Subaru Outback Car Camping Setup

This is my dog Kiro. I'm Madison and we've spent a lot of time camping out of the back of my Subaru. I work full-time during the week and then travel pretty much every weekend to different places so that we can go camping, hiking, fishing, all things outdoors. We've got our system pretty locked down so this is what it looks like. Normally we're at a much more secluded campground but I live in Kelowna and there was a devastating forest fire this week. We were actually evacuated from our home so instead of going to a hotel because it's the weekend, we just went to a rec site that we knew of. There's larger issues happening in the city so I wanted to be with family this weekend but I thought I'd show you a tour of my no-build setup. So this is a 2021 Subaru Outback. The length of it is actually the full length of a queen-size mattress so anyone over six foot could you could lay flat in this and not have your toes scrunched without taking the front seat out. This is my one person plus dog setup but I'll show you how you can fit two people and a dog in this setup and still be comfortable. I used to have a four inch memory foam. I bought a queen size and the length was the full back of the bed and I just cut the sides down a little bit but since then I've actually upgraded to something I like a lot better and it's great for side sleepers. None of this is sponsored by the way, it's all just things I've collected. So this is the Luna Life mattress. It's either a single or a double. If you don't want the double setup you just fold it underneath. So I have it in single mode and then I just put a sheet over it and add some blankets to it. My winter setup is very similar. I'll link that video for you but it just shows you how I can add some more warmth to this. This is what my sleeping side looks like. I've just folded down the seats. I have not taken them out. You do have all this space behind the seat and it fits a Rubbermaid bin perfectly. This bin has all of my outdoor gear in it. So these are my hiking shoes. This has all my camping stuff. I have a foldable chair, tent, hatchet for making a fire if there wasn't a fire ban. A foldable fishing rod is in there and the back seat actually works as a backrest. So to give you an idea I'm five foot four so it's not ideal for headspace but you can definitely sit up and eat in here, read a book. You know you can't fully sit up but it works for me. If you had less of a thick mattress you'd have a lot more headspace but for me it's worth it and it's also one of the reasons why I chose to not build a pullout drawer but I'll show you why I don't need that. One of the benefits if you had a truck is you have basically a table when you pull down the latch. So I've kind of DIY'd one without doing a build. This is just a folding table that my mom thrifted and I actually stole from her. You can pull it out halfway and I've set up all my kitchen stuff and just cook. This is if you want to be a little bit more discreet. You can pull the table out fully though. I like the option of having both ways. If I'm in bear country and I'm worried about that I'll pull it out all the way so if bears do come I can close the hatch quickly and then I just push it all the way back in and I sleep on it and you cannot feel it under the mattress. You also can't feel it if you had a four inch memory foam. I've also done it that way. This is my camp kitchen bin. It is an under the bed storage Rubbermaid. On this side I have easy access to my cast iron pan, two burner Coleman stove, I have a little spray bottle with half water half vinegar that I spray all my dishes down with and usually I have some reusable cloths and paper towel, spatula, little garbage bags. Didn't think I'd be getting excited about garbage bags but these little 15 liters they're perfect for each trip. Make sure you pack out anything that you bring, food scraps, when you're washing your dishes put all of those little food scraps in a garbage bag. So on the other side just to show you how much can really fit in here it's pretty much everything you'll need. Things like my jet boil if I want to boil water quickly but I also just have this in case I want to go camping. Butane duct tape. This pure castile soap is so key for washing your hands, for washing dishes, it's biodegradable. You gotta get some. You just use a couple drops this lasts forever. Cutlery. Water filter. I'll show you my bluey in a second where I keep it but if we need to fill it up I just have this gravity system and it's really great for stationary camping. Foldable silky saw. I've got a pot in here, some camping plates and a cutting board. The car has little cubbies on either side so I just keep my toiletry bag. We're still staying sanitary as you can while camping. Behind the driver's seat I have a 25 quart Dometic fridge and then I have a Power Republic 1200 watt power station. It is like $900 cheaper than a Jackery and lasts me about four days running the fridge and charging my laptop. Because we're in camp mode I plug the fridge into the front here. It is just a 12 volt fridge so it takes up very little power but I do have solar panels that take about eight hours to fully charge this thing so I also have a little fan here that goes directly onto Kiro's bed so I'll plug that in right here. When I'm also in drive mode I have the power station strapped to the seat because if an accident were to ever happen this would this could do some damage to either one of us but when I need to access my fridge I just move it out of the way. I've been at this spot for about two days so I have about 38 percent left and that adds