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2015 - Car Camping/Overlanding - Trips, Gear, Solutions (ideas/inspiration)

24K views 38 replies 21 participants last post by  RuRuNV 
#1 ·
Hello All,

I searched the thread for a place to post car camping/overlanding trips, but I did not find anything under the offroad fozzies forum. I hope this is the right place, I figured you'll have to "offroad" to get to a remote campsite. Ever since I traded in my 2010 WRX for a 2015 Forester XT, I've been thoroughly enjoying the outdoors much more. I pretty much take lots of photo's and video of my trips and make youtube video's to "capture" the moment. I enjoy watching other peoples youtube video's and find them very useful for giving me ideas for my next trip.

I wanted to start this thread so that we can share the trips we've been on, share the gear we use, and share solutions to common car-camping/overlanding issues we might run into, in our Subaru Foresters.
 
#2 ·
So, one issue we might run into while adventuring in our Fozzies is getting a flat or blown tire. I purchased this combo bottle jack/jack stand and wanted to share. what do you guys think? I know it's not a good idea to use a high jack on our Subaru's, so what other jacks do you guys use when offroad?

 
#11 ·
So, one issue we might run into while adventuring in our Fozzies is getting a flat or blown tire. I purchased this combo bottle jack/jack stand and wanted to share. what do you guys think? I know it's not a good idea to use a high jack on our Subaru's, so what other jacks do you guys use when offroad?
I've been looking for a better solution than the OEM jack, but the one time I got a flat it worked fine and I was even on snow, on not quite level ground. I will be lifting my vehicle a couple inches at some point though and then the OEM jack on it's own might not be enough. I'm thinking that a little section of 2" x 4" under it might do the trick though.
 
#3 ·
This post is regarding Gear and Solutions. I went on an remote camping trip with my Girlfriend over the weekend. We came across a beautiful yellow post camping site but when we got there the concrete picnic table did not have any shade. I took the moment to go over my DIY 10ft x 10ft side awning I came up with. I built it for $70 in materials, the most expensive thing being a $30 rip stop tarp kit.

 
#10 ·
That sounds like what my friend uses for his Honda Element. Pretty neat setup and works well for inclement weather:




Not as easy to setup as some awnings or the roll out, but it was windy and stormy on this trip and with his tiedown methods the thing was solid. You can collapse the legs to make it more of a wind break too if needed. I forget the brand, but it's something designed for VW vans.
 
#9 ·
Good idea for a thread, I'm totally into it and will try to contribute here and there. To start I'll share my solution to camping at primitive sites where there isn't a table. Below is my pull out table with hiking trekking poles as legs. Slides into the rear cargo area above my full size spare and between my raised sleeping platform, which levels out the sleeping area.:
DSC07809 by Dustin Boone, on Flickr

DSC07828 by Dustin Boone, on Flickr
 
#13 · (Edited)
So I have an idea, but not sure if it will work, since I’m not familiar with solar panels. I don’t know if they need to be vented to the atmosphere or if they are a fire hazard when in a confined space.

I’ve seen solar panels mounted on the top of vehicles before, but living in an apartment in Long Beach,Ca (the place where snoop doggy Dogg is from) theft is a concern. I bet my panels would be ripped off my roof in less than a week.

An idea popped up while looking through Instagram. This guy put reflectives on top of his moonroof cover to keep his Forester cool. I thought, this might be a great place for solar panels !!!!





Obviously I wouldn’t try a heavy duty solar panel, but I see many compact units on Amazon. It would be nice to recharge electronics and possibly run a fridge. Anyone experienced enough with solar to know if this would work?




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#14 · (Edited by Moderator)
I picked up an 80Watt folding solar panel from Amazon and having been thinking about trying the same spot for when I leave the car parked somewhere (Ex. out fishing while camping). I haven't tested it out yet but my assumption is that the panels will generate much less charge when behind the moonroof compared to getting direct sunlight. A lot of the light will be reflected away off the glass, and any tint on the glass may impact it as well. It should still generate some charge though, and solar panels don't need to be vented as far as I know..there is no gas exchange happening. I'll probably leave the windows cracked though since I'll have the solar panel battery (old car battery) sitting in the backseat footwell.

Just make sure the panel clears all mechanical things so you don't accidentally shred it by opening the sunroof!
 
