Just decided to sell my decked system for my Ram 6’4" box if anyone is interested in the Olympia Washington area. Too much wasted space for us, we travel full-time in our truck and airstream.
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Can you share a picture?
The downstairs mattress is just 3in memory foam. I was going to cut to size but leaving it like this, while ugly, protects the kids from banging into the aluminum protrusions where the camper connects to truck. The drawers are only 75 lbs total which was important given we have a Tacoma and payload is limited
We roughly followed this design: Minimalist Tacoma drawer system and sleeping platform - YouTube
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We set our homebuilt drawers and 20 gal powered water system from our old travel set-up in the Mouser mainly for winter storage but found they work pretty well in the new V2. I wasn’t planning on utilizing them to save some weight but will trust in serendipity.
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I went with the 1300mm Ironman drawers and extended the top surface all the way to the edges… works flawlessly…
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How did you find it with this system in the winter? I’m thinking about one drawer like yours, full platform with double drawers or doing a storage system horizontal at the cab side of the bed.
never thought about sitting in a chair inside… would sit nicely on my deck
This is just what I want to start out with I like this because it gives you an option to actually use the bed if need be. NICE!
i used to have decked drawers, but they were too heavy and i was tired of having to bend over when i would go in the bed with the camper down.
now i have bedrug, and use plastic bins which fit just as much as my drawers used to. i can pull them out in seconds, line them up under a piece of plywood to sleep on. and lean up against them to chill out on the cushy bedrug.
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If anyone is considering the deck drawers for a 6’ Tacoma long bed, let me know, I am heavily considering selling mine
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I like your idea of using the bins for a sleeping platform if a more stealth sleeping arrangement is needed. Where do you haul the plywood when not in use? Any pictures of it in that mode. Really like your setup, nice and simple. Thanks!
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I have decked drawers on my Super Duty build and love them so far.
With a full size truck, I don’t feel like I’m really giving up anything in this configuration. Everything I need to store is organized and tucked away, I have the top of the drawers for anything I’d want to put in the bed, and there’s a good amount of head space between the deck and the tent floor.
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What is the distance from the decker to the tent floor?
How tall are you?
I’ve thought about it but being 6 and a half feet tall i need to hold onto every inch i can.
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Ha! I’m short at only 5’ 7” and hate how crunched I feel back there sometimes. Decked is completely out of my equation. I’m working on building a galley system with a walkway in the middle. Currently just have everything I need in a couple of totes. Sleeping/ random camp gear in a large box, kitchen all neatly in a front runner wolf pack.
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@Wild_Mitten I’m with ya. I think I like the open bed more, plus then I can squeeze in my (set) Honda CT’s.
Not ideal, but nothing about the Go Fast is ideal, it’s rad cause it works.
I’m excited to potentially build a box in the front of the bed (closest to the cab) for storage and electronics, maybe along one side if that is what is required due to size of my truck bed.
I had a single-sided wooden drawer, which was very useful, but I recently changed it out because we are heading out on a multi-week trip and we have different needs now. This will allow my wife and I to sleep in the GFC and the 10-year-old and dog to sleep on the bottom platform.
Because of time constraints, I opted to just purchase the ply from BamBeds, and got 4’ slide drawers from Zoro.com. It’s in a short-bed tacoma, so I built a separator in the back for tool storage.
It can all come out of the truck in about 1 minute.
I got a couple questions about the bins I ordered specifically. I noodled around the zoro.com site and found ones that would work, relatively well. There is still about 6" of side to side play, but I store other stuff aound them. This is a “perfect is the enemy of good solution” so take my recommendation with a grain of salt.
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I build my bed out to one day own a GFC. Big drawer on one side and walk way on the other.
It’s a work in progress.
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Update from the trip – worked very well
- the 10 year old slept with the dog very comfortably on the bambeds
- we used a REI kid-sized air mattress on top of the bam beds
- the Exped rectangular sleeping bags were absolutely fantastic. Not too hot. If we got cold we would jam a Rumpl or our Aeronaut in them.
- downstairs the kid had a dim light that he kept on during the night that made him feel more comfortable
- we didn’t end up using the rocking chair setup, but we will on other trips
- The trip was 5 weeks (about 50/50 camping) and the setup worked great
The trip was LA to Tofino (Vancouver Island). 5 Weeks up, 1 week back. The family flew home and some friends met met for the drive back. We discovered that if you use two of the medium-sized Husky lock boxes they are nearly the same height as the bam bed, and the back of the truck (even w a 5’ bed) worked perfectly for a grown-up person with the tailgate down.
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