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

did you anchor that system down at all?

 

Heres my setup i made for extra storage and a box for my ARB fridge in my dcsb

 

My wife is short, and so is my girlfriend so we should be pretty comfy. Naw, just kidding.
I have 3 other ground tents, a RTT on my personally built adventure trailer, as well as a fully decked out truck camper with a slide out mounted on my '97 F350 for when the family needs to go with me.

I'm thinking of ways to stealth camp solo in the back of my near future next Tacoma when kayak fishing in areas that are 2 hours or more from home and I want to get in two or more days of fishing without the drive back and forth from home. Also, not interested in booking reservations in campgrounds, or hotels as most times I don't know when I will be going fishing. Kayak fishing in the ocean, and or the mighty Columbia River can be dangerous if conditions are bad. Gotta pick my days and go when conditions are safe enough. And without staying in an actual campground on the Oregon coast (in my fishing area), RV's and tents are not permitted overnight. So, stealth camping is my option. Figure I could stay in a different part of town each night to not draw attention to myself. Get there in the dark and just crash. Do all the fiddling around with gear, filleting a days catch, dinner, breakfast etc would all be done elsewhere.

Just curious if anyone here has a pic or good description of how they manage to work a sleeping platform in the 5' bed being 6' tall.
Thanks!

 

What exactly do you want a picture of? Just the platform? Like I said, I'll just sleep diagonally on the platform, and I fit just fine

 

Just a visual representation of what has worked for whomever.

Everyone likes pictures of similar ideas to bounce around in the noggin until the time comes to try for thymeselves. <--new word there, the "h" is not silent. ;-)

 

If you don't own the short bed truck yet, and being able to sleep in the back is important to you. Why don't you just buy a truck with a 6-foot bed? Either get a access cab, or a double cab with a long bed.

 

It's not about sleeping in the back that is important to me, it's I really would like to see how this works out from those that have a short bed and do sleep back there being 6' or close to it.

Let me clarify.
I already own two long bed trucks. A 1997 F350 XLT CCLB PSD 4x4 for my truck camper and a 1997 Tacoma XtraCab LE 5spd manual 4x4 that I have owned since new.

My son is now 16 and drives my 1997 Taco like he was born with a 5spd on the brain already. And I am ready for a new truck myself for daily driving. My LE was bare bones and had power steering, power brakes, and intermittent wipers as about the only creature comforts. I'm liking many of the new things available that has come out in the past 20 years. I realize I don't need many of them, and some I wouldn't have a choice regardless.

Rather than sell my current Taco just to have space at our house for a new truck and for whatever vehicle he wants to get, he is really liking my old Taco. Easy solution there.

Now with my new truck, I want the Off Road package and a manual transmission. I'm sure you know what option this leaves me, right?
I have been weighing my wants/needs for several years on what my next truck will have and Toyota has helped by narrowing it down for me with the DCSB OR M6 as my only option. On top of that, I don't like the view out of the cab with the fake hood scoop, nor the 17" wheels. Being manual as my choice, I also have no desire for the Crawl Control. As great as it may be, it's not a high ticket item over my desire to stick with manual transmission in my Tacoma.

I don't have a problem going with a short bed vs long bed because my primary hobby (at this point in life) is kayak fishing. Bed length itself isn't a factor in hauling a kayak on a rack above the bed. The one foot of bed space I would lose, I gain in cab space over the AC cab, so my normal load up with a DCSB won't be any different than how I load my current Taco. As for hauling the ATV's, again bed length isn't a factor as I have trailers for this.

So, back to asking those that own and sleep in the back of a short bed and are of the 6' tall sort, if they have any pics of their platform layouts, and/or how they work around any pitfalls with it.

Thanks

 

Kept it basic and removable. As I said, I can sleep diagonally, no problem

 

Nice dog bed,,, so the dog thinks

 

If you plan on getting a Softopper I recommend the screen windows for dry weather/bugs. Mine gets a little stuffy with the standard ones closed.

Also I'm not sure how important "stealth" is to you but I tend to use one of those 10'x10' pop-up canopies to put over the back end when it's rainy out and I put the tailgate down for extra room.

 

Stealth is crucial along the Oregon Coast. No way I'd get away with a 10x10 erected. Walmarts and such are off limits to overnight parking in RVs, vans, and other obvious vehicles.

It's going to tough enough to blend in with a kayak mounted on a rack over the truck as it is. Luckily kayaks are not a rare sight on the coast.

I was contemplating the lack of ventilation under a soft topper. I'll figure something out for some screen action for sure.

 

Yes, I have a turnbuckle on each of the 4 corners holding the frame to the Whatchamacallits attached to the bed.
The top carpeted pieces are not, except for the front hinged piece forward.

 

Thanks. Thats a design I am considering and might use anchor or use a sheet of plywood on the bottom as a base.

 

Here's my platform that I've been working on(not finished, needs foam padding). Very common setup of 2x6 sideways in bed cutouts supporting plywood. I'm about 6'1" and the last time I slept in back I didn't have the platform yet and laid at an angle with pillow in corner. With the platform it will be much nicer not dealing with the wheel wells.

 

Thanks SliMbo4.0. 6'1" and still get yourself in there without a platform. Yikes!

 

It wasn't the greatest but had some bad weather roll in and didn't want to setup the ground tent

 

Went with 5/8 plywood over notched 2x8's. Glued marine grade carpet over the two pieces of ply (stretched & stapled on the bottom).

Pretty happy w/ how it turned out. The dog is a diva and really likes when the full sized mattress is on the platform.

 

Got the platform thing all finished up. Overall I'm very happy with it! I'll probably pull my back trying to get the tire out, but it should come out.

The drawer isn't on slides or anything, and when loaded with tools it's heavy as fuck. I'll probably get slides at some point. I did put handles in the back of it so the whole thing can be lifted out if needed for some reason. Also the divider in the drawer is removable if needed.

 

Built a new platform today to fit around the SnoMaster fridge. 2x6 cross beams, 2x10 center support, 3/4" plywood carpeted. I used 3 pieces of plywood because they were left over from my previous platform.