The Best SUV Camping Bed (We Slept on It for 2 Years)

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Your SUV camping bed is the absolute most important part of car camping – especially if you’re deciding to live full-time in your SUV.

Before setting off on our long-term road trip, Lala and I were really nervous about getting the right, comfortable setup. We knew the bed would be the most crucial accessory we needed but didn’t know which option to choose.

In the end, having our thick, durable sleeping pads, a memory foam mattress and different layers of bedding are what made it possible to live in our SUV for 2 years.

Now, I’m not gonna lie to you. Car camping is NOT a walk in the park.

It’s uncomfortable, you and everything around you gets dirty, and sometimes you don’t sleep well at all, even with a good bed.

Now imagine if you had a bad bed. Your inflatable mattress deflates at 3 a.m. or your mattress slides around everywhere. What do you do? Not sleep! Both have happened to us.

That’s why we tried so hard to get a good setup.

We wanted to be comfortable without having to build anything in the back of our SUV. That meant our SUV camping bed had to be so good that we couldn’t feel the little bump our Forester has where the back seats fold.

If you’re curious to see the SUV camping bed we ended up with, keep reading!

With this post, you’ll be ready to be comfy in your car camping bed from the very start of your journey.

We Sold It All to Go Car Camping

Before we get into the nitty gritty, let me tell you the story of how we ended up with our bed.

In 2023, we sold pretty much everything we owned and moved countries. Then, we researched the best cars to sleep in and bought an SUV to travel all over the USA.

Why car camping?

It’ simple – we wanted to travel for a long time and doing it in an SUV was the only way we’d be able to afford it. Plus, we’d have a car for daily life once we finished!

Lala and I are the type of people who want to do things once the right way and be done with it (that rarely goes our way). So, we thought and thought about what bed to get.

There were so many options that the problem was choosing the right one.

4 SUV Camping Bed Options

As we came to a decision, the SUV camping bed had a lot of iterations in our heads:

1. A Platform with a Mattress

This is the “ideal” everyone thinks about when they think about car camping.

But we quickly realized building an SUV sleeping platform isn’t the best idea for a lot of different reasons – especially since our Forester was already almost flat.

To sum up the reasons we decided we wanted a no-build setup: we didn’t have the tools or space to build one, platforms are a hard surface anyway and they take up storage space in the car!

2. Sleeping Pads + Sleeping Bags

All you need to go camping is a sleeping pad and sleeping bag, so why not do the same while car camping?

While it might be fine for short trips, we realized this simple setup wouldn’t work for a long-term road trip because:

1. The sleeping bags get extremely dirty because there’s no layer between your skin and the bag.
2. Sleeping bags are made for different seasons, so we’d have to have several sleeping bags each.
3. Small things add up to huge things over time, so we knew we had to be as comfortable as possible to live in our SUV. So, though we love simple things, we went for something better.

We almost went for this build – so much that we bought sleeping pads! Funny enough, sleeping pads ended up being an essential part of our SUV camping bed.

3. Mattress + Bedding or Sleeping Bags

The biggest issue with just having a mattress and bedding or sleeping bags while car camping was the size of the mattress.

If we wanted it to be really comfy, it would have to be thick. And if it were thick, it would almost be like having a platform – it would be permanent, since you can’t fold thick mattresses.

But then if it were a thin mattress (and we’ve tried that), then you can feel the hard car under you and it hurts.

I say this from experience: the first thing you feel when you wake up after nights like those are pain in your lower back and hips. The number of days I woke up and my first word was “Ugghhh…”

4. An Inflatable Mattress

An inflatable mattress was never really an option for car camping, but I have to mention it.

They don’t even work well indoors – why would they work in your car?

Believe me, the number of things that can puncture an inflatable mattress while you’re out on an adventure car camping is insane. It’s like stuff is just dying to get into your car.

The last thing you want is for your mattress to deflate in the middle of the night.

I will say, there’s a mattress out there called the Luno Air Mattress and its really expensive, which makes me wonder if it might actually be good… let me know if you’ve tried it and it’s any good.

The SUV Camping Bed We Used for 2 Years

I’m not going to say I found the perfect bed because I’m awesome and outdoorsy.

Actually, it kind of just fell into our hands.

A friend of ours was selling his own car camping setup, and we got it from him. It was a twin-size memory foam mattress and some great REI bedding that they no longer make.

We slept on that a few nights but, like I said above, just the mattress still felt really hard and the small bump where the seats fold felt HUGE.

That’s when we remembered we had bought sleeping pads already.

