Tall People Sleeping in Short Bed Pickup Trucks!

[Mack4]

Edit: There are many bed lengths available for trucks, mine happens to be 5'7".

For someone as lanky as I am (6'1") even the longest of short beds still has me sleeping in the fetal position every night, add my wife in the mix (5'6" Lucky Duck!) and it gets pretty cramped in the back of Nancy Nissan.

I set out on a Google quest to find the answer to my solution and I discovered the DAC Fullsize Truck Tent, which creates a kind of porch on the back of my Campershell and Tailgate.

It does a pretty good job of filling in all the holes, and adds significant legroom to our Master Bedroom. I'll have to test it out in the rain and in areas with healthy mosquito populations, but from what I can tell, we shouldn't have any problems.

Here are some pictures for all of you tall people with short bed pickups.













Gaps near the Tailgate.

 

[herm]

you can get the f150 crew cab with a 6.5 foot bed.

 

[toymaster]

Fullsize, American, trucks have a 6.5' short bed. Long-beds are 8'. Open up the tailgate slide in a full sheet of plywood...and shut the tailgate :costumed-smiley-007. My F550 is the shortest wheelbase you can get and it has a 9' flatbed on it .

Edit: My first truck was a 1990 sportside chevy, bought brand new, with a 4' x 6.5' box. I learned my lesson the first time: don't buy a half a truck, get the long bed.

 

[Mack4]

This has always confused me. If a 8' is long, and a 6.5' is short then what is a 5.5' called? A tray?

I had a 6.5, dropped it off a rock ledge and drove the exhaust up through the bed side. Everything is a compromise I guess!

 

[thebrassnuckles]

He is referring to crew cab half ton pickups.

My father in law has a crew cab F-150 platinum with a 6.5' bed. I think its a 2010 I dont know if they still have that option or not, but I haven't seen too many.

My Ram has a 5'-7" bed....

 

[Mack4]

Uncle! Uncle! I am editing out the portion about the bed length on my truck!

Enjoy the pictures and if you were foolish enough :sombrero: to purchase a truck with a bed too short for your height, the DAC seems like a decent solution.

 

[Saiyan66]

Let us know how weather resistant that setup is. Looks like it will work well if it can keep wind and rain out.

 

[mtnbike28]

I have the DAC for my DC Taco, the one thing I have fought with it is in rain. The top sits on the rear cap glass and like all the tents I have every owned, when you touch the inside of the tent it pulls water through. I have used the cheap tarp over the top, a $20 Dicks sporting goods tail gate thing and the Kelty shelter when threatened by rain and all solve that problem. Otherwise we have used it a lot and very pleased with the DAC.


This is the ********'s Sporting Goods cover, the DAC has not been deployed yet.


Mid-trip camping.

 

[4x4x4doors]

Looks like a good solution to me. I'd like to hear back how it does with bugs and rain after you've lived with it a while. My bed is shorter than I am as well but truck wasn't bought to sleep in initially.
Future plans may include not bringing the trailer along as originally planned so something may need to get worked out.

 

[dblosch]

...if you were foolish enough to purchase a truck with a bed too short for your height...

My truck has a 5' bed. I am 6' tall. I can still sleep in it, tailgate up... It's really too bad the Avalanche got such a bad rap!

 

[Chevrolado]

I always wondered how people with the Short-short-bed's dealt with the sleeping arrangement in the bed. I couldn't imagine. I'm 6'4, so I have always had the mindset that it will be a full 6.5' bed or more - no excuses.

I also have this problem when buying couches for my living room. They just don't make long enough couches for us tall folk that want to be able to lay down and watch TV..

Glad you came up with a nice extended tent that works for ya! Good to know there are options out there.

 

[Mack4]

It also makes a nice porch for getting in and out of the camper. One of the things I hate the most is vaulting into the back of the truck and then having to close the tailgate and camper shell windoor from the inside.

Here is the DAC on a F-250.



I'll be testing it out this weekend when Texas A&M Beats the Hell Outta those LSU Tigers!

-Mack

 

[downhill]

one old trick for people who are cramped in the length they have is to cut your pillow in half. Most of a pillow sits above your head, so it forces you farther down. half a pillow works as well as a whole one as far as I can tell. I'll be sleeping on one tonight.

 

[TOTHEHILLS]

I'm 6'4 and also too tall for my Titan's 5'7 bed. Got tired of sleeping corner-to-corner so I bought some extra material from Softopper and rigged up an extension. It works great. Doesn't flap in the wind and is waterproof. Currently snaps shut, but I would like to add a zippered entrance. Here's some pics:

 

[Mack4]

Very cool! How did you mount the snaps to the tailgate?

Tried it out this past weekend, we had a mosquito intruder, the wife was very pleased with the extra space and the mesh added some much needed ventilation on Saturday night. Also, nice to have a place to put our shoes at night and much easier to get in and out of the camper shell.

Another step to setting up camp, but a lot easier than putting out an awning/mosquito net.

Still would like a tighter fit on the edges, I am thinking Velcro or Snaps and a pair of scissors might be in order. Maybe a hybrid of ToTheHills design.

Not sure how many of you got to watch LSU mangle the Aggies in the second half, but at least we saved $50.00 on a hotel room!