Show me what's in your camper shell!

And some sort of material above you so that it doesn't drip condensation on you at night. It also helps damper the noise when it's raining.

 

85% of the time the Shell is home for the pack on our adventures.

 

Good Afternoon all,

Since work is light, I decided I should spend time sharing the new canopy I got last week. I bought my truck a year ago with a pretty much OG snugtop on it, slightly leaky but worked great until November in Washington. It wasn't anything special, but worked as a coffin sleeping arrangement for me my GF and doggo.


As I started looking around and not biting soon enough on some interesting craigslist deals, I came to the conclusion that ordering on would be the best way to get the big 3 things I wanted out of a new one. 1) taller head height, enough to sit up on our bed platform (I'm 6ft3 probably shouldve got a bigger truck but F it these are the best). 2) sick roof rack for stuff and things. 3)one or both sides with doors.

I Set out to sell the canopy I had, to cut the price of a new one down, and started shopping around. Landed on a bid from a place here in WA, Canopy world. I could get a Commercial type alumnium canopy, with side access doors, sliding front window, ladder rack and height between 20-29 inches for ~$1800. Not bad If I could sell the one I had for a good chunk. After a day on craigslist and a 10+ interested people I sold it to the first person to reach out, a cute little lady who owns a dahlia farm and wanted a black one for her red truck, says she has been looking for one like that FOREVER. I guess I lucked out because I listed it at $800 as a high first price...and she wanted it ASAP.


I had never seen my truck so naked....weird when you can see everything in the rearview perfectly...

Try me with a cuter co-pilot. I'll wait.

I said good bye to that beast and drove away. Me and two 50s fit ladies and that thing was SCARY to switch, the aluminum will be bigger AND Lighter. Sweeeet.

Put in the order for the newbie and waited impatiently.
after about 6 weeks she arrived!


The Matte Black Diamond plate was one of the 4-5 STANDARD colors. No extra. STEAL IMO.


Trying to stay on the low budget side- I made some sacrifices. Base level sides are either a door with no windows, or a slider window with no door. I went for one of each, Driver side door for me, Passenger side window for doggo breath.

Reinstalled my DIY bed drawer and platform, and have JUST enough room to sit up, play cards, drink whiskey etc etc.

Some future plans include:
Adding struts and awning and rooftop box to the rack.
Putting quickfists around for shovels and other things.
Maybe adding a light bar to the front, or back, or wherever.

Anyone else have any ideas?

All in all I am very happy with my purchase from Canopy World, Probably should have said it before but this is their in house brand- Royel, and is essentially their CHEAPER version of an ARE DCU canopy.

Here's one more, doesn't look as tall from the front as I thought it would, cab rack helps and I built a wind deflector to help as well.

 

After wanting to build something in the back of my truck for some time now, I finally got around to building a sleeping platform of my own. To start it out I bought a 2x6 and cut 2 pieces at 57".

I also bought 2 3/4" inch pieces of plywood. that were 4 feet by 8 feet. Had the guys at Lowes tear them down to 71 1/2inches long and 28 1/2 inches wide. When I got home I used a jigsaw to notch out the corners pretty much by eye with some help of a tape measure.

Cut corner.

Next I used my jigsaw again to cut some notches out of the sides of my 3/4" plywood for the side cubby holes.

Perfect fit.

Gave it a try. Just a little bit of flex between the two boards in the center of the bed. Don't worry we'll fix that. (Also getting company from my 2 neighbors tacos.)

Now I replaced the rear cross 2x6 with a 2x8 that I notched to make more like 7" wide. This made a much more snug fit. Then I used the 2x6 to connect the two cross width boards and put legs down to the floor of my bed. Also I didn't take many pictures of it because I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, But I built a temporary drawer with my scraps of wood.

In all it turned out pretty good for around $120 of materiel. we had a mattress topper laying around so we use that for the bed and all is dandy!

 

Looks great! Nice and simple.

 

I finally got motivated enough to try to make some black-out window shades for my Snugtop Rebel. I quickly realized that sewing is more difficult than I thought, so I gave up and just had them made by a seamstress.

They turned out 1,000% better than they would have if I had done them myself plus I got to support a local small business at the same time!! Win/win!

 

Finalizing wrapping up organizing I need to figure out remounting the shower.

 

Thanks for the great ideas in here, fellas.

Cargo net for fishing rods and quick fists for tools. We sleep in the bed with a mattress topper with an attached Napier SUV tent.

 

Just curious, I couldn't find anything in the thread - is that a shelf mounted toward the front of the bed? That's a great storage idea - can you share any info on it?

- thanks.

 

Yes it's towards the front. Probably 8 inches of space between it and the rear window. It's not made anymore by VooDoo but AllPro makes a pricey version of it.

I really really like it. It's great keeping the main bed clear of stuff.

 

Awesome, how did you attach them? I thought about something like this and sewing in velcro to stink to the camper carpet

 

Hi Sam, welcome to the best damn Tacoma forum on the interwebs .

 

Hi Frank

This thread is great! So many great ideas in here. Hopefully I can contribute.

Sub'd. Guess I need to read every page so I don't miss anything.

 

I have the ultra Cheez-bo version, a strip of 1/2" plywood with 1by2 rails. feed it through one of the windows and it rides right under the windows on the little outcropping of fiberglass that covers the bed rails. can't fall out because it is cut to fit almost exactly (1/2" of play so it can be moved to any point on the bed). It can be put in without going through the window (like if you have screens) but its more of a PIA. I'll grab pics in a little while

 

I was actually thinking I could build something out of wood that cantilevers like that VooDoo one, bolts to the side rails, then maybe drill and bolt a couple plastic toolboxes/ammo cans for storage to leave the bed space free. Right now I have a cheap toolbox bungeed to the side of the bed that carries all my truck's "EDC" junk (fluids, compressor, straps).

Hmm...

 

Thanks! And yes, I had them sew Velcro to the fabric so it would attach well to the carpet. It does and holds perfectly. I tried to sew it myself, but i wasn’t able to do so by hand very well.

 

That would be super cool, mine is usful but that sounds way better. here are some pics....action packer/cooler/moving boxes slide under perfect too

 

That top shelf idea is good too, I like that you can move it - thanks for the tips.

 

Ever seen this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_QAHwuxRQ8