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Best Rooftop Tent For a Subaru Crosstrek

12 Mar, 2025

Subaru Crosstrek is a vehicle that excels in versatility. With its rugged all-wheel drive, compact size, and impressive off-road capabilities, the Crosstrek is the perfect vehicle for weekend getaways, outdoor adventures, and exploring the unknown. To take your adventures to the next level, adding a rooftop tent is one of the best upgrades you can make. In this article we will go over our recommended set up of a James Baroud rooftop tent on a Crosstrek.

Crossover vs SUV

The term “crossover” is used to describe a type of vehicle that blends characteristics of both cars and SUVs. Typically, crossovers are built on a car’s platform, which gives them the handling and fuel efficiency of a car, while also offering the higher ride height, increased ground clearance, and sometimes all-wheel drive that are characteristic of SUVs.

Tamara and kids spending quality time in their tent.
Subaru crossovers have a low center of gravity yet higher clearance of a sedan.

Subaru is known for building crossovers such as the Outback and Crosstrek that are tailored for outdoor enthusiasts. They come with upgraded suspensions, wheels, and even built in raised side rails and crossbars to make it easier to prepare the vehicle for outdoor activities such as camping. Having a crossover has a couple of interesting advantages when mounting a rooftop tent: The tent is lower to the ground making it easier to operate, install and uninstall. You may also be able to fit in a standard garage which is not feasible with an SUV.

Rack Selection

Installing a rooftop tent on a Subaru Crosstrek will require deciding on an appropriate roof rack system. Options are infinite but I have grouped them into these three:

  • Crossbars over the OEM side rails: This is the simplest, low weight, and far more economical option. Companies like Thule, Yakima, Rhino Rack have these generic systems that hug onto a side rail offering different lengths of aluminum bars. If you are somewhat handy you can certainly install this by yourself in your garage in less than an hour. Prices range from $500-$750.
Tamara and kids spending quality time in their tent.
2 load bars are the minimum requirement for the installation of a rooftop tent.
  • Platform over the OEM side rails: For mounting a rooftop tent the minimum requirement is 2 crossbars. Having a full platform spreads the weight over more crossbars, however it is unnecessary. Most of the additional material is wasted. Use a platform if the intension is to remove the tent when it is not in use and to do another activity in which the platform is needed. These will be in the range of $900-$1800. Refer to the article What roof rack to use for your rooftop tent? for more information on platforms vs crossbars.
Tamara and kids spending quality time in their tent.
Platforms can be an overkill if the only intension is to install a rooftop tent.
  • Full aftermarket platform system. The Crosstrek comes in 5 submodels Base, Premium, Sport, Limited and Wilderness. All of them except the Base model come with raised side rails which makes it easier to find load bar systems for a rooftop tent. Use a full aftermarket platform system such as Prinsu if your Crosstrek does not have the factory side rails, if you want or need a super low profile system for clearance, or if you need to accommodate for more weight than what the factory side rails can hold. These racks range from $800-$1500.
Tamara and kids spending quality time in their tent.
Slick low profile design. It can be difficult to reach under these platforms due to limited space between the roof and the platform.

Tent Fitment

Evolution Series Small: The Evasion or Space Small tents are a great fit for this vehicle. Tent measures 51” wide keeping it within the width of the vehicle which gives it a great aerodynamic look. Popular load bar systems like the Yakima Timberline system offers a 50” bar that would support the entire tent side to side. These tents can comfortably sleep 2 people.

Tamara and kids spending quality time in their tent.
James Baroud Evasion Small in Black

Odyssey: This tent is 4” wider than the Evolution Small tents. The extra room of 55” wide and 79” long allows you to sleep 2 adults and a child. It is recommended to get bars that are at least 53” wide to support the bottom of this tent. Most companies offer 55” or 60” bars and if the excess bothers you, you can always have them cut to size.

Tamara and kids spending quality time in their tent.
James Baroud Odyssey in Black

Installing a larger tent is an option, however the big trade off is being able to use the hatchback. A larger tent would have to be centered around the two crossbars which would interrupt the proper operation of the hatchback.

Can you install an awning?

Camping with a shorter vehicle makes it easy to operate a rooftop tent or even get things off the roof like kayaks, bicycles, surf boards, however it makes it tricky when it comes to setting up awnings. The bars on a Subaru Crosstrek sit at about 5’5” from the ground. Awnings then have to have enough inclination for rainwater to run off. Attaching an awning to the crossbar would force to have the water run off towards the vehicle, which is not ideal. James Baroud developed the frontier awning which attaches to the top shell of the Odyssey tent, raising its position in reference to the ground. It can be deployed with the tent open or closed with perfect angle to provide shade and protection from rain.

Tamara and kids spending quality time in their tent.
Frontier awning offers protection to the door of the tent and a 6’x8′ area adjacent to the vehicle and tent.

Have questions about fitment or setup for your Subaru Crosstrek?

Contact us today to talk to an expert.

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