Planning a Lightweight Foamie Truck Bed Camper

[JohnSeeg]

Hey all,

I travel a few times a year for track days, with a truck towing an open car trailer. Hotels are expensive, and the hotels in some of the towns these tracks are in are in pretty rough shape. I've been hoping to figure out a way to make this easier and cheaper, and I think I have my first version planned.

Assumptions/Rules:

• I'll either be camping places with shore power, or I'll have my generator/quiet box
• I'll be camping at places with bathroom access
• The AC and mattress need to be something replaced easily if need be.
• It needs to be light enough I can get it in and out of my truck bed alone
• Don't want to feel like I'm trapped in a coffin when I'm laying down.

Rough Idea:

• Foamie camper
  • Size
    • Height: 41" (Truck bed floor to Cab Roofline)
    • Width: 48" (Space between wheel wells, don't need to build a riser)
    • Length: 96" (Full Bed Length)
  • Sides/roof:
    • Material: Foamular 150
    • Coating: TBD (Decision 1)
  • Floor: TBD (Decision 2)
  • Doors/windows: 1xDoor, 2xwindows, all prebuilt camper units

Decision #1: Coating
Option 1: PMF
Tried and True, a million instructions on it, very cheap, probably the logical choice. TB2+Drop cloths+paint.

Option 2: Bed liner
My initial idea was inspired by the Tusca Hitchhiker (now Freedom Campers). From what I saw on youtube, it seems like they're building with foam and coating with truck bed liner. I'm not seeing that working super well with a DIY approach but I wanted to see if any one had actually tried it with any success.

Option 3: Laminate the foam with Plastic/FRP Panels
Sandwich the foam between plastic sheets to make DIY SIPs. Lets me keep the corners simple and just glue/caulk corner trim around the corners instead of having to round them. Don't have to deal with wrinkles, rolling glue, edges, etc. Expensive, probably heavier.

Decision #2: Floor
Option 1: Same material as sides
Light, cheap, waterproof. Might not be strong enough.

Option 2: Single sheet of plywood
Simple, strong. Needs sealant to protect from water. Not insulated. Heavier than foam

Option 3: Wood-clad foam
Wood boards sandwiching foam. Insulated, strong, heavy, needs sealing, extra work


Rough Floorplan:

 

[bobhenry-TNT]

Your truck bed is about to become a bathtub. Faced with the same idea I would make it modular. A sturdy but light box over each wheel well. An old used bed frame fitted across each end of these boxes across the truck bed. A 3/4 plywood section to drop in the front half of the bed to the back edge of the wheel wells. The front edge behind the cab also supported with a bed frame rail and legs. I would add a trap door as a smugglers cavity underneath the bed that will be running side to side the full width of the truck bed. From the rear of the wheel wells leave it open for cargo. Coolers, water jugs, folding chairs , cooking equipment and that A/C unit From experience even the tiniest A/C unit will freeze up and become useless cooling only 128 +/- cubic feet. I set mine outside and duct only the cold air output thru a duct to the inside. Cooling cold air over and over again is great in a large bedroom but just letting outside ambient air into the unit will prevent freeze up. Now the top Foam on a light wood frame can be covered with heavy open weave upholstery fabric and 1/2 and 1/2 mix of Elmers glue and exterior house paint. HOWEVER by the time you design and fabricate all of this you could probably find a used pick up topper truck cap far cheaper. The big thing is to be sure the weather drains outboard of the sides to eliminate the bath tub scenario I mentioned earlier WHEW! my hunt and peck finger is tired.

 

[JohnSeeg]

Thanks for the feedback!

Water Drainage
The two corners by the tailgate should be fine, I have one of the open tailgates like the attached image that won't hold water. I do need to make sure there's a path for water from the two cab-side corners to escape, so I'll keep any eye on that.

AC Unit
I was worried about the AC being so oversized for the space, so your callout on that makes me think it will probably be an issue. I'll count on the cold air getting ducted in from outside and then figure out what unit I'm using to feed it later. I'm leaning towards one of the little tent AC units right now, but I need to do more research on them.

Overall Design
My initial design was closer to what you described, a wooden platform under a truck bed camper shell, but the more I worked on designing it, the more it seemed like it would be difficult to remove/store solo. I need open bed space pretty regularly (loading brush/lawn equipment) so I would have to add the topper and the base every time I needed it and then take it back out when I got home. the foamie idea appeals to me for the ease of me being able to remove it solo pretty simply and store it all as one self-contained unit.