My Hybrid Crosstrek has 19,000 miles and all my tires are going bald already.  I do go camping with the dogs in back and some gear.  I'm wondering if there is a design flaw with the Crosstrek.  Has anyone else had this issue?  

Interesting, my non-hybrid 2015 only has about 1500 miles on it at this point. So far so good, but your post has me wondering which brand of tires yours came with.  From the literature I got with mine it seems that they may be any of three brands.

The first question I have is have you had your alignment checked??

The Yokohamas wear out quickly.  Mine did, 19000 is about right.

I have the Yokohamas.  Durango is a Subaru town so at the grocery today I walked around the parking lot and looked at tires.  All the non hybrid Crosstrek's had good tires but the one hybrid I found had totally bald back tires and very worn front tires.  I waited for the owner to come out and spoke with him.  He said Subaru told him that it was the way he was driving or he's putting too much weight in the back.  He says he takes his big dog on road trips and the dog rides in back.  Subaru should tell folks not to buy a hybrid if they are going to put any weight in the back of the car.  

 

Anybody have recommendations for a better tire that will last longer than 20K miles?

Rotate the tires every 3-5000 miles.  It's really that easy.

Low rolling resistance tires, heavier car.  It's annoying, but not unusual.  I had a first gen Prius that did this, and it was common with them as well. Same for a 96 Dodge Ram 1500 I had with Goodyear tires. Pretty much anything in the aftermarket should fix the issue.  Keep in mind the weight rating for the tire and the weight of the car. 

You made it 20k on Subaru OEM Yokos? 

 

Stick a fork in 'em. That's normal...unless the wear is very uneven.

Very common for factory tires to wear out in 20k or less. That's not limited to Subaru. Every vehicle manufacturer has issues with original tires wearing out. The manufacturer doesn't make any money on tires, so they use the (reasonably) least expensive tire they can get.

Wow! I should consider myself lucky. I got 36,500 on mine. Yeah,well, they were pretty bad when I swapped them last week. They were rotated every 3000 miles and I had one alignment done.