Yes, you can sleep in a Subaru Outback. Fold the rear seats and you have about 40 inches of width and roughly 5 feet of usable floor before the surface drops into the rear footwell. With a sleeping platform that bridges the folded seats, that grows to 76 inches of flat bed in a 2010 to 2019 Outback and 78 inches in a 2020 or newer. That is longer than a standard twin mattress. One adult sleeps stretched out with room to spare. Two adults fit if they are comfortable sleeping close.
The Outback is one of the best vehicles for sleeping inside because it is long and it is a wagon at heart: the cargo floor is low and the load area runs deep. The tradeoff is headroom. The roofline is lower than a Forester, so the height of whatever you sleep on matters more than it does in a taller SUV. This guide covers what you actually get by model year, the problems every Outback camper hits, and the five ways to fix them, from free to fully built.
The Three Problems With Sleeping in a Subaru Outback
The seats do not fold flat. In every Outback generation, the folded seatbacks sit higher than the cargo floor and angle upward toward the front of the car. You end up on a surface with a step and a slope. It feels fine at 10 pm and puts pressure on your hips and shoulders by 3 am.
The footwell gap. Behind the front seats, the floor drops away where the rear passengers' feet used to go. Without something spanning it, your usable length ends at the front edge of the folded seatback. Most people stuff duffels into the gap. It works for a night. It is not a bed.
Your gear has nowhere to live. A mattress on the folded seats uses the entire cargo area. Coolers, bins, and clothes migrate to the front seats and the roof. On a two night trip it is annoying. On a two week trip it is the reason people quit car camping.
All three are solvable. The rest of this guide is how.
How Much Room You Get, by Model Year
The Outback has been redesigned several times since 2010, but the cargo area has stayed remarkably consistent. What changed is a couple of inches of length.
- 2010 to 2014 (4th generation): A flat platform bridging the seats gives you 76 inches of bed length and 40.5 inches of width. Drawers up to 34 inches deep fit under the platform.
- 2015 to 2019 (5th generation): Same 76 inch bed length and 40.5 inch width. The cargo opening is a little more square, which makes loading drawers easier.
- 2020 to 2025 (6th generation): Gains about two inches. Bed length is 78 inches with the platform in. Drawers up to 36 inches deep fit.
- 2026 (7th generation): The redesign is taller and more SUV shaped outside. Inside, the usable bed length stays at 78 inches with a platform, and the extra roof height helps with sitting up.
Trim level does not change any of this. Wilderness, Limited, Touring, Onyx, and base models share the same cargo floor and the same tie-down points. A platform that fits a 2022 Limited fits a 2022 Wilderness.
For reference: 76 inches sleeps someone up to about 6 foot 2 fully stretched. 78 inches handles about 6 foot 4. Taller than that, you sleep slightly diagonal, which the 40.5 inch width allows for one person.
Five Ways to Sleep in a Subaru Outback, Ranked
1. Fold the seats and lay down a pad. Cost: $0 to $50.
The first thing everyone tries. You get the slope, the step, and the footwell gap in full. Fine for one emergency night at a rest stop if you are under 5 foot 8. Not a camping setup.
2. Air mattress on the folded seats. Cost: $50 to $250.
Smooths out the step and slope. SUV shaped air mattresses with a footwell insert fill the gap. The downsides are real: air mattresses pull heat out of your body from below, they lose pressure overnight, and they consume every inch of cargo space. Owners consistently report they are fine in July and miserable below 40 degrees. Good for warm weekend trips.
3. DIY plywood sleeping platform. Cost: $200 to $500 plus a weekend or two.
The most common approach on forums. A raised deck of plywood and 2x4s sits above the folded seats, giving you a flat surface and bin storage underneath. The upside is cost and customization. The downside is the part nobody puts in the video: measuring the seat fold angle wrong, a deck that rattles, a build too heavy to remove alone, and a finished product that cannot be pulled for a hardware store run without unbolting it. Most DIY decks also stop at the seatback, so the footwell gap stays. Worth it if you like building and never need the back seats.
4. Vehicle specific sleeping platform with drawers. Cost: $1,749 to $1,799.
This is what we build. The Compass Camper Outback kit is an aluminum framed sleeping platform with two full extension drawers on heavy duty locking slides, sized to your exact model year. A retractable bed extension slides forward over the folded seats and spans the footwell gap, giving you the full 76 or 78 inch flat bed. Slide it back into the trunk and your rear seats go up for daily driving. It anchors to the factory cargo tie-down points with turnbuckles. No drilling, no tools, about 10 minutes to install. Platform height is 8.75 inches at the tailgate and slopes down toward the front of the car to keep headroom where you need it. Choose a marine grade carpet top or Hex Ply, a phenolic coated plywood that is harder and slicker than carpet, so bins slide in and out easily and spills wipe up. An optional 60/40 split extension lets you keep one rear seat up for a passenger or a dog while the other side stays a bed.
