How we built our truck platform bed

Our truck platform bed build.

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We bought a used camper shell to put on our truck. We knew that we was wanting to camp in it when weather was bad. So we had to build a sleeping platform so that the two of us could sleep but also move around in. I has spent hours reading over the forums on [addlink url=”http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/” text=”Expedition Portal forums”] that I used in this build.  We wanted a little more then just some place to sleep. We wanted to be able to sit in it when needed. We also wanted to have water storage and water pump. I found a person that had also put a hot water cross exchanger for hot water and heater for the camper that used the hot water from the truck cooling system. As I worked on the layout and had to figure out where all of this would fit in.

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I started out with putting treated plywood down for the flooring. The picture to the right shows how the sides of each compartment is made. Framed with 2×2 and 3/4 inch plywood. Yes I used the tailgate of the truck to do most of the cutting and building on. Everything is right there and I did not have to move around from one place to the other.

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Then starting in the front I tried  to square up the front box to the bed. Next I boxed in the around the wheelwells as you can see in the picture above. The front box is where the water tank, cross exchanger, and camper heater is going to be. Then down the driver side in the front is where two batteries are going to be stored. Over the fender is where the inverter and 12 volt fuzes will stored. The other side is for storage as needed.

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Now come the fun part of this build how to get around the goose neck ball that was welded in place.. build around it! You can see my better half testing out the seating on the bench over the water tank. The box in front of her will be for cooking supplies and other types of storage. There is going to be a slide out drawer in goes in the box. On the picture to the right my better half is gone and the flip down deck is in place for making the sleeping platform. The open area to the left is where a sliding top and drawer is going so we can get to the back they will also be used as table tops at the camp site.

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The reason that the platform does not go all the way to the back of the bed. We wanted some place for the cooler and cook box to sit that was easy to get to and not have to unload much stuff.

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To build this platform it took 5 sheet of 3/4 inch plywood and 25 2×2 eight feet long. Used two inch deck screws and lots of glue. Did I make any mistakes in the building of the platform. Yes and it does not have to look like a world class RV as it is for camping in the backwoods and byways. I built this with the tools that you see in the pictures it just takes a little time to do it.

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Author: Michael Deig

1 thought on “How we built our truck platform bed

  1. I like how you made the bed of your truck into your own little RV. It has storage, places to sit, and a place to sleep when put together. Something like this would be a lot of fun to camp in. Maybe we should look into getting a shell for the bed of our truck so we can do something similar.

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