Building a Bed System For My 3rd Gen Toyota Tacoma 

Hi there, I saw your vid. I've been truck camping since the mid 80's. Here's what I've learned & I'll pass them on to you. 1) Get stuff you need at a camping store for backpacking. It's small, compact, & light weight. 2)Get splash guards for your truck. It'll help keep you & your rig clean. They work. I know. 3) When parking for the night, park headlong into the wind. That way if a storm comes you won't have to worry about a side wind ripping off your camper shell. Plus, if anything comes bouncing towards the truck, since you have a slimmer profile, it might miss you. If it does hit, the front of the truck is reinforced. 4) Use bug spray on the interior doors & windows/ screens openings to help keep bugs out. Use wasp & hornet spray around & on your tires to help keep critters out. Basically, all points of contact on the ground. 5) An inch is a lot of room. Learn how to stack & get used to sand & dirt. Use floor mats to put your shoes on too 6)Air out your sleeping area every morning or often. In an enclosed space the air gets stale & it will smell like feet & assholes. I know this from being in an 80 man berthing when I was in THE NAVY! 7)Use a small fan to circulate the air in your sleeping area. This will help prevent hot & cold spots from forming & help prevent condensation & mold & mildew from forming. I hope this helps. Great vid, thanks for sharing. Drive safe. 🤠

I am learning a lot from you...we are buying a Toyota tacoma and make a temp bed just the way you showed....you are brilliant young man....thanks for educating people like us ...God bless you.

Outstanding! By far the best I have seen for a simple build! Thank you for posting this!

I did not have room or proper tools so I took the easy route. I picked up a readymade twin bed just for myself at Home Depot and it offered either 3 drawer storage on the side or one big drawer at the end. Turned out awesome. 600 lb capacity. Then I had these nice night stand cabinets I stuck beside the bed and makes a little table side by side. The bed is open on the side, if you get the one big drawer on the end, to place a couple storage containers under the bed. Bed was 147 bucks.

I have nearly the same set up in my Ram. I used 3 braces with a 2x6 in the middle for support. Have carpet on top of the plywood and I use a futon mattress for comfort. When inside I clamp vise-grips onto the locking rod which prevents someone from opening the hatch.

I agree everyone should do this to start out! Can't to do what you did, never noticed the 2x8 slots. Thank you!

Thanks for the video. I have the short bed and at 6'2" I cannot stretch out. But I can sleep diagonal or curled up.

Quick and to the point, nice video

Just did this last week in my taco, used 5/8" Plywood , just managed to fit under the front metal tie brackets

Simple and very effective 👌

Great video. Love it!

Spray adhesive would be a better choice the material won’t sage or bunch and tear.

Thanks for the Blue Prints.

Thanks for the video..I will be doing this to my long bed tacoma as well! Liked and subscribed, looking forward to more tacoma videos!

I did this today. Used the blueprint from this video for a short bed gen 3 taco. Worked really well. I went with 5/8 plywood. There were a few ends that needed to be fit for the bed. After that it was a tight and clean fit. Cost me 160 bucks with today’s prices. I did buy 3M adhesive spray to fit it all tighter. Overall very happy with it. No wobbles or creaks. Thanks for the inspiration.

Nice, thanks for sharing

Bought a 2021 Tacoma Short bed and once I get my shell I will be going this for sure. Perfect for my solo camping/fishing trips

hello just wanted to say great vid i used your ideas and took look at some other builds and i used the 2x8s and notched them to fit flat in the pockets with the lip that runs the length of the bed and i used 1/2" birch plywood strong but light. i cut my plywood into 3 sections more like BamBoards and they lock into the crossboards with dowels, i have a short bed so i needed a removable extension to allow a full length mattress and i loved the carpet idea so i did the same awesome vid happy camping!

How can you open or lock the camper glass from the inside? If your camping? I have a Snugtop camper shell to.

You could try using ( H ) clips to even the ply up like they use for roofing .

Do you think this would work in a tundra as well?

Nice!

I'm guessing you have the long bed. Nice vid! Thanks!👍🏻🔥🔥🔥

Hammer tacker hitting it with a rubber mallet. Also put underlay on before, your knees will thank you later. Also notch out the bumper end to fit tight again the tailgate, then nothing falls into the gap by the tailgate.

I feel like i could do this for sub 100$ - sick set up man!!

Any way we can get the exact dimensions? Thank you!

Nice santa cruz

what are the measurements for your set up

Does the plywood between the crossbeams bend at all when you're sleeping, or have you experienced slight bending over time? Wondering if I should put more support to create a cross hatching type deal if this is the case. Thanks!

Maybe using 2 parallel 2x4s could also work in those notches to serve as the cross boards? I think those notches are 7 inches, and since 2x4s are actually 3.5" wide, so two of them in parallel should be about 7 inches wide and might fit perfectly in there without need for trimming.

What size bed can you fit?

Hell yeah dude! It's not a project if you haven't gone to the hardware store at least twice

Super cozy. Are you gonna black out the shell's windows?

💯💯

I’m doing this

Awesome idea, can you build me one

Not sure why you carpeted the crossmembers, can you elaborate?

Give us dimensions pls

Can you measure the 2 boards for us?

What should I do next to the Tacoma?

Is this the long bed or the 5 ft bed?

You don’t need a middle support?

Do you have the exact dimensions for the wood?

Is this a 6 or 5 ft bed?

Velcro

Yooo! Can you help me build mine? Hit me up!

Audi sold, channel died 📉

Alberta young fellow👍