Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I thought I would share my build-a-long of my most recent project, a popup that will fit in the back of my Toyota Tacoma. After completing my first teardrop nearly 8 years ago, and taking it with me for many adventures in my 20's, life happened - a wife and career...I eventually sold the teardrop and forgot about camping completely (according to the site my last login was in 2006!). Recently my wife and I went tent camping for the first time and I was less than pleased with sleeping on the ground, and lack of my teardrop accommodations. So looking for a new challenge that doesn't involve a set of wheels I've decided to build something that will be completely contained in the bed of my truck, while providing a few creature comforts.

Here are my goals:
1. Lightweight - I want to be able to load and unload the unit by myself.
2. Low-Profile - Ideally it will fit mostly below the bed rails of the truck and simply look like an over-sized bed cover when closed - not one of those slide in campers!
3. Simple - No fancy popup mechanisms, just simple hardware that will facilitate manual lift. Oh, and no fold-outs one convertible queen sized bed only.
4. Power - I would like to be able to run 110 /12v depending on the situation.

Bonus items that would be nice:
-A single burner propane stove
-A small sink

Rough dimensions and mock-up of the "tub":


Floor Frame in progress:


Getting ready to glue the sheeting to the frame:



More to follow!

I'll be following this build as I've been tossing around the idea of building a foamy camper for the back of my truck.

Always keen on a build thread ..

Looking forward to future post s !
Cecil

I'm watching too. I've been considering something
for my truck myself.

Are you extending over the tail gate?

How's the progress going? got a taco myself and it would be nice to see how this comes together.