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

My best try at a knockoff bamboo modular bed system, gonna add some slides for storage and a cooking area next. The DAC tent will cover the tailgate was $100 on ebay !

 

Looks familiar! How much time and money did you spend on it?

 

More time than money!
$110 for 2 sheets sanded pine plywood and $20 for a crap jigsaw, another $27 for router bits (which I should have not set so deep, should have taken a closer look at your details!) it’s no where near perfect “ mostly the chair attachments and pieces took the longest, (small pieces with a jigsaw on a tailgate!)
If I had money and no time I would definitely just order them! Since I did some of it at work, so it was free’ish. If someone offered me $700 not sure I’d want to do it again! You have a great product at a good price!

 

Thanks man, I really appreciate it!
You're the first person I've seen who's recreated the rocking couch by hand, which is no easy task. Nicely done!
One thing to keep in mind: my prototypes were made from a similar inexpensive pine sheet and they delaminated after a few months of moisture exposure testing. So make sure keep it dry or seal it with some poly if you can.
(The baltic birch and bamboo that we use now is made with a waterproof adhesive between plies that virtually eliminates all delam from moisture exposure)

 

Thanks for the heads up, I appreciate the info. I didn’t want to use the expensive lumber the first time.
The rockers were a pain. I knew a couple measurements and used the lines on a sheet of notebook paper as a ruler laid on a iPad to get multiple measurements and an adjustable square to get the angle off the seat. That took the longest!
I gotta ask, are the rockers made out of the 24” scraps? It seems like it was over 25” wide when measuring by notebook paper! : )

 

In the middle of my drawer build. Need to poly the inside of the box (and drawer when I build it) and the outer and lid/deck will be roll-on herculiner bed liner.

 

My wife takes the truck on camping trips, sometimes where they may be inclement weather conditions. I built this bed kit so that we could remove one side before she leaves, and if she needed, she could sit upright on that side of the bed, but still have the platform with here mattress and sleeping bag on top and supplies underneath.

 

Plywood,stain,etc./$150, used shell $300, used tent ext./$100. 5 days in Colorado Rockies priceless !

 

My bed mods were geared more some permanent storage for the stuff that stays in the truck. I didn't want it to interfere with loading the truck up for camping.







It's a significant amount of storage, everything I prev carried in a large plano box and what was under stored the rear seat with room left over. The flat platform is nice for strapping down the soft camping stuff like tent and sleeping bags, the remainder of the bed is left for the stuff that's a little taller.

The setup worked nicely on a recent camping trip.





I may cut a couple leaves for an inside bed like Fireme's above, for now I'm using an inflatable bed on the tent floor which works pretty well.

 

Faye Hadley just posted this video of her Tacoma build. They did a nice job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5JZ7O6sfwo

 

I like the kitchen setup, except its quite bulky, but the L shape with the fridge right there is nice. I might try to do similar but I need to keep the overall size down since I am building a GFC style setup.

 

hey boss what wheels are you running you got good sick fitment?

 

I’m running 295 70 17’s on Black Rhino Warlords with a -12 offset.

 

sick and what kind of lift and control arms you got?

 

When I bought it, a Fabtech 6” lift had already been installed. It was running 35’s on 20 inch rims. It took two acres to turn the truck around…haha. I didn’t know much about lifts when I bought it. But I don’t aggressively wheel that much. Mostly forest service roads for fishing, hunting, camping, and cutting firewood, so it has worked well for me. I dropped down to the 295’s about a year after I bought it and added Bilstein 5100’s and a custom full length add a leaf. It drives like a new truck.

 

I decided to build a drawer setup ahead of building my flatbed. This is meant to go in an open bed and I think it is water tight (we have Had 12 hours of rain and no water intrusion). Ended up being 120 lbs and most of that weight is the outside 3/4" Pine box and 48" long drawer slides. If I were to build it again I would use baltic birch for the inside drawer and make an aluminum case for the outside.

Leaving to test it in the woods of Maine for a week.

 

Here’s a brief update in case anyone’s interested…

1) I tracked down my paint adhesion problem to an inappropriate primer selection. My rule of thumb has always been if you’re not sure, ask the oldest guy @ the independent hardware store and just do whatever he says. Apparently that only works 99% of the time…

So, I stripped the entire metal frame (huge PITA), prepped, and primed w Eastwood 2k. Expensive stuff, but worked like a charm.

Since I was stripping and refinishing, I decided to address a few less than ideal design choices too…

2) Not adding an access to the space ahead of the wheel well left it functionally useless.



Fortunately I still had a small scrap of birch ply left over, which made cutting the hatch & cover easy. Just welded 2 tabs onto the frame to support one side, and a little bracket for the other. I thought I’d need to add some magnets or something to keep the hatch from rattling around, but after varnishing it friction fit just fine.



The space now holds some recovery gear that doesn’t get used frequently.

3) Stuff behind the rear wheel well liked to bounce around a bit and spill into the main compartment, sometimes getting in the way of sliding bins in and out.

I should have seen this coming, but easily fixed by welding on a few tabs and adding a piece of ABS. Everything stays in its place now.



Those changes probably added about a pound to the platform. But @ ~42-ish LBs it’s still amazingly light and removable in 60 seconds.

Since refinishing with a good primer, I’m still really happy with choosing steel as a light yet durable material.

B

 

Just finished mine. Still needs sealed and I am thinking about adding a piece of angle across the leading edge on the top to protect it when sliding stuff in and out. I will probably router a groove so it sits flush. Also need to decide where to split the side pieces so I can access below it and add a drawer stop. Drawers are a little stiff but I’m sure that will wear in…

 

Does anyone have a good solution for a drop down flat space?

The Mrs does the majority of our cooking, but the tailgate height is a tad too high for her, so once everything is built into a drawer the stove is about chest height. I was thinking if I could have a drop down and out surface (think opposite of those lift top hinges) I could have the stove at the end of the drawer that drops out the bottom.

Would a lift top hinge work if it were upside down?

 

i dont see why the lift top wouldn't work upside down as long as the stove isn't too heavy.

you could use 2 hinges for something to drop down too. something like this crude paint thing i just made. blue would be the fold out part, red are hinges. you might not even need two hinges now that i look at it more