Sleek yet durable, our caps are engineered to maximize space and protect your cargo. It works … There’s a LOT of info in this post, just take it slow - You can do it! Sale. Then we repeated this process with Drawer#2. This is the width between the Drawer Supports (minus ¼” for clearance) x the height of the Drawer Supports (minus ⅛” for clearance). I searched for pre-made options and then searched for homemade options but found nothing to fit my particular needs. Cost: Under $50 (mainly for the plastic storage bins). This sleeping platform also allows you to take advantage of the entire width between bed rails. And without any sleeping platform at all, you’ll be ready to go truck shell camping. The side and back walls of the drawer were cut and attached on top of the Drawer Base with vertical Kreg Jig joints in a toenail fashion as shown in the above diagram and photo below. Lay a few 3/16” thick pieces of plywood under the drawers to lift the drawers off the Platform Base while mounting. BONUS: If you’re a Toyota Pickup or even Tacoma owner these measurements should be very close to your own because Toyota didn’t change the 6ft bed layouts all that much over the years. Expand your horizons — and your truck bed — with a LEER cab-high cap. In this post we’ll walk you through the build process for our truck bed sleeping platform as part of our DIY truck bed camper build, including everything from design choices to finished assembly. Because we are for all intents and purposes complete carpentry noobs, throughout this guide we’ll make references to the below non-technical terms in order to help clarify parts of the assembly process. Milliard Truck Tent | Standard 6.5ft Bed. Drawer #1 Face cut @ 15 ¾” wide x 6 ⅞” tall, Drawer #2 Face cut @ 18 ½” wide x 6 ⅞” tall. But the great thing about truck camping is that there is virtually no barrier to entry (see our complete guide on how to get started truck camping here). You’ll find plenty of truck bed ideas fashions of botanical dining table and seats sets which can be popular in supplying marketplace. Also, dragging your gear out in bins poses increased challenges if you’re hoping to stealth camp. Cut a sheet of 1/2″ plywood to fit. The driver side we left open because of a plan we will get to shortly. Next, you need to buy all the tools and materials that you will require for … Optional but recommended is taking the two sections of p-cord from the middle and tying them into a knot so the hatches don't open up accidentally if … For more truck camping and overlanding build tips and resources be sure to SUBSCRIBE for blog updates. Feb 25, 2017 - Like it says on the tin. The photo below shows the 3rd Width Addition we added to the rear passenger-side support, which helps to support Platform Cover Sections # 2 and 4 (discussed below). Set it up the same way as it was in your truck and now you have a bed with storage! A truck camping setup that you can easily take in and out. We accomplished this by installing three Width Additions - 2”x1” oak boards - mounted flush with the top of three of the supports with horizontal Kreg Jig joints as shown in the diagram below. If you want to improve your security, you can devise a latching system using a hasp lock to provide an additional layer of security. The list was daunting, but we knew we wanted: Enough space to sleep 2 (plus a rapidly growing toddler) to 3 people comfortably, A pickup truck camping platform strong enough to still be used to haul things when not in use for truck camping - while also being removable if need be, Built in storage for a Dual Battery Setup using our Inergy Kodiak Solar Generator, 12V charging ports for cell-phones & laptops. For many overlanders, there are three general choices: a camper (ie: a slide in truck bed camper), a roof top tent, or a sleeping platform either in an SUV or pickup truck with a cap. The short Driver-side and Passenger-side Supports (in front of and behind the wheel wells) were attached both vertically to the Platform Base and horizontally to the long Drawer Supports with Kreg Jig joints as shown in the picture below. First we used a 1 ¼” hole saw to create a hole to act as both the handle for the hatch lid and the opening for the jigsaw to cut out the rest of the hatch. In our first sleeping platform build we used long drawer slides and custom built-in storage to house all of our gear and equipment in a fixed and organized fashion in a full-width truck bed sleeping platform. Check Latest Price. So for about $700-$1000 (including the camper shell) you can have a great camping rig that you can be proud of. Dry Weight: 340 pounds. For weekend camping trips and short-term travel this is a great truck bed camping solution since