Prius as Recreational Vehicle: Part 3 Headboard methods

To sleep in back of a Prius hatchback, you must fold the rear seat backs flat, remove the three headrests, and then build a platform at roughly the same level as the flat seat backs which will support your head.
Method 1: Plastic box or crate pedestals
Other Priuschat members discussing this topic suggested stacking plastic boxes or milk crates in the rear seat foot wells and then put a piece of plywood roughly 44 inches long by 15-18 inches wide on top of those pedestals. We used milk crates that interlocked and made a sturdy pedestal. I constructed wood lids for the upper crate and used a thin piece of plywood on top. We use thin air mattresses on top of Yoga mats on top of a piece of carpet cut long enough to extend from just inside the rear bumper up to the back of the front seats: (These pics show a fMUCH thicker piece of plywood than would really be necessary, but you get the idea.)


Method 2: Plywood supported by suitcases
Traveling to Alaska we knew we would be camping about 1/2 the nights and staying in motels the rest of the nights, for which we needed our suitcases. We purchased small hard-sided rolling suitcases from Aldi (also sold at Costco, etc.), stood them up in the rear foot wells, and put a piece of plywood with cutouts to fit the tops of the suitcases to form the headrest. On camping nights, we slept with our heads supported by the plywood on the suitcases, and on motel nights we simply rolled the suitcases into the motel:


Method 3: Plywood supported by seat posts
To avoid the bulkiness of either the plastic crates of Method 1 or the suitcases of Method 2, I constructed a piece of plywood with side wedges (picture 1) that rest on short aluminum posts inserted into the right-most and left-most headrest sockets in the rear seat (picture 2). The front of the plywood rests on the rear of the center credenza between the front seats. The plywood is further supported by backing the front seats up to the front edge of the plywood to kind of sandwich it between the top edge of the rear seat and the front seats (pictures 3 and 4): This piece of plywood stows just behind the rear seat when driving (picture 1):


Any of these methods can be used to support your head whilst sleeping in the back of the Prius, and they each have their pros and cons. I hope these ideas can be of use to some of you who wish to see the world in the most efficient Recreational Vehicle ever made! Cheers!