Truck Camping Photo Thread

A little late but we camped along the Cherohala Skyway for thanksgiving. It rained the first night and then everything froze over. It was beautiful.

 

How far away is this from Gatlinburg? We're about 3 hours away south in Georgia. I'd love to wake up to that

 

Thanks for the reply. I'll keep it here in case others are looking at the same thing.

I've heard conflicting opinions about you need metal and fiberglass doesn't work/will break. So I started looking at the RSI smart caps. Yeah, they're nice, but man are they pricey. I like the ARE caps, the lines look good on some tacomas I've seen. But I'm like you, I go on mostly forest roads, will do small offroading while out there, but heavily avoid mud - cleaning mud out of nooks and crannies is awful.

Say I go with the ARE cap, what support did you put in yours? I was looking at a prinsu rack up top, then my tent. Would like to have water storage for a shower.

Besides bracing/support from inside, are there other things I should be aware of?

 

Google maps says 2 hours to the TN side. It starts in Telico Plains TN and it ends in Robbinsville NC if you drive West to East. It has tons of scenic overlooks and plenty of forest service roads to pull off and camp. The skyway itself is only about an hour and a half long drive but there’s enough to see that it’s a good four day weekend trip. I recommend driving the Upper Santeetlah road. It follows the Santeetlah river for something like 15 miles of gravel road and is a beautiful drive.

 

That's nice! That comes to a 2.5hr drive to Telico Plains. Easy long weekend get away! I need to map this out in Gaia. BTW, you wouldn't happen to have saved this route in Gaia by chance?

 

I added 2 more clamps to each side of my cap to attach to my bed. They don't fit perfectly but they clamp into my T slots good enough to add extra grip to my canopy so it doesn't shift on my bed. I run a Prinsu rack
on both my cab and canopy. I have tools in a plano case and a waterport on my cab, then the tent takes up my entire canopy.

I mounted my tent to my prinsu rack like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJyph-tWzSw

and also used the supplied extra load support bars I can take a pic if you need one.

 

I did not, sorry. I don’t make actual trips on Gaia. I just use it to look around at fsr in the area.

 

In it's natural habit...

 

Awesome!!!! How’s it handle up
Hill?

 

Nice set up

 

MOAB Sep. 2020

 

Camped in the North Maine Woods this week. First time using the diesel heater. Emmie is glad I brought it since it got down to -2F Thursday night. The battery pack doesn't like that cold of a temperature. I had to warm it up in the truck so it wouldn't fault out at the beginning of the heater cycle. But then it ran all night. Thank God. Unplowed roads the last 10 miles in. But better than the plowed roads that were pretty icy.

 

Just got back from a 24 day, 5000 mile road trip. Started in Alberta, Canada. Went through Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and a little bit of Oregon. We spent 21 nights in the truck. Temps at night ranged from 15 to 60. We used Boondocking app and The Dyrt for spots to sleep, we always arrived and night based on coordinates and never really knew what we would wake up too. A few of the spots along the way. Most we just spent the night, a few in Arizona we stayed for a couple at a time.

 

That's one hell of a trip! I like the site right by the river. I don't think I would have left that site...ever. Did y'all have to stop to resupply at any point? Food/water for showers (hopefully you took a few LOL)

Also....is your girl cooking topless..?

 

We moved pretty much daily so stocked up as we went. Longest stretch was 3 days in one spot. We run a 24L Dometic fridge and it’s great for 3-4 days. Showers we done at truck stops after a couple days on the road.

 

All sounds fun man. Doubtful I could swing a 20+ day trip, but I'm working toward something around 5 days. Besides a fridge, what are some things you've done to be able to do that for a month?

Do you have a special kitchen setup/supplies?

Right now I toss all our stuff in some Remington storage boxes under our tent

 

I’m not him haha but the wife and I did 30 days last summer. Sleep on BLM land for free. Eat off our propane two burner stove for less than we do at home. Shower with warm water in Nalgene bottles with built in pressure spray caps. Slept in the back of the 4Runner (zero setup or tear down) in a new location every night. We stayed at friends/family 3 of those night and a hotel 2, so 25 nights in the 4Runner, 5 in a house. Washed our laundry at the two family stops or same way we did dishes along the way.

All expenses down from day to day life excluding gas cost was obviously way up ha.

We did another 15 day trip with our cat so we brought a quick pop up tent. Didn’t like setting up and tearing town a tent and bed every night but it wasn’t a deal breaker!


Just gotta go!

 

30 days! Wow, that's impressive! What did y'all do to plan/get ready for that trip?

My biggest concern is cooking out of the truck in the mountains not near a water source and also having our food stored in the bed of the truck.. In bear country. I have a roof tent setup, so I'm comfortable with small critters and coyotes, but bears can do a good bit of damage and scare the hell out of me.

 

It was a transition stage when we moved back to the States. We decided to take a month to us before we were tied down by new life back here.


My only planning was writing down the list of stops we wanted to see in order so we could punch the next one in the GPS each day as well as how long of a drive between each stop so we could plan when to leave/arrive.

Threw a backpack each of clothes and the camping gear in the car and left!

If you’re scared of bears get a bear box and throw it in a tree each night and some bear spray but depending on where you’ll be I’d say just go and be smart

 

@BuzzardsGottaEat pretty much nailed it.

The fridge is awesome, but a small cooler is easily do-able. That’s all we had almost 2 years when we did 18 days on a very similar trip sleeping in a 4Runner.

If you can manage a weekend camping out of your truck it’s no different. Food, water and gas are always available within a couple hours unless you’re planning on really get off-grid.

Just gotta go! We didn’t have a plan when we left, knew we wanted to spend a few days in Moab and hang out around Phoenix and enjoy some warm weather.