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Camping Out of a 5 Ft Bed?

turbospartan

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My buddy has a 5.5' bed and he's 6'2ish. He can sleep diagonally on the plywood platform he built above the wheel wells (with drawers built underneath in between), even with his gf (she's pretty small). He did say that he'd get the 6.5' bed if he had to do it again.
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Calson

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There are tent conversions for pickups that make use of the lowered tailgate which adds 18 inches of length. These can also help with ventilation.

The only advantage of a 5.5 foot bed on a full size pickup is in a parking lot and that is not enough of a reason for me to deal with the limitations of a short bed.
 

thudnblunder

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There are tent conversions for pickups that make use of the lowered tailgate which adds 18 inches of length. These can also help with ventilation.

The only advantage of a 5.5 foot bed on a full size pickup is in a parking lot and that is not enough of a reason for me to deal with the limitations of a short bed.
The reason I went for a short bed was reduced chances of getting high centered on trails, and easier to turn on tight trails. That said, I sometimes wish I'd gone with the 6.5' foot. In for an ounce, in for a pound.
 

Calson

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Interesting how the 6.5 used to be the short bed and standard was an 8' bed. With so many supercrews being sold for families to use in place of a minivan the 5.5 bed came into vogue in the USA.

In Latin America everyone drove mini trucks like Tacoma equivalent with crew cabs and 5.5 or even shorter beds. They all had the snorkle rigs for fording rivers.

With a short 5.5 bed and camping I would put a platform (like the bambeds one) in the bed and use it to be able to store heavy items below and lighter stuff like a mattress and a tent and camp chairs and duffel bags on top. Only thing to watch out for with the Bambeds platform or one you build yourself is that with 9 inches of clearance many plastic storage bins and crates will not fit under it.
 

530Five-Oh

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Bought truck in late March, and ordered and placed deposit on 4wheel camper project M popup cabover topper. In the meantime, while waiting 8 months until camper is ready in November, temporary shelter for this camping season has been a Kodiak truck bed tent. Have spent a lot of nights in it this spring and summer and would recommend it. Very sturdy and weather proof and very roomy. I didn’t like using the c clamps to mount the tent pole bases to the bed rails. Only did that once. That process is a hassle, twisting c clamps on and trying to get them positioned properly. So I mounted them to some unistrut and then mounted the unistrut to the bed rails with J bolts in the stake pockets. No drilling.
This made the tent pitching quick and easy, and solid consistent mounts for the poles.
We carry the tent under the tonneau cover with poles preset in it. Setup is 5 minutes max, takedown is less.
photos are what the tent looks like mounted to a 6.5 bed. It is made for 5.5-6.5 beds.
5.5 bed just doesn’t work for what I will be frequently loading into truck during waterfowl season. But the tent would work for someone in a 5.5 because it enclosed the added length from tailgate.

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Ford F-150 Camping Out of a 5 Ft Bed? 7327C3D6-ACAF-46F9-B505-37F9FF986FAA

Ford F-150 Camping Out of a 5 Ft Bed? C8508385-5287-44B7-B27C-2531B497B5E8

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530Five-Oh

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Tent pole base mount improvisation for Kodiak truck bed tent.
Had I planned to use them more than just this season I would have trimmed those J bolts that stick out of the unistrut, and used some unistrut channel caps/covers

Ford F-150 Camping Out of a 5 Ft Bed? F5B4C84A-9DA3-4B68-810D-ECB04FA0C07D

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530Five-Oh

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Best solution would be a lightweight popup topper. The truck tent has been a great short term option, and would be great long term if I didn’t camp often enough to warrant the spend on a camper.

We became quite fluent in putting the tent up and stowing it on the many one night stops on our 5000 mile road trip this summer, and it serves us well, but I will admit I am very much looking forward to having the even easier to popup topper that we can leave our bedding in place in the cabover bed, and have a lot more cargo space in the truck bed.
 

530Five-Oh

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There are a bunch of small companies building lightweight popup toppers that have an incorporated bed platform.
Some open wedge style and some pop straight up. They are all under 500lbs I’m pretty sure, and you retain the truck bed and tailgate.

4 Wheel Camper Project M,
AT Overland,
OVRLND,
GoFast,
Super Pacific,
Vagabond,
Snap Outfitters,
Etc…
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