Offroad Subaru Forester - Backcountry & Camping Build

So I've been getting a lot of requests to do sort of a walkthrough video of the Forester, go over the mods that I've made and some of my camping setup. So I'm going to try and answer the questions that I get asked the most. First of all, I'd just like to point out that you can find numerous Forester builds out there that are far better and more capable than mine, but you asked for it, so here's what I've done so far to turn my Forester into my little wilderness camping adventure mobile. So this is my 2012 Subaru Forester. This is the SH body style which ran from 2009 to 2013. I bought it used in 2017 with low miles, very clean and basically all stock except for the roof basket that had been added by the previous owner. The wheels are made by Black Rhino and this is their Boxer model. It's a 15x7 alloy wheel with a plus 15 offset. The Boxer is extremely lightweight which is a helpful reduction of unsprung weight gained by adding the heavy all-terrain tires. I'm really happy with how these wheels look on the Forester. My only small complaint would be that with all those nooks and crannies, they're not a lot of fun to clean. While changing to custom wheels is not exactly budget friendly, it is necessary in order to move to a higher profile tire which is better for off-road use. The tires are BFGoodrich TA KO2. Admittedly this also isn't the inexpensive option, but it is a long-term investment in a proven product. This is the tire of choice of many experienced overlanders whose opinion I respect and I must say I'm absolutely thrilled with these tires. The Forester was already quite capable off-road. I was stunned by how much better it performed on the trail once I put those KO2s on there. I have the 1-inch lift kit from ADF with the additional 3-eighths inch lift in the rear which tends to sag when loaded. While 1-inch doesn't sound like much, it really has made a difference on the trail. The Forester already has great ground clearance stock from the factory, but the 1-inch lift definitely helps me get over difficult roads and also has made a noticeable difference in approach and departure angles. At some point I wouldn't mind upgrading to a 2-inch lift, but for now I'm quite pleased with the value of the far less expensive 1-inch kit. I consciously appreciate it every single time I'm out on the trail. This is one of my most frequently asked questions. What bull bar is that? It's made by Raleigh Innovations and they call it a light bar for mounting lights. That said, it does take the abuse when I don't have quite enough approach angle and it has unquestionably prevented damage to the front bumper countless times. I couldn't be happier with it. Looks good, it's solidly built, and it's very nicely powder coated. And I'm not very mechanically inclined, but I was even able to do the install myself. The two upper lights are hella black magic. I like how these fit the overall blue and black look of my Forester, but honestly on the trail I'm not particularly dazzled by the light. It certainly helps, but doesn't help as much as I'd hoped. Driving down a narrow rocky trail alongside a steep drop-off in the middle of the night, you can never have too much light. The fog lights are dirt cheap LEDs I found on Amazon in which I tinted yellow with some vinyl film. They do help, but I think that may have more to do with the extra low placement than their actual light output. I'll definitely be replacing them at some point. My son and I created our own wiring for the lighting. We found a spot to mount relays and a terminal block under the hood and we used a fuse tap on an ignition switch circuit to power the relays so the lights will only work if the key is on. We mounted basic toggle switches right onto the fuse access lid because it was simple and there really aren't any switch blanks elsewhere on the dash. The hellas and the LEDs each have their own switch and the other two switches and relays are prepped for future use whenever I get around to mounting lights on the roof. I very recently started using Gaia GPS and it's fantastic, but I'm still learning the app and making mistakes with it. On my last trip I was really happy I still had my old Garmin in the car. This is an older model I picked up off Craigslist for 30 bucks, a small amount of money very well spent. This thing can be frustrating in its own ways, but it has proven useful and reliable. I think I'm going to still keep it in the glove box even as I get up to speed with Gaia. My newest addition to the car is this used 3rd gen iPad mini I received as a gift. It provides a much more comfortable amount of screen which seems just right for running Gaia GPS. I've got it mounted so the weight of the iPad is supported by the dash rather than by the mounting hardware and I've positioned it so it can also serve as a POV camera to capture some footage going down the trail. I'd long planned to install a CB in the Forester but turns out the little walkie-talkies that most of us use on trail runs work on other frequencies or wavelengths or whatever. The thing is I just do not like using a handheld. Without fail I drop it someplace I can't reach it or I absentmindedly set it down in an awkward spot and can't find it or I can't hear it. There's just not a good spot in my Forester to set one down where it won't go sliding away on a corner or get lost amidst my other gear. I looked into dash mount FRS radios that do communicate with basic handhelds that everyone uses but they're not cheap and require a federal license to operate, tacking on yet another expense. So I basically modified one of my small handheld FRS radios