A Guide to Sleeping Platforms for Truck Camping
Selecting the right truck bed sleeping platform for your truck camping setup is a tough process - there are literally thousands of inspiring and unique builds out there!
So in this post we’ll walk you through the most common approaches to building a truck bed sleeping platform, while weighing some of the pros and cons of each.
You can use this guide to help select which sleeping platform design is right for your diy truck camper build, and then customize it to best fit your own truck camping needs.
Determining your budget is a pivotal part of deciding which sleeping platform will be right for your truck shell camping adventures. But the great thing about truck camping is that there is virtually no barrier to entry (see our complete guide on how to get started truck camping here).
Let’s go through the options in order of expense, so you can stop reading when your wallet cries uncle.
Sleeping Platform Method #1: Just a Truck Bed Mattress and Storage Bins
Cost: Under $50 (mainly for the plastic storage bins)
Weight: Virtually Nothing!
You can literally just throw an air mattress, a sleeping bag, and some plastic storage containers* filled with gear in the bed of your truck, like our friend at opt4scenic. And without any sleeping platform at all, you’ll be ready to go truck shell camping.
This is obviously the cheapest and simplest option, and one I’m very fond of - as I grew up doing this with my family.
For weekend camping trips and short-term travel this is a great truck bed camping solution since you can just as easily pull everything right back out and go about your daily life, while still being able to use your truck like a truck.
However, this is not an ideal solution for long-term travel, overlanding, or extended truck canopy camping trips.
For one thing, setup time is greater than other options because you have to remove or at least rearrange your gear every time you stop to sleep or set up camp.
Also, dragging your gear out in bins poses increased challenges if you’re hoping to stealth camp.
And things get disorganized FAST! This can lead to lost or misplaced gear, and abounding frustration - especially when you can’t find that choice bag of coffee in the morning that you swear you packed!
For our purposes, this just was not the way we wanted to go down. Plus with a child and all things that go along with them, this amount of disorganization would inevitably lead to marriage counselling.
Sleeping Platform Method #2: PVC Truck Bed Sleeping Platform
Cost: Under $150
Weight: Under 100 lbs
This is the second cheapest option for building a truck bed sleeping platform, depending on how you build it.
You simply go to your local hardware store and pull the 2” PVC pipe and fittings you need, cut, and assemble. Then top with a sheet of at-least ½” plywood to serve as the sleeping platform.
Though a PVC sleeping platform like the one above does require the use of storage bins to store and organize your gear, this does allow you to store your gear under the platform in a slightly more organized fashion while truck shell camping.
This is a great option when weight is a concern, because, unlike wooden truck bed sleeping platforms, PVC is very light. It’s also very easy to deconstruct and remove when not needed.
Despite our strong desire to play an adult version of K’nex in the back of our truck, this just wasn’t the option for us. We needed something more substantial, and because of our dual battery setup plans we needed fixed storage options for our equipment.
Sleeping Platform Method #3: Basic or Modular Wood Platform + Storage Bins
Cost: $100-$300
Weight: 100+ lbs
This is definitely the most common option for creating a truck bed sleeping platform, and can provide a good mix of sleeping and storage solutions while truck shell camping.
You can build something as simple as a frame using 2x4s with a piece of ½” to ¾” plywood over the frame to create a basic truck shell camping platform that provides a space beneath for storage bins, like the above example built by jhydro.
Or you can build a more flexible modular setup with built-in storage along the bed rails and an easily removable platform that spans the distance between the built-ins, like Ryan from desktodirtbag did.
When in platform mode, your storage bins can easily slide underneath. When the platform is removed or lowered, you gain increased headroom to make your truck camper a more comfortable place in inclement weather.
The build cost of this option is variable. You can spend less than a PVC sleeping platform build if you scrounge scrap materials from construction sites, or the scrap bins at your local lumber yard, or use materials you already have lying around.
But cost will increase when you begin buying plywood and integrating built in storage. This may also, depending on build design, make the truck shell camping platform slightly more difficult to remove when needed, and is a good bit heavier than the previously discussed PVC truck bed platform option.
Though we were inspired by many of the modular truck bed sleeping platforms that utilized a mixture of wood sleeping platform build and storage bins, we wanted something more organized and built in.
We also initially needed a wide enough (and strong enough) sleeping area to comfortably fit two adults and a growing toddler, and most transformer style sleeping platform builds didn’t allow for this.
Sleeping Platform Method #4: Plywood Truck Topper Camping Platform With Drawers
Cost: $300+
Weight: 200+ lbs
By using cabinet grade plywood for the construction of a truck bed sleeping platform, you’ll be able to completely customize the build, strength, and storage options.
In our first sleeping platform build we used long drawer slides and custom built-in storage to house all of our gear and equipment in a fixed and organized fashion in a full-width truck bed sleeping platform.
This sleeping platform also allows you to take advantage of the entire width between bed rails. Which allows enough room to sleep a family of 3 fairly comfortably.
Though this truck shell camping platform sacrifices some headroom compared to other build methods, we were able to maximize headroom by making sure the platform was built to rest just at wheel-well height and as low as possible.
However, using this amount of cabinet grade plywood does add a bit of extra weight to the truck, and it is also a bit of an ordeal to remove if needed.
If you’re interested in building a similar full width platform of your own, check out our detailed post - Build the Ultimate Truck Bed Sleeping Platform for Truck Camping.
Alternatively, in our latest sleeping platform build - optimized for either solo truck camping or a diy truck camper build using one of the latest wedge campers - we combined a mix of fixed drawer storage and modular storage to build a very versatile truck camping sleeping platform setup with an overall lower weight.
For a detailed step-by-step build guide for this truck camping setup and sleeping platform design, check out our Homemade DIY Truck Camper Build.
Although these sleeping platform builds are a bit more expensive than the other truck shell camping platform methods, as well as more technical to build, you should know that we had virtually zero carpentry experience going into our first build. And in the end, we found the result was definitely worth the extra time, work, and investment!
Truck shell camping is an incredible way to travel and experience the outdoors; we hope this guide has helped you choose the best truck bed sleeping platform design for your own truck camping setup or overlanding build.
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As always, thanks for reading!
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