We slid them under the memory foam mattress and it was like heaven that first night – I finally got a full night’s sleep. But these sleeping pads were 1-inch thick.

It wasn’t until months later, when these sleeping pads got damaged and we tried different things, that we got new 3-inch sleeping pads (don’t leave inflated sleeping pads in your car in the summer).

That changed the game entirely.

This setup is what worked to sleep in our Subaru Forester, but it applies to any SUV that fold flat or almost flat.

Breakdown of Each Part

So, our SUV camping bed is made up of three parts: the sleeping pads (one for each), the memory foam mattress, and some good bedding.

1. Sleeping Pads as a Mattress for SUV Camping

The sleeping pads act as a firm buffer between you and the car.

Because they’re firm, they neutralize any irregularities in what’s beneath you, which was the flap where the car folds in my case.

When it comes to which one to get, make sure to get a durable sleeping pad. We got a $20 sleeping pad from Amazon one time and it lasted 3 nights.

My favorite one to date has been the MEC VectAir Insulated Sleeping Pad, but I bought it in Canada. This Big Agnes Divide sleeping pad is the exact same dimensions:

2. A Memory Foam Mattress for Car Camping

You use the memory foam mattress in your car like you would on a bed at home.

It goes on top of something that’s more firm and it’s what makes the bed so soft and comfy.

Something we love about it is that you can take off the cover and wash it in a washer, which we’ve done a few times because it gets real dirty from adventuring so hard.

Whichever one you get, make sure it’s a 3-inch mattress so that you can roll it up and fold it easily. It’s super practical – we folded ours every day for 2 years and had it rolled up for 2 months one time, and it never got damaged from being folded!

3. Bedding for your SUV Camping Bed

After 2 years sleeping in my SUV, I’ve realized what’s important in the bedding for car camping is that it needs to feel like a real bed.

That means having different layers is essential.

We used the bedding our friend sold us, which is the REI Sleep Dreamer System, but they no longer sell it!

But you can recreate it: it’s just a bottom sheet, top sheet and blanket that all connected to each other. It is a real bed and everything is easy to wash – plus, your blanket doesn’t get super dirty.

This is how I would recreate the bedding with things on Amazon:

• A fitted bottom sheet for a 3-inch thick mattress
• Any top sheet for a twin bed
• A microfiber blanket that’s light and easy to clean

Finally, we brought out this comforter whenever the temperature got below 40 degrees. It’s the cherry on top that made sleeping in 28° to 38°F weather my favorite temps!

Storing that comforter during the summer and setting the mood with fairy lights is a whole other story – which you can read in my full guide to SUV camping!

So, why not sleeping bags, again?

You would need a different sleeping bag for each season. For example, if you buy REI’s Double Sleeping bag, you’d think you’re set. But it’s rated for 20 degrees… which means you’re gonna get cooked in warmer temperatures. So, you’d need another bag for that temperature.

I bought a 45 degree sleeping bag for my Pacific Northwest road trip and the average temperature at night was 70°. I wasn’t able to use it because I would sweat so much, so I had to sleep in my sleeping bag liner.

With actual bedding, you can just peel off layers as needed!

We didn’t have space for multiple sleeping bags, but if you do… then, yes, it’s the simple solution.

How It All Comes Together

At night, you have a real bed for camping: a firm base, a soft car camping mattress, and bedding like a real bed that doesn’t slide around.

But apart from being comfortable, it’s also practical for the daily struggles of car camping.

We had two problems: we needed lots of space for all our belongings and wanted our car to be easy to convert back into an SUV. This SUV camping bed made both possible.

Every morning, we would get out of bed, deflate the sleeping pads and fold the bed in half. Then, all we had to do at night was unfold it, fill up the sleeping pads, and tuck in the bedding!

That way, all our stuff fit in the front seats at night and easily in the trunk during the day.

And now that we don’t live in our car, the bed packs real nicely rolled up and ready to go in a closet!

Why It’s Better than the Other Options

It may seem like a lot of moving parts, and it is – but this car camping bed is what worked for us, and it worked really well.

It makes for a really comfy bed, but it doesn’t take over your SUV.

It’s super practical in terms of traveling with it, storing it in your car or your house or apartment, and for having an actual car with 5 seats (no permanent platform).

Frequently Asked Questions

Overall Thoughts and Takeaways

I’m not even a good sleeper in beds (unlike Lala, who has fallen asleep standing up – true story), but I had some of my life’s best nights of sleep in my Forester. All it takes is the right gear.

And that’s the secret to SUV camping: investing in your comfort.

Don’t waste your time on air mattresses or building a platform – this one’s the real deal.