming homeless.   I figure that since I have the Suburban now I could sleep in the back instead of getting an Airbnb on some of my trips.  Mr_Asa's engine swap party in 3 weeks will be my test case.  My thought is throw a cot in the back and snooze.  Did some quick looking and this one appeals to me because of the padding and the length.  Any other cots I should be looking at?

https://www.rei.com/product/892837/rei-co-op-kingdom-cot-3

I have nothing to add, but had to share:

Well, you've got the hair for it...

Nothing relevant to add.

I've slept in the back of my xc90 with a hunk of foam and a sleeping bag.   To be honest, the biggest concern was ventilation without allowing bugs in.  Explore that.

In the various vans and wagons, I've never gone anywhere near that exotic. Although it looks great. 
I've done everything from a foam pad, air mattress, or just a couple blankets on some plywood. 

I slept in my station wagon for a month at one point when I was a horseman. I found that wide bench seat was just fine, never bothered to set up anything else. 
 

That also worked well in my truck at the Rolex the last time I went. 

None of that's the least bit helpful, especially since I think you've got buckets and a console. 
 

Hopefully I can redeem my comment by agreeing that ventilation is key. 

So what I gather is get one of these and the cot and I can live down by the river.

I think that would work, as long as the weather is not too hot and humid.  

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

I think that would work, as long as the weather is not too hot and humid.  

Unfortunately for Stampie, we are talking Florida in Fall.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

I'm thinking the donated beer might make me not notice the humidly.

In reply to Stampie :

I'm sure you'll help, so you might get a little scotch.  As a treat.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

So what you're saying is you want me to be useless?

Not till after you've been not-useless

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Oh ... so now we have rules and stuff.

I had a nearly identical Suburban for 10 years, slept in it plenty of times at the track.  A full size air mattress fits perfectly.  We would leave the rear door windows open with some screening shut into the doors around the window openings which allowed reasonable airflow and kept the bugs out.  We also have a small 12v fan that would plug into the 12v outlet in the cargo area to move the air around.  It all worked out great.  The GMT800 totally has more room in the back than my new to me 2016 Escalade ESV.  

Another vote for an air mattress, wife and I camped out of our Suburbans many times.

Too much work for your scheduled trip but:

I had a 1969 Jeep Wagoneer once, that I lived in for a summer. My thought was to put a VW Westfalia pop top on it. For a Wagoneer just the moving portion of the top would fit but I bet on a Suburban the whole thing would work.

Gear below, 2 people up top. 

Winning.

Streetwiseguy said:

I've slept in the back of my xc90 with a hunk of foam and a sleeping bag.   To be honest, the biggest concern was ventilation without allowing bugs in.  Explore that.

I've slept in the back of my Suburban. To fix the air circulation issue, I opened both rear windows, but installed the car window shade sock from Amazon. Worked great to keep the bugs out while letting air in. Something like this in SUV size:

The car window sock is an interesting idea. 

I raced all over and did this for years in the back of an S10 with a cap, and 3" high density foam mattress from a tent trailer. I was always comfortable.  
Air mattresses are great but I've never had one that lasted any length of time before leaking, even good ones, and we bought cots last year to replace an old foam mattress for camping. I'm now shopping for a new piece of foam to replace the cots. 

+1000 on a way to leave key windows opened and keep bugs out. I never camped or used screens in my Burb but did have window screens in the many vans I had years ago and it made all the difference. 

Yeah I dislike air mattresses. I'll look into window socks once I get done with work. Thanks. 

When I would camp at a rallycross in the conversion vans, I got some mosquito netting from the local fabric store and a bunch of magnets.  The netting was cut to fit and the magnets would hold it in place so I could leave the doors open and not get eaten alive. 

DrMikeCSI said:

The car window sock is an interesting idea. 

Agreed.
Dad made screens for his VW van back when we used it for camping.

There is a serious rabbit hole you can go down seeing people live out of literally everything. I watched a lot of U of Tubes videos to get ideas for our camper. Some seriously creative people out there.