5'4" sleeping in 5' bed?

Get yourself a fridge box. Cut it down to 5' exactly and get a good nights sleep in your garage as a test. Then you can tell your wife how well you slept and suggest that she join you in a double test that evening - get more blankets to make it extra cozy. I think you will find the answer to your quest.

I am 5'10 and i fit well into a 6' bed - just spent a week in Nevada and Utah and I slept well

 

I'm with you on RTT's, and tent when hiking or Moto camping, but having a camper shell with a mattress on a platform set up as a bed behind you is SOOOO nice. Place everything in totes beneath the platform. You can camp in rest areas, and there is no set up involved. Put an awning on the canopy and you're golden.

 

I do know where you are coming from. I ONLY wanted a manual transmission 4 cylinder, and had to wait a while to find one. My son is OK in the back of the access cab now that he's in booster, but I grew up riding around in the back of 70's small Japanese cars, so the back of the access cab seems huge. The only one I didn't like was the back seat of the 1976 Datsun B210, which felt claustrophobic before I even knew what the word meant. Even my mom's friends Porsche 911 had a more comfortable rear seat.

 

Build a simple platform and sleep diagonally....I'm 5'10 and slept fine. 60 seconds to install/remove. Gets you above the wheel wells and allows storage underneath.

 

That's an economical way to go about it.

The platform looks roomier than when I laid down in between the wheel wells on the bed mat.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

It's been a long time since I've "roughed it" going camping or being in a situation where I was limited in my sleeping arrangements.

This looks like the best method with a camper top.

 

After sleeping in the bed of my Tacoma's for 17 years, I bought a Minnie Winnie 22R. Standard issue after one turns age 65+

 

they told me i would use this in real life......

 

I remember in a post from a bit ago and someone said “manly men have 6ft beds for activities that non manly men don’t do”.

 

Are you surprised that so many members here want to sleep with their truck?

I've got no problem busting out the tent. But it is so nice and convenenient when getting an early start on a trailhead to just hop out of the bed of the truck and go. Softopper, couple 2x6 and plywood. Works awesome and only rides with me when I need/want it.

 

Woah . Same height here . Wifey too. We love camping, sleeping in the bed. That’s why I got the long bed. Paired with a softopper, it’s the perfect setup for us. Plenty of room for extra stuff like a buddy heater /bag of clothes /extra pillow, blankets and a ryobi fan . Get the long bed.

 

Exactly how our set up is. Camping gear in the back seat . Mattress pillows clothes pillows blanket ryobi fan and buddy heater in the bed.. No need to set up at night.

 

Yup! Bingo!

 

Oh man does that sound familiar. I camp out by Mono Lake in January & it gets down to the single digits at night there. I used to do the same thing with the tailgate down & shell window up with my ‘03 Dbl cab. Got old after several years of that. This last January it was really nice to be able to keep the shell window down & gate up this time with a Little Buddie heater in this access cab!

 

ecactly this. i'm 5' 10" also and sleep fine in this same setup. if it's not raining i leave the back open. if it's raining i close it and sleep more diagonal. i don't mind tent sleeping but it sure is nice to just open the back and crawl in after climbing or biking all day, and then close it up in the morning and head out.

 

I built a platform that fits my Ikea Beddinge mattress perfectly, so sleeping in the truck is actually like sleeping in my own bed. The view is usually nicer. I put thermarests under the mattress when it is below freezing to increase the r value, and bring my duvet. Frickin' LOVE sleeping in my truck. Wish I had the rear slider window in the cab...

 

Too cold for a "Senior" of soon to be 69 years old. I bought a Winniebago Minnie Winnie 22R. Still have my trusty 06 Tacoma!

 

Great photo, those a memories that will never be forgotten. Good for you!

 

No, not surprised. I even own a built-out 4runner that I’ve slept in the back of many times over the past 20+ years. So I get that it can be nice sometimes. I just think a lot of people on here don’t seem to even give a thought to regular tents anymore. After trying pretty much everything over the years, I’ll take a ground tent in almost every situation and be a lot more comfortable than the back of the truck. I know I don’t particularly like getting dressed laying down for example. I’ll have my cot in my tent, with a quality self-inflating mattress, a nice propane heater going when it’s cold, and I sleep far better than I ever have in the back of any truck. I can stand up fully, sit down on the cot to tie my shoes, chill etc… and the whole setup takes minutes. It’s nice to leave my camp setup and throw everything else in the back of my truck to explore, kayak, fish, etc… Even when I’m “overlanding” and on the move, I don’t find setting up my tent takes any more significant time than the other options.

When it came to me deciding whether to get a short or long bed, sleeping back there did come to mind. But then I realized it would be dumb for me to base my decision on that. I realized that even with a long bed, sleeping back there really isn’t any more convenient to me in most situations (unless I built it out back there, but then that limits the use of my truck for all the other things I do with it). So I simply said screw all that, I’ll just camp in a tent and buy the truck that suits me best for all of the other reasons I want a truck for. And I thought maybe that could help the OP make a more informed decision.