OT: Dirtbag Chalet/Revisiting the truck bed platform

Here’s a new take on the age-old, truck bed/campershell sleeping platform. With spring trailhead camping season just around the corner, I thought some of you might appreciate this. I researched these things when deciding to build one a year or so ago, and I didn’t really see any designs that would work for me. Basically, I wanted to avoid building a bulky, wood platform to fit in the bed. I also wanted to be able to split it in half for solo missions and have it be easy to disassemble.

Anyway, here’s what I came up with.

The basic design includes two platforms and two support feet. The feet are made from sections of 1″ pipe that screw into flanges bolted on the underside of the left platform. The smaller platform piece rests along a piece of metal deck fastener bolted along the larger platform board. Both main platform pieces rest on, and are supported by the bed rails. I sank three holes on the underside of each platform piece to help them fit snugly over the bolts that clamp the shell on the truck.

Here’s what it looks like disassembled from the underside:

Here it is in solo or “split” mode. You can see that I had enough carpet left over to make a bike rack too. I put some velcro tape on the truck bed to help hold the bike rack in place.

A view from underneath when set up in “split mode.” It turns out that having the platform on the bed rails gives just enough clearance for our old school, metal Coleman cooler.

Split mode allows you also to sleep with your bike, something many of us can relate to.

The easy disassembly lets your bikes snuggle too.

I’ve probably spent 10 or so nights in it so far, and it’s held up well. The 1″ ply is more than sturdy enough to support a clyde. I have a mid-rise shell, so it’s not as claustrophobic as it could be. We built another one for a shorter shell and used angle iron to lower the platform height to give more headroom. No cooler under that one, though your boards would fit just fine.

Anyway, it’s great to be able to roll up to your campsite late and not have to unload gear before jumping in back to sleep. Overall, I think it cost me ~$50. Dirtbags rejoice!