so I could clip it onto the sunglasses holder and tethered it with a length of coiled wire salvaged from some random non-working phone charger. Now the radio has a dedicated spot up where I can hear it well and I cannot possibly lose it under the seat. Even though it's not actually a CB I can still play out my childhood trucker fantasies. I already made a whole video about my current roof setup and I'll put a link to that in the description so I'm just going to go over this briefly and you can watch the roof rack video if you'd like more detail. The crossbars are cheap square bars that were on the car when I bought it. The box is a Thule Summit which I picked up off Craigslist for next to nothing. It didn't have any mounting hardware and the latches don't work but I resolved that with some u-bolts from the hardware store and a long shackled padlock which both ensures the lid stays closed and secures the contents. I'm actually really happy with this addition. Even though it's skinny, it holds way more than you'd expect while only taking up a narrow portion of the roof. The rest of the roof is occupied by the rack I built out of used scraps of super strut and some bits of hardware. It carries my X-bolt traction boards, my shovel, a three and a half gallon fuel packs, and support for my $60 do-it-yourself awning. I'll cover how I built the awning in its own video soon. Before heading out on an overnighter, I stopped at my storage unit to pick up my camp gear. This takes just a few minutes to put into place. Let's take a closer look at all this. So in a Forester with the back seat folded down, there's ample room to sleep but the cargo floor slopes down towards the tailgate and it's just enough to be uncomfortable. I tried this for a while but found it difficult to sleep on this sloped surface. So I built this very simple platform to level it out. It's just a couple of two foot wide pieces of three-quarter inch plywood with gradually taller supports I made out of random scraps of 2x6 I had floating around. And while a lot of people build their sleep platforms up higher in order to create storage space underneath, I wanted to maintain the maximum amount of headroom and minimize how claustrophobic this sort of coffin-sized space can be. At the front end, furniture pads on the bottom keep it from scuffing up the places it rests on the car. Where it overlaps the footwell, it's supported on one side by the center console and I just wedge this 2x2 in on the other side. There is a bit of space underneath the tailgate end where my axe and other items can be stowed. I've also added this slide-out piece as my kitchen work surface. I'm planning to add some kind of fold-out legs to this but for now this length of pipe is doing the trick just fine. A couple of pipe brackets on the bottom of the pullout table create a spot to safely stow my window screen. I made this using a scrap of window screen with some magnets not very elegantly hot glued into the corners. I affix it to the outside of the rear passenger door so I can leave the window down at night. Ah, fresh air and no mosquitoes. I repurposed this little pouch, which I've hooked onto the headrest post, as a convenient and easy spot to put my wallet, phone, keys, and glasses when I go to sleep so I always know right where they are. Aside from the pullout table, the rest of my kitchen setup is pretty rough do-it-yourself I built entirely out of random scraps of wood that were lying around. Assembly with coarse thread drywall screws made it fast and easy. I did buy this angle metal and grating at the hardware store in order to create the rear panel. This panel attached to back of my kitchen gives me a spot to mount things like my paper towels, first aid kit, fire extinguisher, camera battery charger, and my flashlight. Battery charger is connected to a DC plug-in that's in the back of the Forester. It's nice to be able to charge batteries while I drive. A few eye screws create mounting points for bungee cords to hold my little cooler in place. I bent the hooks of the bungees at the ends so they can't fall off. While it would be nice to have a fridge, most of my trips are just one or two days and the cooler is just fine. Lunch! I've got a little room behind the cooler where I stash a small box of things like matches, lighters, mallets, extra steaks, and a few other useful items. My single burner butane stove is mounted onto a piece of plywood that just slides out. The bungee is just to keep this compartment from rattling as I drive. Behind it, I've mounted a little container to carry the butane canisters. Below that, I created a space for a long low plastic bin I can pull out like a drawer. Once I'm at camp, I just remove and stash the lid so I've got easy access to everything. Pans, cooking utensils, a cutting board, etc. And I also just stick whatever unrefrigerated foods I need for my trip in here too. If I were to start making longer overland trips, I'd need to modify my approach, but so far, even if it's a little ugly, it's been working really well for my overnight adventures. Having the kitchen ready to go makes it so easy to stop anywhere, anytime, and prepare a meal. I've also just realized that the kitchen can serve as backup camp seating as well. Well, that's pretty much everything I've done to turn my Forester into my little backcountry adventure mobile. For more inspiration and ideas, check out John DZ Adventuring, SUV RVing, ALNSM Overland, and Silver RD1. I'll put links to those channels in the description below. If there's anything you're wondering about that I didn't cover in this video, just leave a comment and I'll be more than happy to answer.