pickup tents?

anyone use one of those pickup bed tents? going to a dirt car race in the begining of oct for 6 days and i cant use the camper ive been using the past few years. its gets a little chilly in upstate ny in oct so i figured itd be better to get up off the ground. also my trucks a 97 f150 with the step side so im not even sure if itd fit id have to measure it. where we stay we have power so i was thinking about getting a elec heater and some good sleeping bags for me and the gf. any opinions on these?

i had one for an old s10 a while ago

it worked well, but never used it in cold weather

yea i know it wont be exactly warm in there. but there are people ive seen staying in tents and pop ups.hopefully a couple good sleeping bags and possibly a electric heater will be warm enough. id rather not rent a camper. they want 800 for a travel trailer and 500 for a pop up for the week. i could be into a tent and good sleeping bags for less then 400 and id be able to use it again.

Air mattress under you, tarp over the top, and a propane heater. I've camped in the cold a fair amount, including one weekend that was never above freezing (not normal in Texas) and multiple times in Wyoming with snow that had to be dug/trampled to set the tent, and the warmest I've ever been was with a tarp over the tent and a propane heater. It was so hot in there I had to strip down to nothing, which made the 4am whiz run... well, I was motivated to get done, which prompted the Gatorade bottle in the tent post I'll make one of these days.

Note: not a good plan to sleep with the heater on unless it has an oxygen sensor. Even then it's risky. Carbon monoxide is NOT your friend.

I had one for a bit on my 250SD, got it at Cabelas along with an air mattress fit for the bed. It was sweet, I definitely enjoyed it. I do mostly cold weather camping too, bugs and ivy's annoy me in the warmer months.

I didn't have a heater, just layered up, being in the back of my truck it was easy enough to bring a few extra blankets. I had to sell it because I got a ladder rack and they were not compatible.

Now I have a ladder rack, so I drape a thick blanket over the bed (insulation factor) and then camo tarp the whole truck and tie it down to the truck itself. Not the best protection from bugs, but were off the ground so not too many make their way in. Also, I can now leave my back window open and still have access to the inside of my truck! If it gets unbearably cold I can run the truck for a minute and pump some heat into the bed.

One trip in late OCT we hung a coleman lantern inside the tent, but it left me nervous and I would wake up every 5 minutes to make sure the place wasn't bursting into flames. I would have rather been cold, but the ladies outnumbered me.

well an electric heater shouldnt put off carbon monoxide right? as long as its not very close to anything that can melt id be ok right? i saw some sleeping bags at dicks that were rated down to 0 deg for 70$. usually it only gets down to around 40. but the way this years been going in ny who knows what itll do.

I'm normally waaaaay too far out for electricity.

Growing up, dad had a simple A-frame that fit in the sideboard holes front and back and a big, heavy tarp. Set up was about 3 minutes and we slept nice in some might cold weather. Great thing was that it was sturdy even in the heaviest thunderstorm. Now that was in the of wooden beds with the metal strips between the boards. It was actually smother than the metal beds of today's trucks. The wood provided some insulation factor compared to the metal strips.

An old Coleman lantern supplied enough heat down to feezing temps.

We have one of those Adventure Truck Tents for our Nissan Titan. Works pretty well with an air mattress. Not much warmer than sleeping on the ground though, we got around this with a large piece of fleece clipped to the inside of the tent and a tarp over the top but under the rain fly.

We moved to a ground tend with the kid, for more bed space mostly. That and we usually ended up taking an extra vehicle with us camping, because the tent was sort of a hassle taking up and putting down if you needed an emergency/food/firewood run.

That said, the wife and I have used ours during November deer season as "base" for a few days. It rained, snowed, and rain snowed on use while in it on us last year and while we were cold (but not uncomfortable), we were dry. I've never used a heater in it though, simply not enough room with the air mattress taking up a majority of the bed space (we have a short box Titan, with a 5.5 foot bed).

For the spring and summer, it works well. Get used to setting it up at home and figure out how to close all the gaps because they (at lease the brand we have) are made for a variety of trucks, not just one size. We use those little super strong magnets to make sure it sealed against the body of the truck. Sometimes their straps don't seal the tent material against the truck body very well. Looking back, I'm not sure a topper for the truck would have not been better, but according to the wife: "That is not camping, tents are camping."

Getting off the ground won't help w/ the temperature, but it sure is nice when it rains! (I'm a tent camper who moved into a pop-up in '02. I've spent about 5 nights in a tent since, and it sucks when it rains and you're on the ground.

