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I remember the first time I saw someone sleeping in their vehicle for fun. It was 1999. I was in Vail, and I hit a parking lot après party with a dude who was sleeping in his Ford Ranger pickup. He had built a plywood sleeping platform with all of his ski gear stored beneath, allowing him to camp out in his truck, save money on pricey ski resort lodging, and snag first chair in the morning.

He sold me on the idea of camping out in your car, and I’ve spent the last twenty-plus years trying to perfect my own system. I’ve built elaborate platforms for my Toyota 4Runner with built-in gear storage, and purchased the pre-fab Decked system for the back of my Ford F150. Both are good permanent solutions for people who overland or camp on the regular, but what about the weekend warrior who only plans to sleep in their daily driver on weekends? Enter the , which might be the perfect solution for the majority of car campers who are looking to sleep in the back of their vehicle without going full van life.

Hele Box Solo Car Camping Platform

Dimensions: 6’ x 24”
Weight: 25 lbs

Pros and Cons
⊕ Easy setup
⊕ Customizable to your vehicle
⊕ Portable
⊕ Doubles as a table
⊗ Expensive
⊗ Heavy and awkward to carry in its case

Setting Up the Hele Box

The Hele Box is a portable sleeping platform that can be broken down and stored in an included storage case when not in use, and it’s fast and easy to deploy when it’s time to camp on weekends. Fold the back seats of your vehicle down, set up the Hele Box, and you essentially double the space in your vehicle, giving you a bedroom “upstairs” and a garage “downstairs.”

Set up takes less than five minutes, and is just a matter of sliding poles together, clicking the legs into place, and laying out the wooden slats. It’s 24 inches wide and 72 inches long, which is big enough to accommodate me (I’m 6’3”), but small enough to fit in the back of most regular-sized SUVs with the back seats folded down. Hele Outdoors has to let you know if the Hele Box platform will fit into your specific vehicle, but if you own a Subaru Outback or Toyota 4Runner (likely 75-percent of you reading this review), rest assured that it will fit.

There’s even a way to shorten the platform’s length from 72 inches to 66 inches if you have a smaller vehicle. The Hele Box fit perfectly in the back of our 2015 Nissan Pathfinder, commonly referred to as the “mom jeans of SUVs,” giving me plenty of room to sleep and store gear beneath and around the platform.

Adjustable Legs to Fit a Variety of Cars and SUVs

My favorite design feature of the Hele Box is the  independently adjustable legs, which allow you to fine tune the amount of head room you need above the platform as well as the amount of storage space below. I have some bulky gear boxes, and I found a sweet spot that gave me enough headroom while allowing me to slide my camp kitchen and other items below the Hele Box. Also, some cars have backseats that don’t fold flat, but Hele Box’s legs, which adjust in half-inch increments from 8.75 inches to 14 inches, allow you to ground the platform around any uneven surfaces while keeping the sleeping surface flat I spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out how to design my DIY sleeping platform around my 4Runner’s back seats, which did not fold completely flat. If I had the Hele Box, it would have just been a matter of adjusting two legs.

Hele Box Add-Ons

The sleeping platform itself consists of hardwood slats, so you just throw your sleeping pad on top. Any sleeping pad that matches the Hele Box’s dimensions will work,, but if you don’t love your current pad, I can recommend Hele Outdoors’ pad. It’s three inches thick, made from a super plush and comfortable combo of foam and air, and has a soft topper and no-slip bottom so it stays put on the slats.

At the risk of sounding like an infomercial—but wait, there’s more!—add a set of tall legs to your Hele Box kit, and the platform doubles as a large table that can  stand alone or extend from your tailgate. Either way, the six foot long table will give you plenty of room for cooking and feeding the whole family. The ($520) comes with multiple sized legs, an extra storage box, and the plush sleeping pad.

From what I can tell, nothing was overlooked in the design. The materials are solid (aerospace-grade aluminum and hardwood slats) and built to last. Each leg has a double locking system with clicking pegs and a twisting brace that further secures the connection so there’s no wobble, even if you toss and turn in the middle of the night. Even the storage case that holds the system when it’s not in use doubles as gear storage with built-in dividers. I also appreciate the ability to shorten the platform to 66 inches, because that means truck owners with 5’6” truck beds (like me) can still use the platform in their tiny truck beds.

It’s a small detail, but I also like how all of the components actually fit well into the storage case when you’re ready to pack it up at the end of the weekend. There’s nothing more frustrating than taking a tent out of its original packaging and not being able to fit it back into the bag.

Is the Hele Box Better Than Other Sleeping Platforms?

The Hele Box Solo weighs 25 pounds (with a weight capacity of 250 pounds), which feels heavy when you’re carrying it around in its case, but it’s a fraction of the weight of many other sleep/storage systems, like the Decked in the back of my truck, or the system I built for my 4Runner.  I think the drawers and sleeping platform I built weighed three times as much, which meant I never took them out of the back of my 4Runner. But the Hele Box is light enough to truly be portable and removable. There is a new wave of similar portable car camping sleep systems hitting the market right now, and the Hele Box seems to be on par with the average weight and is a little less expensive than most.

One thing you should consider before buying: The Hele Box isn’t like a traditional cot, most of which are made from canvas and have at least a little bit of sag built into their design so your body is cradled in one position while you sleep. The Hele Box is a solid platform, which allows for storage beneath you while you sleep, but also means it doesn’t have any gives. This is important if you’re an active sleeper. If you’re tossing and turning all night, you might just roll right off of the platform. If you need more room to wander, or you don’t camp solo, check out the double size Hele Box.

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