intothewild
Adventurer
Thought I would share some info/pictures of our 2014 Forester. It's a base model, 6 speed manual it now has 110k miles on it. We've put about 50k on it in 2 years.
The Forester has been quite fantastic for a lot of the things we do with it. It's great for those long trips into Canada where we'll spend lots of miles on pavement but then also plenty of time off pavement exploring the lands. Obviously the car is limited compared to a traditional 4x4, which is why I also have the Jeep, but the Jeep is uncomfortable for long distances and get's terrible gas mileage which makes the Subaru a nice compromise.
Last summer, I built a folding bed platform before we departed for 13 days in BC/Alberta. The reason that I initially built it was because in the SJ model of Forester the rear seats don't lay flat. There is a roughly 4" bump in the middle of the cargo area when the seats are laid down. I was hesitant to do a raised platform because of the limited head room that it would offer, but now that we've used it a bunch and gotten used to it the limited head room has become an after thought and we both sleep very comfortably inside. I built it in the living room of my apartment much to the dismay of my neighbors lol - At first we used backpacking camping mats to use on the bed, they took up very little space when not being used but it was quickly discovered how uncomfortable they were with the hard wood an inch below the mat. Shortly after my GF comes home with this huge black bag of something she bought at a yard sale for 5 bucks. Inside was a full size foam mattress she found. Again, I was skeptical because I thought it would take too much space, but I cut it to fit, and it's been in the car ever since and has been absolutely fantastic to sleep on. The storage underneath the platform fits plastic tubs perfectly which hold a lot of our camping/hiking gear. I had scrap left over after the platform was put together so I made a table that slides out of the back as well.
(Images resized for post)
Wired in a cheap LED bar in the back
Bungy cords work great to hold paper towels.
The Forester has been quite fantastic for a lot of the things we do with it. It's great for those long trips into Canada where we'll spend lots of miles on pavement but then also plenty of time off pavement exploring the lands. Obviously the car is limited compared to a traditional 4x4, which is why I also have the Jeep, but the Jeep is uncomfortable for long distances and get's terrible gas mileage which makes the Subaru a nice compromise.
Last summer, I built a folding bed platform before we departed for 13 days in BC/Alberta. The reason that I initially built it was because in the SJ model of Forester the rear seats don't lay flat. There is a roughly 4" bump in the middle of the cargo area when the seats are laid down. I was hesitant to do a raised platform because of the limited head room that it would offer, but now that we've used it a bunch and gotten used to it the limited head room has become an after thought and we both sleep very comfortably inside. I built it in the living room of my apartment much to the dismay of my neighbors lol - At first we used backpacking camping mats to use on the bed, they took up very little space when not being used but it was quickly discovered how uncomfortable they were with the hard wood an inch below the mat. Shortly after my GF comes home with this huge black bag of something she bought at a yard sale for 5 bucks. Inside was a full size foam mattress she found. Again, I was skeptical because I thought it would take too much space, but I cut it to fit, and it's been in the car ever since and has been absolutely fantastic to sleep on. The storage underneath the platform fits plastic tubs perfectly which hold a lot of our camping/hiking gear. I had scrap left over after the platform was put together so I made a table that slides out of the back as well.
(Images resized for post)
Wired in a cheap LED bar in the back
Bungy cords work great to hold paper towels.