you can just as easily pull everything right back out and go about your daily life, while still being able to use your truck like a truck. Utilize 15% more space than a cab-high model and save on fuel with stunning aerodynamics. If you’re not yet sure if pickup truck camping is right for you, check out our post on how we became a truck camping family for some inspiration, or head over to this post - Everything You Need to Know About Truck Bed Camping - to see practical info on how to get started. Which allows enough room to sleep a family of 3 fairly comfortably. You also need to determine the amount of space that is available to you at the back of your truck. This can lead to lost or misplaced gear, and abounding frustration - especially when you can’t find that choice bag of coffee in the morning that you swear you packed! This allows enough width for the cover sections to rest on securely without the need to screw them down, enabling us to easily and quickly remove the entire platform cover to access electrical or make repairs if needed. Then top with a sheet of at-least ½” plywood to serve as the sleeping platform. Though this truck shell camping platform sacrifices some headroom compared to other build methods, we were able to maximize headroom by making sure the platform was built to rest just at wheel-well height and as low as possible. We used a speed square to ensure all the supports stayed as close as possible to 90 degree angles from the base and the 48” EXACT square to make sure the supports were straight from front to back. No hammering necessary. Our mid/high-rise caps are with you for the long haul and large haul. This space houses our 12v distribution fuse block, Inergy Kodiak Solar Generator, and aluminum propane tank. See our full disclosure.). To accomplish this, we made sure the center drawer support was positioned exactly 16” from the driver-side drawer support. Somewhere to store dirty gear, shoes, etc. I also wanted to be able to use the entire bed of my truck on a daily basis, so a full-time sleeping/storage build was out of the question. We hope that this guide will help you realize your own pickup truck camping build. A truck camper is a demountable recreational vehicle (RV) that is loaded and unloaded from the bed of a full-size or mid-size pickup truck. It’s essential to keeping you comfortable and organized, it acts as your kitchen when you’re hungry, your living room when the weather is crummy, and your bedroom when you come back to camp after a long day of hiking and adventure. When the platform is removed or lowered, you gain increased headroom to make your truck camper a more comfortable place in inclement weather. You can literally just throw an air mattress, a sleeping bag, and some plastic storage containers* filled with gear in the bed of your truck, like our friend at #opt4scenic. $1,500: Truck Bed Cap. You can expect to find an east-west facing bed that can accommodate most people, The bed’s dimensions are 60×80 which is very generous for a camper bed. Want to come back to this post later? The drawers were mounted virtually flush with the end of the drawer slides, as you can see in the below photos. We decided to place a ¾” plywood Platform Base on the bed of the truck to provide a nice level foundation to build the platform on, and by dividing the Platform Base into 3 sections it makes it easier to fit into the bed (and remove if needed) with the camper shell still on. AT Overland Atlas. A few more things I want to make mention of is that our bed will actually rest from the passenger side of the truck bed to the sidewall of the drawers on the driver side. Feb 20, 2020 - Explore John Pappas's board "Truck Bed Ideas" on Pinterest. When removed, this also provides a place for us to sit upright inside with our feet down. A Note About Security: For both personal safety and peace of mind, make sure your truck bed camping build-out is secure.Both your tailgate and the canopy should have locks, but make sure they’re up to snuff. I struggled with this problem through the course of owning a few different trucks. From your grandma’s backyard, to RV campsites, to the unexplored forests in your region. *(This post contains affiliate links. Measure your truck bed and supplies The very first step is to accurately measure your truck to find out how much space you’ve got to work with. By doing this, the Drawer Faces (once attached to the end of the drawers) will close flush in between the Drawer Supports. And if the prospect of building your own truck bed sleeping platform seems completely overwhelming, know that we felt exactly the same way - having literally no prior experience with design or carpentry. The common feature is the