Sleeping Platform Upgrade (v3.0)

It's been a few years since I first started camping in a car, and over the years I've made a few upgrades to the sleeping platform for our Subaru Outback. The first attempt was a door from our local Habitat for Humanity Restore. This original carpet-covered monstrosity accomplished the mission of creating a level place to sleep. The downside was that no one could travel in the front passenger seat, since it forced the seat to be all the way forward.

A few years ago, I needed to drop my wife off to visit her sister in Fort Collins, Colorado, on my way to see my sister in Port Angeles, Washington. This was a huge 5,000 mile round trip from Wisconsin, so I needed a sleeping platform that would allow the front passenger seat to at least come back to a normal position. The result was Sleeping Platform v2.0! Instead of a door, I used some plywood and a piano hinge from Habitat Restore and created a platform where the last 12 inches could flip up (at the feet, right inside the hatchback). To accommodate a passenger, I would flip the rear section up and pull the whole platform 12 inches to the rear. This allowed the front seat to come back to a normal seating position.

That trip exposed a weakness: Although the front seat could come back to a normal seating position, it couldn't really recline - apparently a problem when you take your wife on a cross-country trip. So, for the sake of staying married, further improvements were needed. A few months of brainstorming led to v3.0, a design that now allows not only full reclining of the front passenger seat, but also allows us to use all five seats in our Outback if needed. The latest version is also made primarily out of reclaimed materials, but it consists of two parts: 1.) a base that fits in the rear of vehicle, and 2.) the front extension that connects to the rear with two bolts that rest in holes. This front extension can either be raised up and slid slightly to the rear (just enough to move and recline the front passenger seat), or it can be taken off completely and rotated, storing it in the rear (allowing us to use all five seats in the car).

Instead of carpet this time, I decided on a foam yoga mat from Aldi for about $10. It was nearly the perfect size and is even more comfortable than the carpet. It also gives a bit of grip, preventing my sleeping pad and bag from sliding around. Combined with a full-sized mattress pad warmer (doubled over and trimmed down to just the heating element, the "fitted" part completely cut off), this setup has been just about perfect for winter camping with "shore power" (discussed in a previous post). My teenage daughter travels with me to a series of lectures at my old university every February, and this has made the trip quite comfortable. She sleeps in a dorm on campus, and I sleep at a nearby state park.

The rear section is 26" wide by 36" long (including the lip that accepts the pegs/bolts), and the front section is 42" long. With the overlap, the entire length when deployed is around 76" inches, just perfect for this particular 73.25" car-camper!

As you can see from a few of the pics above, I've also transitioned to using a flip-top storage tote that fits perfectly in the leftover space toward the rear of the car. I've found two of these half-height totes at Goodwill over the past year (9.5"H x 21.5"L x 15"W) , and this allows me to stack them two-high (one for clothing and one for gear).

To store the bed platform, I made a bracket that allows it to hang on the garage ceiling.