up to about 26 hours and I just have the fridge plugged in right now and you do have to push the front seat forward and this fridge also I keep it up four degrees but it can turn into an entire freezer. It's got salmon, eggs, a ton of different stuff and then it's got a little shelf there and the compressors underneath. When I'm driving I plug the power station into the 12 volt outlet plug the fridge into the power station so that way the fridge is getting power and the power station is getting charged. If you don't have a power station you could also just use the fridge again plug it into your car while you're moving and then it works as a cooler when you're stationary so just pop a couple ice packs in there if you're only going to be camping for a couple days. I used to have a 25 quart cooler which worked great but when I got this fridge it was an absolute game changer. I'm shocked at how often I use it. This is Kiro's space. Again I just have the seats folded down and keep a nice little blanket on there. He seems to like it. Sometimes he will crawl onto my little single mattress and we get all nice and cozy. These bug nets are pretty essential in the summertime because it gets really hot. It does cool down at nighttime but essentially you can have your windows down. I have four of them. I'll link the ones that I have below. I have a set from Amazon and a set from Lunolife. They're similar. They both work the same but you just roll the windows down and then pop them on. Sorry if you can hear a motorcycle in the background. This campground is very busy right now. In the passenger side seat I have my Bluey. You have to get one with a spout. It is so good. You can wash your hands under it. If you just pull it out a little bit you can fill up pots. It's a game changer. Driver's seat is always empty. I have my dry goods food. It is a little bit insulated and then I have my clothes bag here. I'm pretty minimal with my clothes because I get all sweat wicking and athletic material and then I sleep in just sweatpants and a sweater and just a microfiber towel like this. I got mine from Beck. You can get it from REI from anywhere. I dry my face with it. It's so key. I have one for Kiro and one for me and then this is Kiro's bag. It has all of his food, dry kibble, his food dish. He does have a bigger towel because he'll get really dirty so I keep that handy and a little mat for him to lay out on. I just have one of these insulated window covers for the front window so it reflects the heat and allows us to stay cooler. It's also for privacy. So that I'll set up in the front windshield. A couple small things to note. For safety I always have a knife accessible beside my bed. I always have bear spray close to me. It works on people too. I always hang my key close to me so if I do need a quick getaway it's accessible. I usually keep the hatch open or doors open which does keep some of the lights on. I've left it open for like six hours and I've never had the battery die from that. A lot of people put a little carabiner in the hatch to mimic the door latch so that turns off all of the lights but I do have a car jumper that I don't need anyone else. We've been so far deep into the backcountry that this is that's pretty much essential. And another safety item is a tire pump. If you lose a little bit of air you'll want one of these for sure. So this is just to show you what it looks like if you do have two people and a dog. It is possible. It does fit two people comfortably and I'll show you where the dog can sleep. Kiro's dog bag with his food and stuff and then my clothes bag and that makes this level and he actually loves it. Kiro is a medium dog. He's about 55 pounds but he can stretch out the power bank because we need the headspace back there. It goes in the front nicely and it still reaches the fridge which is under there. Power bank's here and then we have our dry food bag at the bottom. If I'm by myself I won't have anything in the front seat for safety so I can just pull out climb through the back if I need a quick escape. That's never really happened to me but it's always just a safety rule I follow. And with the fridge under here it's pretty much exactly level with the back seats. The only thing that won't fit is my kitchen box but if you had a roof rack you could strap one to the top. The only thing I'm missing right now is we do a lot of paddleboard camping so I would love a roof rack or a container up on top of the roof so I could pack my paddleboard. A lot of the time if I'm tent camping with my paddleboard it's not a big deal because I can just throw it in the back but if we were car camping and wanted the paddleboard I'd love to be able to store it up top. Other than that I don't really know what else you need. We could be out on the road for weeks. I have taken some vacation time and hopefully in the future we can do some long trips through Idaho. I really want to explore the Sawtooth Mountains. I have a lot of outdoor trips planned in the future so this is awesome. I've taken it on some gnarly backroads. It doesn't quite have the clearance that a truck would but it's worked for us. I don't really know what else you need. Let me know in the comments below what you thought, if any of this was helpful, or if I missed anything. And just a friendly reminder you don't need all of this gear to be comfortable. I started out with very minimal and slowly built up my reservoir. We don't have a full camping vlog this weekend because of the fires. Hopefully they clear up in the next couple days and we're able to get back out there. We will see you next week and thank you so much for being here.