Quick take based on about five minutes of driveway experience and zero nights. Not sure this is the perfect solution for my use case, but it's promising.
Came across this product while looking for removable sleeping options to make up for the lack of a flat floor. This isn't a full time overland rig for me and I don't need to run a 24/7 solution, but with my search and rescue volunteering it's not uncommon to get a 10pm callout for the following morning two hours away in the mountains or desert, or to have an evening search suspended and be picked up with daylight, and it would be great to have something I can have set up ready to go for a quick crash in those situations.
It comes with a replaceable set of front legs for SUV use that are supposed to fit in the rear seat footwell, as well as a level set for pickup use, and can stow away in a case when not in use.
In implementation with the J250 it's not bad, with one notable caveat being the leg positioning. I did need to bump up the front passenger seat a hair up from my wife's usual position, but everything closes up with the platform set up.
The front brackets are wonky around the transmission tunnel – I kept the center one at its lowest setting and had to crank the outer one to compensate, and the two rearmost brackets needed to be fully extended to keep it close to level with the boost the transmission tunnel was providing, and even then I'm still not sure the middle set of legs makes contact without my weight in the cot. I really don't love that it's resting on plastic trim, and I'd want to get some kind of rubber or fabric in between there for actual use. Grateful for the high ceiling because it's pretty cozy for me maxed out that high, but in exchange there's a healthy amount of space underneath for storage.
The foam topper so far is nice enough but I'd probably still want to run with with my backpacking sleeping pad. If this is a keeper, I'll very likely just take a pipe cutter to that front center leg to drop down the height past its lower limits and get everything else evened out.
Good Labor Day deal – definitely nothing fancy, but not a bad plan for a quick base camp.
Link: https://www.rei.com/product/229077/rei-co-op-trailgate-vehicle-sleeping-platform
Came across this product while looking for removable sleeping options to make up for the lack of a flat floor. This isn't a full time overland rig for me and I don't need to run a 24/7 solution, but with my search and rescue volunteering it's not uncommon to get a 10pm callout for the following morning two hours away in the mountains or desert, or to have an evening search suspended and be picked up with daylight, and it would be great to have something I can have set up ready to go for a quick crash in those situations.
It comes with a replaceable set of front legs for SUV use that are supposed to fit in the rear seat footwell, as well as a level set for pickup use, and can stow away in a case when not in use.
In implementation with the J250 it's not bad, with one notable caveat being the leg positioning. I did need to bump up the front passenger seat a hair up from my wife's usual position, but everything closes up with the platform set up.
The front brackets are wonky around the transmission tunnel – I kept the center one at its lowest setting and had to crank the outer one to compensate, and the two rearmost brackets needed to be fully extended to keep it close to level with the boost the transmission tunnel was providing, and even then I'm still not sure the middle set of legs makes contact without my weight in the cot. I really don't love that it's resting on plastic trim, and I'd want to get some kind of rubber or fabric in between there for actual use. Grateful for the high ceiling because it's pretty cozy for me maxed out that high, but in exchange there's a healthy amount of space underneath for storage.
The foam topper so far is nice enough but I'd probably still want to run with with my backpacking sleeping pad. If this is a keeper, I'll very likely just take a pipe cutter to that front center leg to drop down the height past its lower limits and get everything else evened out.
Good Labor Day deal – definitely nothing fancy, but not a bad plan for a quick base camp.
Link: https://www.rei.com/product/229077/rei-co-op-trailgate-vehicle-sleeping-platform
