Show us your truck bed sleeping platform/drawer/storage systems

thank you sir, a lot of time and effort went into it but I've had some good feedback so I am exploring offering it to the masses.

 

Hopefully you’ll be able to offer a “modest” price point for the masses. If so you’ll be doing all you can to keep up w/ demand.

 

the idea is to have levels. I think starting price can be at or under $1k but for something like mine, it'll be near $2k just based on materials and time. Still half the price of most others

 

I’ll look into it thanks!!

 

Had a couple questions about dimensions on my set up. I drew these sketches to show the concept and basic dimensions that I would use if I were to build it again. I'm happy with my setup, but after building it, I made it more complicated and not as efficient with space as possible. Hope this helps you guys out. Always open to questions and helping out if I can. This was a fun project to build.

I did not include the kitchen drawer I did since it was designed around a specific griddle. It is the same construction concept as the regular drawer, just has the sides cut out for access to the griddle.

 

Updated progress. Got the frame and drawers painted and handles mounted. Still need to paint and carpet the top sleeping platform. Will do that after my hunting trip this weekend.

 

Hey do you have this in a build thread? I have some questions about doing something similar.

 

Got to use the set up this weekend while hunting (minus the griddle and kitchen drawer) the paint didn’t dry all the way before I loaded it all up. It was stuck a bit at first. Gotta finish painting and carpeting the top boards, put the drawer stops on and Then figure out how i want to secure it in the bed.

 

I have had great success with a similar set up of a cot and self inflating pad in my LB Tacoma. The cot that fits is a Roll-a-Cot...fits exactly for length, no middle leg so goes tight against bed side. Very comfortable, easy to use, not permanent.

Photos over in the “Show what’s in your camper thread”, page 28.

 

ah-thank-you-very-much. *google searches "Roll-a-Cot"

 

Some questions for drawer people:

What materials (and thickness) did you use for the sides, bottom, and front of your drawers?

Did you use any simple joinery? I'd like to use rabbet joints but I think that means I can't use plywood, correct?

If you made dividers within the drawer, what was your system for that?

I also just remain confused about the mechanism for stopping the drawer from sliding all the way out if one is using the bearing-metal tube slide setup.

Basically I'd just love to get a real detailed breakdown of people's drawer-building process. Next step is to find a real good woodworker to ask some questions, I guess.

 

16 gauge steel. Welded to a 3/4" square tube frame.

 

I used 3/4” sanded plywood for the bottom, back and front pieces and 1/2” for the sides. No need for special joints. Just glue and screw.ise pilot holes so it doesn’t split the plywood. I screwed the sides into the bottom piece since it was thickest. Once you add the 3/4” tubing to the sides for the rail, it adds a ton of structural integrity to the 1/2” plywood.

For the dividers, I just had some left over strips of wood that I trimmed from a larger piece of plywood and glued them to the sides of the drawer with enough space for a piece of ply to slide in between them. Just glued them and let sit for an hour. They were solid.

 

I call what I accomplish: "crapentry"

 

I have a welder & can weld so let me ask this:
Would it be lighter if I made a 'skeleton' frame w/ 1"x1" sq. tubing & then use 3/4" plywood for the top?
Would the 1"x1" sq. tubing be cheaper than using all wood for the frame?
Stronger?
Easier/quicker to remove?
Thanks!

 

I thought about this as well before building mine out of wood. I need to weigh my total set up now that it is done, but I think you’d have to use aluminum tubing to get a noticeable weight difference. I could be wrong though. But I feel like they’d still weigh about the same. Would you still use bearings? If so, you’d have to have a lot of vertical pieces to attach them to. I had 8 locations for the bearings on my set up.

I would like to see someone build this out of metal though. I think it would be awesome.

 

If I use bearings, I’d just run 2 pieces of tubing front to back on the frame with the bearings running between them, then mount them normally on the drawer.
Have the rails for the bearings welded to the frame and the bearings mounted on the drawer itself, opposite of what people do with wood.
Does that make sense?
I want to build just a platform first then add drawers later on.

 

I gotcha. I think that would be much lighter than a wood setup then.

 

You'll just have to do the math to figure out if it would be lighter or not. Steel 1x1x0.083 is basically 1 lb/ft. 3/4" plywood is 2.13 pounds per sq.ft.
Again, you'll have to look at local material costs for to know if it's cheaper.
I properly build wooden thing can be plenty strong. Welded metal though will likely have greater resistance to flexing and vibration.
Easy/quickness of removal will depend on how you anchor it and how much it ultimately weighs.

 

I used Threaded Inserts.
It made the assembly disassembly easier.