Camping/Sleeping Platform

Finished (for the most part) building a sleeping platform today and figured I'd share some pics. I looked hard at going the Decked route but ultimately couldn't bring myself to spend the dough. I much prefer sleeping in the back of the truck over a tent when car camping.

Goals: strong but relatively light weight, modular, easily removable, as low profile as possible.

Decided to use 1x1, 1/8" wall, steel tubing as a buddy of mine said he'd assist with fabrication. Both my partner and I do a fair bit of solo trips in addition to camping together so I wanted to have a "half-bed" option for the solo trips that allows for more space in the back of the truck. Therefore, I decided to build half of the platform so it could function independently, and half so that it relies on the structure of the independent half. Both sides use the wheel wells as one of the "support legs".

The beginnings.


Fitting plywood (excuse the bad rip).



Primed and painted with bedliner.



Not shown but I used urethane to seal the plywood.
Took the "half bed" set up for a test trip.


Worked well but need to work on a way to secure it a little better.
Carpeting.


And done for now.



Eventually plan to add a slide out drawer. Also, in the process of cutting two 4inch foam mattresses to match the shape of the bed and their respective sides. They will get a heavy duty canvas covers sewn up for them so we don't have to worry about throwing coolers, abrasive gear etc. on top.

Overall, pretty happy with it so far. The gal can easily pull each of the four pieces out if she ever needs to and its super sturdy. With both sides in there it sits solidly in place. The fit is tight enough that a cell phone can't slip underneath from the sides or bulkhead. I'm looking forward to the real test of September elk season here soon.

 

Nice job! have you seen these?
kamp rite pad | eBay

 

Don't mean to nitpick but where is your line for the dart board? 5' 8" up to center, 7' 9 1/4" to line, if you didn't know.

 

Great write-up!

 

thanks!

 

I haven’t seen those. We have been pretty happy with just a 4 in foam pad in a canvas cover. I haven’t run into the “freezing” issue with this particular pad. I’ll have a lot of nights on the new pad here soon so if something isn’t right I’ll probably be taking a look at the camprites.

 

Ha, it’s my buddy’s shop. Maybe I’ll put a line down for him next time I’m over.

 

Very nice! Love the fact you made it up on your own.

 

Nice job!! I am planning to build something similar myself with a diy flush bed cover. Figure drawers would be great to be able to put tools or picnic items in, pull em out sit wheeled end on the ground and roll like a dolly or wheel barrow to the work or picnic site. Finished, roll back to truck and slide em in, close tailgate and haul ass. Still have empty full truck bed up top for bulky items.

 

Yeah, removable/rolling picnic/tool box would be sweet. I am hoping to have my future drawer be relatively easy to remove. So its still a 10 minute job to pull the whole thing out when the whole truck bed is required. At the same time I sort of want to go crazy with something like this: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...n-and-mattress-platform.703676/#post-24951238

I plan on keeping one side open though for tossing skis, shovels/long tools and such underneath.

 

Probably worth noting that I spent about $375 on materials.

 

Nice work!!

 

Thanks!