ability to demount the camper from the truck. TIP: By setting the jigsaw to a 45 degree cutting angle while making the hatch cut out, it creates a nice beveled lip and a very simple lid. The patented design comes with Heavy Duty Cloth Material for superior puncture resistance with cutouts on each side that allow the mattress to fit around & over the wheel wells, creating a sleep area that utilizes the entire truck bed. And things get disorganized FAST! Eventually we were able to create a design to integrate ALL these things into our truck camping build. Essentially, it’s what makes your truck camping rig a home. We needed something more substantial, and because of our dual battery setup plans we needed fixed storage options for our equipment. Truck shell camping is an incredible way to travel and experience the outdoors; we hope this guide has helped you choose the best truck bed sleeping platform design for your own truck camping setup or overlanding build. Drawer #1 Base cut @ 14 ½” wide x 70” long. For the sleeping platform to be complete you will need two outer boxes that go over your truck’s wheel wells. If you’re interested in building a similar full width platform of your own, check out our detailed post - DIY Truck Bed Camper: Build the Ultimate Sleeping Platform. It took a bit of research in camper forums to hit on the right blend of simple and stable. But packing the truck with all the necessary items for camping while maintaining space to sleep in the bed of the truck is a test of gear management. 4 - 4ftx8ft cabinet grade 3/4in. You can spend less than a PVC sleeping platform build if you scrounge scrap materials from construction sites, or the scrap bins at your local lumber yard, or use materials you already have lying around. Drawer #2 Base cut @ 17” wide x 70” long. If a printable PDF of all the diagrams found below would help you in your build, you can print them at the bottom of the post. We also notched out an access in Drawer #1 for our Cook Partner Stove knobs and handle using a jigsaw. Whether any camper can be used with your truck (2WD vs. 4WD, standard cab vs. extended cab, etc.) For our purposes, this just was not the way we wanted to go down. Horizontal Kreg Jig Joints were used to secure them together end-to-end in the format you see above. Kreg Jig Joint - this is a wood joinery method using a tool called a Kreg Jig that allows you to easily and securely join wood using a drill and Kreg Jig screws - It’s like making your own DIY Ikea furniture! However, this is not an ideal solution for long-term travel, overlanding, or extended truck canopy camping trips. Thank you for your interest in our site! Kitchen appliances. This laid the foundation for our truck bed sleeping platform design, and helped in planning the rest of the build. As we like to say at TCM, “If it doesn’t demount, it doesn’t count”. If you’re not sure this truck camping setup will work for your needs - or you’re looking for an alternative build that incorporates some more modular storage - our latest Homemade DIY Truck Camper Build may be right for you. The Camperbox capitalizes on the convenience of sleeping in your vehicle with a small, packable conversion kit for a back-of-the-car bed. See more ideas about truck camping, camping, truck camper. First we outlined the footprint of the truck bed to calculate how much space we had to work with and roughly how much plywood we would need. Section #3 was cut to provide easy access to the rear driver-side storage area and wheel-well. We installed lift-off lids to create the rest of our bed platform, and also to allow us access to these compartments when we need it. By using cabinet grade plywood for the construction of a truck bed sleeping platform, you’ll be able to completely customize the build, strength, and storage options. >>>>CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE PRINTABLE<<<<, Fridge Slide: A DIY Alternative for Truck or Vehicle Camping, How to Choose The Best Dual Battery Setup, A Guide to Sleeping Platforms for Truck Shell Camping, The Best Memory Foam Truck Bed Mattress for Truck, Van, or SUV Camping, Overland Shower - A DIY Camping Shower and Water Container. These serve to support Platform Cover Sections # 1 and 3 (discussed below). The Truck The white truck included within this undertaking can seat two minifigures as a result of huge quantity of space in the cab. Having the right tools, measuring everything multiple times to ensure cuts were accurate, and taking our time was crucial to making this DIY truck bed sleeping platform a success! By accessing or using this site you are indicating your consent to and agreement with the: Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Affiliate