#16 ·
Hi there aliveoutofhabit, I’m not 100% sure if you were referring to me, but if you are [emoji106] thank you!!!! Many of us on this forum share our ideas. It’s an awesome feeling to contribute to the knowledge base.

You may have been referring to Mr. Subooneru and his videos of all those split boarding trips in Northern Cali. He’s been a huge contributor to Forester.org. I took a lot of inspiration from his build.




I just got back from a MtnRoo trip in Big Bear, CA. (We had 41 Subaru’s on dirt for 10 hours yesterday.). Someone is planning a trip to the lost coast in June. We should def meet up.




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#17 ·
I was referring to you haha! I do love the Subaru community in general though. I've been a member of the forums for about a year but I rarely post.

I was supposed to go to the Big Bear meet but things came up and I had to cancel my trip down. I love Lake Arrowhead and that area. I'm a member of mtnroo and mtnroo bay area you'll see me on there! In fact I'm about to post some pics from my trip down the coast to Big Sur this morning.


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#18 ·
Aww, bummer you couldn’t make it. That was a well planned out trip. Nicole and her Husband Nate did a great job of trail choice and scheduling things out. At the end of the day, swag was given out. Can’t wait to add this to my other badges, but Forester is too muddy right now.



I’ve been going to big bear since I was a child for snow sports, but I’ve never been south of the lake. It was like a different eco system there, reminded me of a set of Jurassic Park. The trip ended with a climb to the top of a mountain where we were surrounded by other mountains, it was quite nice [emoji108].




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#20 ·
In case anyone is still interested, the domed awning made for VW's is, I believe, a "Bus Depot" awning. I haven't used one, but have been interested in them.

On the solar panel over the sunroof. I don't have a sunroof on my car (cause, you know, in 2014 it was a known fact that you couldn't shift a manual transmission if you had a sunroof ;), but I do have some solar panel setups. I'm presuming you'd be using one of the so-called flexible panels. Just know that they are prone to heat damage and of course they get really hot on the top side (cause it's black and faces the sun) and then there'd be no ventilation on the back. OTOH, they get kind of floppy when hot, so that's a challenge if you plan to raise them up. (I have been using these as "ground panels" with my RV is my background with them.) I find I can get 1-2 years out of them if I take good care of them, but they they malfunction.

I do have a rigid solar panel on the roof of my Forester. No theft problems yet (has been up there two years), but I don't live in the city either. Reason I have one is that I have a cooler-style compressor refrigerator in the car. So I have solar panel, solar controller, Group 24 "house" battery. I have the refrigerator cord hard wired (because I prefer that to cig outlet in that case), and then a cig outlet on the side of the battery box where I have a phone charging cord (cause I like to charge the phone when the ignition is off).

I have a second plug that can go in the Forester cig outlet, cause sometimes I want to run it off that instead.

I got a set of hand-me-down Thule square bars, so that's what the panel lives on. Thule sell square brackets that go on the bars that take a carriage bolt that points upward, so those simply go through the bottom of the solar panel, and then a nylock. If anyone is more interested, I could go into details of how I wired it, etc.

I do camp in the back of the Forester. I removed the rear seat completely and built a platform. Since I tend to use my car like a mini truck (from the seats on back), it works out great for me. The back of the rear platform often gets light workbench duty. I think I have room for a full sized spare under the rear part, but actually why I'm here on the forum today is doing tire research (so I don't have five full sized tires yet). There is also a pretty good amount of storage under the front of the platform, where the rear seat cushion used to be.

Okay, off to read more on tires...
 
#21 ·
Wow! Thanks for all the info SkyBlue, sounds like it’s a no go on the solar panels being permanently mounted to the sunroof shade. I also did some research about how glass affects the output of the solar panel, and from what I gathered, it would reduce by atleast half. I would like find a way to run a compressor fridge like yours. It sounds like my end goal is similar to yours. Again, thanks for the info!! I’ll look into that VW domed tarp as well.


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#22 ·
I didn't actually catch that you were thinking of mounting the panel under the glass. Not sure that would work so well (but it's good to consider things outside the box).

I've had the fridge in the car for a couple of years now. First just only running it when driving via the Forester system, and not too long after with my separate house/solar system. For the way I use the car, it's hard to now imagine not having it. Camping of course, but also grocery shopping in the city (hours away) and being able to pick up ice cream, coming back to the car from kayaking or hiking to cold beverages and food, road trips, and just being able to keep a "stock" of food in the car so I don't always have to eat out or only eat Clif bars (not that I don't still eat Clif bars).