5. Rooftop tent. Cost: $1,000 to $3,000 and up.
Sleep above the car and keep the whole cargo area for gear. On an Outback this comes with a specific cost: the low roof that makes the car efficient also means a rooftop tent adds a lot of frontal area and noticeable fuel economy loss. Setup and teardown takes 10 to 20 minutes, you climb a ladder in the dark, and the tent lives on the car full time. Makes sense for long overland trips. Overkill for most weekends.
Will Sleeping in My Outback Damage It?
This is the question under most of the others. Not if you do it right.
The folded seatbacks and cargo floor are built to carry cargo. A body on a mattress is lighter and more evenly distributed than a load of lumber. The two things that actually damage interiors are drilling to mount a platform and dragging a heavy plywood deck across the plastic trim every time it goes in or out.
A platform that anchors to the factory tie-down points avoids both. The tie-downs are rated for cargo loads far heavier than a sleeping setup, nothing is drilled, and the kit comes out in minutes with no trace. If you plan to sell or trade the Outback later, this matters. Reversible is the whole point.
Can Two People Sleep in a Subaru Outback?
Yes, with expectations set. The bed is 40.5 inches wide, about 2.5 inches wider than a standard twin. Two average sized adults sleep shoulder to shoulder. Couples who camp a lot make it work for weeks at a time. Two large adults, or two people who do not want to touch, will want the Forester's extra width or a rooftop tent for one person.
If you camp mostly solo with an occasional passenger, the 60/40 split extension is the answer: one rear seat stays up for a person or a dog, the other side is bed.
What Else Makes Outback Camping Comfortable
- Ventilation. Condensation is the top complaint. Crack two windows half an inch and add mesh window socks so bugs stay out. Rain guards let you do this in weather.
- Window covers. Cut reflective insulation to fit each window or buy a pre cut set. Privacy at trailheads and rest stops, and a few degrees of insulation in shoulder season.
- Mattress. A 2 to 3 inch tri fold memory foam mattress on a flat platform is the standard for a reason. It stores folded in the cargo area during the day. We make precision fit mattresses sized to the Outback platform.
- Power. The Outback's 12V outlets handle phones. For a fan, lights, and a fridge over several nights, a 400 to 800 watt hour portable power station stored in a drawer is the clean solution.
- Kitchen. Drawers that pull out past the tailgate turn the back of the car into a counter. Stove, utensils, and food stay organized and reachable without unpacking anything.
How the Outback Sleeping Platform Installs
- Fold the rear seats. Set the aluminum framed trunk platform in the cargo area and secure it to the factory tie-down points with the included turnbuckles. No drilling, no tools.
- Attach the bed extension to the trunk frame. Slide it forward over the folded seats until it spans the footwell gap. The surface is now flat from tailgate to front seatbacks.
- Lay the mattress on top. Done. About 10 minutes the first time, faster after that.
To drive with passengers, slide the extension back into the trunk and raise the seats. The drawers and platform stay in place. To remove the whole kit for hauling something large, undo the turnbuckles and lift it out in under 10 minutes.
Ready to see the options for your year? Browse the Subaru Outback camper kits, or go straight to the Outback sleeping platform and camper conversion kit and select your model year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you sleep in the back of a Subaru Outback Wilderness?
Yes. The Wilderness has the same cargo floor, seat fold, and tie-down points as every other trim. The raised suspension gets you to rougher campsites. The sleeping area is identical.
How tall can you be and still sleep in a Subaru Outback?
On a platform, about 6 foot 2 in a 2010 to 2019 and about 6 foot 4 in a 2020 or newer, fully stretched. Sleeping slightly diagonal adds a couple of inches for a solo camper.
Is the Outback or the Forester better for sleeping in?
The Outback has the longer bed. The Forester has more headroom and a wider cargo opening. Tall solo campers and couples who want length lean Outback. People who want to sit up and change clothes inside lean Forester. The full comparison is in Subaru Forester vs Outback for car camping.
Can I leave the sleeping platform in for daily driving?
Yes. Retract the bed extension into the trunk, raise the rear seats, and the Outback carries passengers normally. Most owners leave the kit in year round.
Do I need to modify anything?
No. No drilling, no cutting, no permanent changes. The platform anchors to factory tie-down points and removes in minutes.
Still deciding whether the Outback is the right camping vehicle at all? Read Is the Subaru Outback the best car camping vehicle?