Disclosure, Powered by a Toyota 22R | ©2019, takethetruck unless otherwise noted. Section #4 serves as a removable cover for our dirty-shoe/gear storage. For more truck camping and overlanding build tips and resources be sure to SUBSCRIBE for blog updates. I suggest budgeting $1,500. Don’t forget to grab the free printable PDF of all the diagrams by clicking below, if they’ll help you in your build! For a detailed step-by-step build guide for this truck camping setup and sleeping platform design, check out our Homemade DIY Truck Camper Build. Let’s go through the options in order of expense, so you can stop reading when your wallet cries uncle. Wherever one’s adventures lead, a camper shell is the perfect, lightweight companion that won’t break the bank. This also left 18 ¾” between the center drawer support and the passenger-side drawer support, which meant that Drawer#2 would have 15 ¾” of inside width after accounting for ¾” for each drawer slide and each drawer wall being ¾” thick plywood (again, a total of 3”). For more on our always evolving truck camper build and our adventures as a truck camping family of three, please SUBSCRIBE. However, we did not want these sections to require being screwed down into the supports, but instead wanted to find a way for them to rest on top. Outfitters Treehouse. These 3 sections were cut from one 4x8 piece of plywood. After hours spent sitting in the pickup truck bed dreaming about the possibilities, we created this very rough design and began taking measurements and gathering materials and tools. Though you could make your drawers any width you want by changing the position of the center drawer support to the right or left, we decided to make the driver-side drawer 13” wide (interior-width) to perfectly fit our Cook Partner stove. Selecting the right truck bed sleeping platform for your truck camping setup is a tough process - there are literally thousands of inspiring and unique builds out there! We also initially needed a wide enough (and strong enough) sleeping area to comfortably fit two adults and a growing toddler, and most transformer style sleeping platform builds didn’t allow for this. The measurements throughout this guide likely won’t apply exactly to your own build, but hopefully the process of how we measured will, and you can simply add length/width to the dimensions to suit your own truck’s bed space. See more ideas about truck bed, truck camping, truck bed camping. We’ll reach out to you in the future if we post more content we think you’ll like. to be stored alongside the passenger-side wheel well. As you’ll see in the next section below - “Making The Truck Bed Sleeping Platform Cover” - we designed the Platform Cover to be four separate pieces of plywood that can easily be removed independently of each other. Snap! Save a pin for later if you want to come back to this post! Truck shell camping is an incredible way to travel and experience the outdoors; we hope this guide has helped you choose the best truck bed sleeping platform design for your own truck camping setup or overlanding build. A good camper shell can eliminate the worst aspects of having an open-air bed, while retaining the utility of a large storage area inherent to trucks, all without compromising a truck’s ability to carry a slide-in camper. But cost will increase when you begin buying plywood and integrating built in storage. Unpack the platform and unload it section by section. Having a camper in the back of your truck provides you the gas mileage of tent camping with some of the organization of hauling a trailer and you won't get as wet when it rains. If you want fun, freedom, and adventure, you want a truck camper. This “toenailing” gives the joint(s) an incredible amount of strength [link to Kreg Jig video]. The third and most recent addition to the AT Overland truck topper lineup is the … The Sleeping Platform Cover consists of 4 sections. It ’ s worth it—these are the Walls to your house to store your camping supplies underneath your bed eliminate! Place for Us to sit upright inside with our feet down supplied with a sheet of Under. Video ] all, you ’ ll find plenty of clearance we truck bed camping platform able create. A great option when weight is a little time, work, and the right tools materials... Increased headroom to make your truck a layout of the drawer Walls underneath... 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Your pickup truck bed ideas '' on Pinterest cure per the manufacturer ’ s backyard to. 16 ” from the drawer supports took a bit of research in camper to... Format you see above unpack the platform is the perfect, lightweight companion that ’.

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