Sleeping in your Truck?? Winter Time??

I am a big guy and have slept in my truck many times. Don't know why you don't want to run it but if you don't you need the smallest coldest rated sleeping bag you can find. Wear a toboggan too.
I was trapped in my truck for 22 hours once in a blizzard. I was in my 2013 4Runner with 4.0 V6. I didn't sleep much and let it idle the entire time to stay warm. I cracked my driver's side window and got out and made sure my tail pipe was uncovered every few hours. Bottom line I learned that an idling truck will burn a quarter to a third of a gallon of fuel an hour. I had just filled up and once I got moving again I went to the next gas station and put in 7.5 gallons. So for a six hour idle you will use around two gallons of fuel.

 

sleeping diagonally in a capped short bed is good im 5'11" 200lbs. Small blow up mattress to fill the space and a sleeping bag. Its all about what you have to do to make it work.

Its amazing what you will endure when you know thats its not permanent

 

Hell yeah, brother! Didn't know the Navy got down like that.

 

We have our moments

 

Small futon in the bed worked for me in college. May find a used one cheap.

 

Never slept inside the truck myself, so I cant really give any advice on that as far as how to or what not. But do have enough cold weather camping experience that Ill add a few notes.

As others have said, grab a very good sleeping bag. Rated to as low as you can reasonably afford. -30*C is probably a good start given you are going to be inside the truck and therefore sheltered from the direct elements. Beyond that, a hat and good dry wool socks and base layer pants/ shirt will all help.

One thing you will undoubtedly have problems with is condensation inside the truck. The human body emits a metric F ton of humidity. This will make every surface wet, and if its -30*C that will soon freeze. I would highly recommended getting some side window visors. Then you can crack all 4 windows without letting a ton of snow in (even 5 if you want to crack the rear window) to allow for max circulation of fresh air. Waking up in the middle of the night to condensation dripping on you and coating the outside of your sleeping bag is no benuo.

On the same note, give yourself plenty of time in the morning to warm the truck and run the defroster to clear the windows clear before you have to drive away. Hard to say how long that could take.

Unfortunately Buddy heaters also produce water vapor as a result of the combustion reaction. So Im not sure I would recommend one of those.

If this a long term gig (all winter) you may look into one of those cheap diesel heaters. You could set it up in the bed, plumb the hot air duct into the back window. That would make a huge difference to keep the humidity low, and also help with temps. Up to you if you think the setup / takedown time and hassle is worth the tradeoff

 

I've seen others here post about 12v blankets. Don't know much about them but I'd imagine you'd need/want a second battery

 

got my wife a heated blanket for christmas and its usb powered im sure a portable battery pack would work on it

 

Sorry about the hard times. It will get cold fairly quickly in the cab, especially the feet. If I recall, many parking lots in Canada have power outlets for block heaters, any chance you can find a location with power? A heated blanket off a block heater outlet would seem ideal. Lost cost and can be adjusted as the truck cools down. The only issue, I was thinking many of those outlets are timed cycled on/off.

 

I took the passenger seat out of my 2001 Extend cab and it had very sufficient room to sleep in. I had a very thick down military mummy bag that I supplemented with a thin nylon sack inside the sleeping bag that I picked up at a camping store and added a military goretex combination poncho- bivy sack over everything. Underneath I used a thick moving blanket. I found it very comfortable. Lowest it ever got was 6 degrees farenheit. I could do it again, but don't think my girlfriend would be happy about that. (But I could!!!)

 

Also using a CO or carbon monoxide detector is not a bad idea if you leave your vehicle running for extended periods.

 

Be sure to have a good insulated foam pad under you because you flatten out the sleeping bag insulation. Also a warm hat and socks, hot water bottle (Nalgene) and crack your windows.

 

A lot of great advice so far. Like some have said, get a good sleeping bag and sleeping pad for sure. Living in an area that can see -30° Celsius I would try to find the lowest temperature rated bag you can get and wear at LEAST 3 good layers of clothes(long shirt, long johns, pants, wool socks, hoodie, down jacket etc.) Definitely wear a warm hat/beanie as we lose a lot of our body heat from our heads. Also, a few warm blankets to go over you and the sleeping bag for the extremely cold nights/days.

The Nalgene and boiling water is a great trick! "HotHands" Super warmers work great too.

I also would not feel comfortable sleeping with the car running unless I am in dire need.

 

A lot of us have been in bad situations in our lives, so my hat's off to you for doing what you have to do.

Anyway though... What most of these guys said, but some more ideas...

First though I want to emphasize to definitely crack a couple windows at night. You don't want to get that moisture build up. It might not sound like a big deal but it'll get bad over time.

I'm guessing money is a little tight right now, so if purchasing all the cold weather gear isn't an option, there are some good survivalist tricks that are free or close enough to free. Get yourself a couple of cheap tarps to line the seats and floor boards of the truck then crumble up dry leaves, dry pine needles, dry underbrush, stuff that's dry, etc... and sprinkle a thick layer of that stuff on top of the tarps but underneath you. It'll help insulate and if you get enough of it, it's pretty comfortable after the first night.

Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and sugar. Those will all work against your body's natural ability to maintain temperature / sleep.

Go to sleep with a full belly of food (I know this one will be controversial), it'll help keep you warm. On that same note, eat good food. A good meal is great for morale.

When you got to go. Go. Don't try to hold it, you won't sleep well. Go outside or pee in a bottle. Your choice.

 

One thing I forgot to include and is a close second to keeping my feet warm is a hat. What I do is wear an insulated heavyweight hoodie over a Carhartt hat:

$20 Carhartt Mens Knit Cuffed Beanie Hat, Black, One Size US

https://www.amazon.com/Carhartt-Acr...&keywords=carhartt+hats&qid=1609319857&sr=8-1

 

Thanks for all the tips guys. I will try the ones I can afford right now and report back.

 

It's all about insulation. Your source of heat is you, so keep a sub zero "foil" lined bag along with some several blankets to create barriers of insulation.

 

Never leave home without a trusted woobie

 

I hope your staying warm my Canadian friend, thought I would pass this on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VONFxjA6udk

 

I've camped in subzero temps a couple times without a heater and here's what I used....

1. Sub-zero sleeping bag (~$100).
2. Have some sock covered steel bottle, filled boiling water inside the sleeping bag. This can emanate heat for hours. ($10-50)
3. 12v low draw heated blanket connected to a power station (i.e. Jackery) (~$50-100 for the blanket)
4. Sleeping pad with a high R-Value. (~$100)

Hope everything works out for you.