I'd save my money on the truck bed tent and get a decent ground tent and sleeping bag. Electric heater is great if you have the floor space for it, and e-hook-up.

Air matress will be cold if the air is cold. Look at closed cell foam for an insulated pad.

K

A combination of PVC pipe, tarps and rope works for me.


I have a rig I built for right around 20 bucks that I can setup in a few minutes on the back of my Ranger. I normally use a conventional tent but when I go out to work on the property I just sleep in the back of my truck.

No sense in spending money on a truck tent when you can build your own. I just lay down my old mexican blanket in the back of the bed and put my sleeping bag on that and I'm good to go.

As of late I really can't go for the truck tent route. There aren't many reasons for me and the area I camp in to put the tent in the truck. I guess if you were in very rocky areas or ground laden with scorpions and snakes I can get motivated to get the F off the ground.

I have a suburban I take camping and during hunting season I've slept in the back. Even with a couple ridge rests and wool blankets under my bag it still seemed in -10 deg F weather that the truck merely sucked the heat away. i've done better in tents with army cots and a ridge rest under the bag. If you lack the foam under the down bag you will freeze your ass off. That was a good lesson I learned. I'm getting older and I'm seriously considering an air mattress mostly for the comfort improvement.

One of the last deer camp expeditions I went on in the adirondacks my friend brought one of those temporary garage tent things. For 6 or 8 guys that thing was the cat's ass.

Put a sheet of 1" foam rigid insulation on the floor and maybe a sheet of 1/4" ply or whatever to protect the foam from gouges, etc. Then you're not having your body heat sucked out through the metal floor.

That's a good idea.

This is cool, but I don't want to navigate that to piss at night. Might as well sleep in the SUV.

hahaha thats borderline ridiculous!

Did you make that or was it ordered?

I want that, but on a 4x5 trailer behind the TJ.

It's a Cascadia Vehicle Tent, and it's very far from ridiculous.

Camper shell and mattres done..

Reminds me of when my dad and I used to hunt together years ago. He had an old 66 Chevy 1 ton flatbed that we used. He built tall sideboards that we used to haul cows and those were great to build a frame on. About half way up the side boards toward the front, he would build a wooden platform for a regular mattress. First we put down a couple layers of corrugated shipping boxes (Like the old refrigerators and stoves came in) for insulation, then a mattress.

We had some old thin wooden slats that we used for "hoops," on out wagon when we went on wagon trains. Once the hoops were in place we had a great reinforced platform to pull a canvas tarp over. When that was done, any boxes we had not used on the bed, was put on the "walls," and floorboard! We would then build a set of steps from the truck bed to the ground! Talk about a set-up! The tarp was long enough and wide enough to completely cover the bed to below the bottom of the bed and completely close off the back where you entered by the steps.

Here was a completely enclosed weather tight and insulated hut about 4ft. off the ground. While we were up we had a regular two burner Coleman lanters going (we also provided two ample openings to prevent suffication) which keep the inside toasty warm. When we went to bed, everything was shut off and the good old sleeping bags were all we needed!

One Thanksgiving week, we got the camp set up on the head of Tellico River over in the NC side when bad weather set in. It snowed off and on and then sleeted. No game was moving and that whole week we never saw the thermometer get above freezing with several overnights in the teens and at least one single digit night. By the way, it eventually ended up being over a foot of snow, so don't thank that the mountains of East Tennessee and Western NC, can't get cold and snowy, even in November!

I still miss my ole hunting buddy, James W. Allen, Sr, as much as the day we lost him, Dec.6, 1987! Dad, thanks for being the man and father to me that you were, I owe you so much! Rest In Peace!

Sorry I didn't mean ridiculous in a bad way if you can imagine that haha.

What would happen if one of those tall trees fell over in a high wind, or just a large branch hit it?
I'd probably break my neck too if I had to bug out in a hurry from that thing as well, but to each his own.
I can see it gives a rather high observation point though. Can you shoot accurately from it?

If a tree fell over in a high wind, it would crush it just as easily as it would crush the whole jeep.

I haven't at any point yet, and don't foresee the need to hurry from it.

Why on earth would I have to shoot from the tent, accurately or otherwise?

I've been working on an idea to make something out of plywood / 2 x 4's, and a tarp.

Something I set up and take down quickly.

I hadn't thought about pvc. I'll have to look into that.

(need something for the deer lease)

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