DIY: Truck Camping

Freedom: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint

Truck camping is an underappreciated way of living a nomadic lifestyle. While it has some logistic problems, it is easy to build and more of a "sleeper" set up: you can go incognito in common places.

Moreover, storage and customization is the biggest theme in a mobile home build. I will address some ideas to maximize storage around the wheel wells and ceiling in a truck bed. I will also stress the importance of customizing because everyone has different equipment and there's no right or wrong way. What I did was make some cubies and utilize cargo netting. Below shows what my storage looks like.

My Current Build

Tutorial:

1. INSULATION: Cut Reflectix insulation layer to fit bed floor and camper shell ceiling. Insulation helps a ton with regulating heat and prevents condensation. I used aluminum tape to stick it to my truck bed and double sided tape to stick it to my ceiling. To the right is what it looked like when I had the Reflectix cut out to my bed.

2. CUT BASE PLYWOOD: Use insulation cutout to draw the cut for your base plywood piece. I had to test this, take it out and recut it multiple times to make it fit accordingly. This is important because if it fits snug on the wheel wells, then it won't shift while driving. To the right you can see me tracing out the cut with the Reflectix

3. BUILD CUBBIES: This is where customization is crucial. Decide on the gear you want to bring and lay it out in the back of your truck. Build cubbies around this gear, especially the big items such as the stove or tools. The image above of my current build shows you how this looked for me.

4. CARGO NET: This is pretty simple, but a great way to take advantage of the unused space. I bought a variety of netting on Amazon that I thought would work in my truck. Especially try to find some that fit over the wheel wells and on the ceiling. My final product is shown to the right with all the cargo netting in it's place. The red arrows point to the various spots I used cargo netting.


5. FINISH FITTING ALL YOUR BELONGINGS: The last thing I did was add hooks, a shoe rack, some hangers and other odds and ends to fit everything else. As a professional snowboarder I have a bunch of other miscellaneous gear (avalanche gear, TahoeLab Snowboard, GCW Bindings and Giro goggles). By customizing everything, I'm able to fit everything and make it accessible so that I can easily get out into the mountains !

The build is just the first step to a nomadic lifestyle. Once it's done, all you have to do is SEND IT!! Once you're on the road, you learn more about what works for you and you can always go back and change things. I hope this is a useful tutorial for all you truck owners to get one step closer to the road. Cheers and thanks for the read. Please comment ideas below