I put in the battery setup before I removed the rear sseat, so that's not required. It lives in the passenger side rear footwell (obvs not a fit if you carry four adult passengers).

The battery is only a Group 24 (100 watt solar panel), so it can't go days without sunshine, but of course I can always turn it off, and/or maximize solar charting by running it off the car system when driving. And even without any of that you can run it while driving of course. Once caveat is that these modern compressor refrigerators don't like voltage drop. So the rear outlet is pretty much a no-no unless you re-wire it (Subaru wire too long and skinny). When I do use the car's system, I use one of the front outlets, and also I changed the refrigerator cord itself to larger wire, to help make up for the Subaru wire.

But for probably 90% of the time it just chuckles away on the "house" system (I don't garage the car tho, and I'm usually in a fairly sunny place).

As I'm sure you can tell, I really like having the 'fridge in the car.

BTW, thanks for all your posts on the Yokohama GO15 tires. I've been lucky with various highway tires up till now on rocky desert "gravel" roads, but I think it's time for something a little more durable. I really like the idea of 16" wheels and slightly more sidewall, but wheels add considerably to the cost so I may go with the 225/65-R17 on my stock rims since it sounds like they have worked well for you.
 
#23 ·
Maybe I can offer a few ideas.

I run a "battery-in-a-bag" in the Foz. It's a 100 amp hr gel battery that is charged from the alternator via a Voltage Sensitive Relay (VSR). The battery is mounted in a heavy canvas tool bag with a piece of marine ply as a base and then sits in the rear passenger foot well strapped to the front seat mounts. When needed I use a 120 watt folding solar panel (of course not needed if the camper with its panels goes back on the Foz). The dual battery system runs a Evakool 49 litre fridge/freezer. I use a 60 litre Evakool ice box for short trips of 2-4 days but the fridge is very necessary for the long trips where I use it as a freezer and cycle ice bottles through the ice box which is used for daily storage.




In my Triton ute I have 2 x 100 amp hr batteries in the tub which are managed via a CTEK 250S to allow simultaneous connections from alternator and solar panels. I mounted 2 x 100 watt solar panels on the roof top camper; these panels are very thin and light at about 2.5kg / 5.5 lbs each. This system supports a 110 litre Evakool fridge /freezer and I can camp for 4-5 days without moving - if I need to stay longer I could bring my 120 watt folding panel along as well. I also run a 3000 watt inverter and can run an inductive cooktop, electric kettle, even a toaster when needed.

 

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#25 ·
Kevin,
Linking the start and house banks with a VSR is a good way to do it. I have a similar setup in my RV. I haven't done that on the Forester for three reasons:

1) I may buy a new Forester, so one less thing to undo.

2) My solar is only inadequate very occasionally (so I only use the Subaru to run the refrigerator a half dozen time per yea - and never to charge the house battery - my solar panel is on the roof).

3) It was already bad enough at the Subaru dealer. When I went in for an Airbag light they swore it was my Scangauge causing it (yeah, sure). Eventually I went back with no Scangauge in sight, and they figured out that, lo and behold, Subaru parts needed to be changed to fix the airbag. If they think a Scangauge (plugs into OBD port) is messing with things you can only imagine what they'd blame on the VSR and linking the battery systems :surprise:

So I have a "simple" system whereby I just plug the cooler into one of the forward cigarette lighter sockets when I want to run it on alternator charging. Because I hard wired the cooler to the house battery, I just bought a second cord and use that for the car socket (but you could do it with one cord if not hard wired).

But if I needed to *not* run it on the house battery often (portable panels vs. roof mounted, constant covered parking, or whatever), then I'd probably add a VSR (hidden, because see above....)
 
#26 ·
Just a note that any setup becomes a little different with the introduction of "smart" alternators.

In future I would always use something like the CTEK 250S where it can use the full power delivered by a solar panel i.e. it bypasses the solar panel 12V controller and I often see 18-19 volts being generated.
 
#30 ·
This thread is awesome!

Not sure whether I'll be able to join in... we have a standard FWD van, which I use for work, but because of its size it is really handy for camping, lots of room for gear, food etc..

Maybe one day our fozzie (Roo) will get a taste of the camping life...
 
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