Cap extension for short bed camping?

My search-bar-ninja skills have failed me…

I’m researching turning my DCSB into a camper and looking at an ARE cap. But I have a 5’ bed.

I’m looking for some sort of tent extension system I can use to extend the shell from 5’ with the tailgate closed to the 6.5ish’ with the tailgate down.

The closest thing I’ve found on Google is the Nomad Camper package by TopperLift. Are there any other recommendations or DIY experience to keep my toes out of the elements?

 

I've been thinking about the same thing. Found a few guys who did it themselves.
This guy has made a bunch of videos about his and has also been living out of his truck for many years now. https://youtu.be/8YeoyGvuFxo https://youtu.be/AQ69KN1h_qA https://youtu.be/AnKPg2AOrZI

Here's another guy, with almost exactly the same design - https://youtu.be/8uzf_pc-Wn0

I was skeptical of this sort of design at first but I have really started to come around.

I spent just under a month in the back of a double cab long bed WITH another person - the setup we had was basically a sleeping platform with our camp stuff below it, in bins. We kept the food in the back seats of the cab. We also had a roof rack where we ended up mounting a big 20 lb propane bottle and had a hose made the right length to reach back to the cooking area because we were sick of dealing with the little 1lb bottles.

That trip is my biggest point of reference for building my truck out and the biggest difference is that I have a short bed. I was initially planning on doing a platform and just sleeping diagonal, but I'm 6' 1" and I just feel like it's going to be a little too tight. The big drawback of this is losing all of that space under the platform. I think the saving grace for me is going to be my back seats, just relying on that space a lot more to store things and maybe building some sort of shelving system for back there.

For reference Im looking to build my truck out so I can live out of it for 2-4 months over the summer.

 

Came across this on my Googling marathon.

https://thetoppertent.com/

 

DAC mid size tent is a cost-effective option. TopperLift Nomad is a bit fancier and would probably last longer.

 

I have a Softopper but my observations would apply to an ARE hard cap as well.

The DAC tent is really comfortable and airy, opens things up really nicely. The downside is that it performs poorly in high winds. Too much loose, billowing fabric and the waterproofness of the tan fabric was not great. I liked being able to use my cot with it. It was a good setup in fair weather.





The Topper Tent replaced the DAC tent. I haven't tested in high winds but have had it in some rain and it did very well. The Topper Tent has superior quality fabric and is pretty quick and easy to deploy, though having a Softopper entails an extra bit of fussy work with the required zipper panel adapters . I love how it stows up under the roof cap. Its always there if I need it. The Topper Tent could use a bit of refinement. I think the fabric needs to be reinforced where it lays taught against the corners of the tailgate. Also, mine tends to sag more than I'd like when damp. I think the tent would be less saggy with most hard shell caps, though, as I think they tend to have a little bit higher opening. Unfortunately, the trigonometry involved prevents me from using my cot, but I don't miss it much. I'd recommend the Topper Tent over the DAC tent.





I've been eyeing the Nomad camper package. It looks like it would be great in bad weather but I'm hesitant about the low entry. Seems like it would be awkward to get in and out of.

 

I'm most likely going with the Softopper shortly, so I've been doing a bit of digging as well to find a solution to the short bed problem.
I am interested in the DAC because of the additional space that it provides at height.
I am interested in the Topper Tent because of it not being blue.
I've been hoping to find the best of both worlds here, and the closest I have come to is this:
https://3xm-canopies.myshopify.com/...-fits-all-dual-styleside-utes-with-canopies-1
The problem? It depends on the rear window of a hard canopy to gain the additional space up top.
My thought here is - How complicated can the frame of the DAC be to provide this solution? I think creating a frame out of PVC to make the 3XM work could be a nice solution here. Even after shipping from Australia, I think it may even come out cheaper than the other two.

 

I always thought it would be cool to build a semi-fixed box that mounted to the tailgate. This way every time you opened your tailgate, the area for your feet would automatically be set up. You could then also have full use of your topper's rear window while inside. And with being fastened to the tailgate, I think you could get a better and more consistent seal around the bed/topper when deployed.

Horrible crayon drawing:

 

I made my own a few years ago. I used 2 sets of 1x4 and staple gun the clothes to the boards. And for reference I'm 6'2 and this is with a 5' bed.

 

I'm having similar ideas but a lot of my camping is in the winter for snowboarding, so I'm investigating the possibility of building a sort of hard shell slide-out using aluminum and plastic sheeting. This way it'd still be fairly light which is a priority for me and I'd also be able to glue some insulation to the plastic sheeting. Plus no fabric wind flap in the mounatins.

 

New truck and softtopper upper 30's. Still works haha but yeah building a hard slide out would be the better route for snow.

 

Bought the dac topper from softopper... they just add their poles to it for the Softopper and sell it themselves. The area that it adds is great. The cover itself is another story. Like others first time it rained I woke up to a soaked foot area. The tan material might be water resistant but not for long. If you have any kind of wind it’s going to be noisy...trust me on that. The price is now up over 220 bucks. I would not buy this tent extension. Not near the same quality as my softopper and it was one third of the price. Way too expensive for what you get. Material is very cheap and does not give the impression it will last long. I won’t find out as I will never use it again.