Truck bed tent

[NurseNeil]

So, yes I have a super crew, I was looking to purchase a bed tent. Anyone know if you can still use them if you have a tonneau cover? Or is there a decently priced top tent?

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[9zero1790]

i think you would have to remove the cover in order to use the bed tent in order to access the truck bed. i feel like bed tents are almost more trouble than they are worth. lots of tie downs.

 

[9zero1790]

i want one like this, but they are too pricey.

 

[NurseNeil]

i think you would have to remove the cover in order to use the bed tent in order to access the truck bed. i feel like bed tents are almost more trouble than they are worth. lots of tie downs.

What trouble??

 

[awd.nv]

Can you sleep under the bed cover? I am half tempted to just sleep under my Bakflip MX4. I just know I would need to sleep diagonally (5'7") which would make my sleeping pad hard to use. I usually can only get a night or two away so I have even thought, eh screw it, I will sleep in the passenger seat. We have a nice enough tent, I just hate setting a tent up for one night.

Our Honda Pilot made that a thing of the past, with the second and third rows down I slept so good in that thing. Since owning the Ranger, I just don't ever want to be off-road in anything but the Ranger.

 

[9zero1790]

What trouble??

all the set up and take down is what i call trouble. they have several straps and tie downs that have to be used.

 

[9zero1790]

Can you sleep under the bed cover? I am half tempted to just sleep under my Bakflip MX4. I just know I would need to sleep diagonally (5'7") which would make my sleeping pad hard to use. I usually can only get a night or two away so I have even thought, eh screw it, I will sleep in the passenger seat. We have a nice enough tent, I just hate setting a tent up for one night.

Our Honda Pilot made that a thing of the past, with the second and third rows down I slept so good in that thing. Since owning the Ranger, I just don't ever want to be off-road in anything but the Ranger.

i dont see why someone could not sleep under the bed cover as long as they fit in the space and dont get claustrophobic . its pretty tight in the 5.5 bed with the tail gate closed.

 

[Danager]

I tried sleeping under the Bak Revolver X4S. Too confined for me. I looked at the bed tents too. A lot of hassle. I don’t want to remove the tonneau cover completely, at least the roll. So then I end up having to go with a bed tent with no floor. Also not ideal.

I have found a few small pop-up tents that fit inside the bed. There are a lot in the 4’x7’ size. The limiting factor is finding one with the door at the end, not on the side. Consider something like this perhaps. A lot cheaper than the dedicated truck bed tents. Could use this on the ground or in the bed.

 

[9zero1790]

when i want to camp out i almost wish my ranger was an excursion. plenty of room to sleep in those big things.

 

[NOVA_Ranger]

I have a tent I used in my Tacoma and it worked fine with a roll-up tonneau cover installed. I assume it will work with the Ranger too, but haven’t tried it yet. I always go with the soft roll-up covers because I use the bed a lot.

 

[halligan1201]

So here's my take. I'm 47 and have been tent camping since I was 6 months old. I've slept on the ground in every state except Hawaii. I've camped in all 12 months of the year, although as I age, it's shifted mostly to fall and winter camping - less crowds, bugs, heat.

I've slept in just about every type of ground tent out there, used the hatchback tents, and tried a truck bed tent on my last truck. There's plus and minuses to them all. I found the hatchback and truck bed tents to be a hassle and they kind of screw up how you're able to utilize storage space.

Because they're all the rage, I was set on a RTT for a while. But in talking to folks, I have found more that regret the purchase than are glad for it. Between cost to value, to hassle of getting it on and off during off-seasons (all American RTT manufacturers recommend taking them off when not using them because of wear and tear), they all had their reasons. The soft-top ones in particular seem to have the most regrets because the setup/take down time is roughly the same as a comparable ground tent but at four times the cost. The hard top ones get real close to the same cost of a cheap square drop trailer. So I passed on a RTT.

My latest experiment will be an Australian swag. Heavy weight, includes a thick ground pad, can be setup/torn down in the same time as my ultralight tent (about 90 seconds), don't need to be staked down, is a 3.5 season solution, is packed with bedding in it, and can be transfered from one vehicle to the next in 30 seconds. If you want, you can get them in sizes that fit on top of a cot and all of them will setup in a truck bed without issue. I have two different ones on order from 23zero.

I still own five other tents that all have their sweet spot purposes - backpacking, heavy snow, etc, but I'm anticipating the swag becoming my go-to 99% of the time going forward.

 

[halligan1201]

Can you sleep under the bed cover? I am half tempted to just sleep under my Bakflip MX4. I just know I would need to sleep diagonally (5'7") which would make my sleeping pad hard to use. I usually can only get a night or two away so I have even thought, eh screw it, I will sleep in the passenger seat. We have a nice enough tent, I just hate setting a tent up for one night.

Our Honda Pilot made that a thing of the past, with the second and third rows down I slept so good in that thing. Since owning the Ranger, I just don't ever want to be off-road in anything but the Ranger.

You should look into a swag tent. You're first paragraph is exactly my scenario too. I'm thinking a swag will fit the bill for me.

 

[VTRanger]

I purchased the Rightline bed tent and ended up returning it. The fit was not great, too many gaps between the truck and the tent. It also seemed like it was eventually going to rip.

 

[tremorman]

I will probably get a softopper with the tent attachment for any camping with this truck.

 

[Jrel209]

You should look into a swag tent. You're first paragraph is exactly my scenario too. I'm thinking a swag will fit the bill for me.

Have you used those swag tents on a cot in the truck bed? Thats sort of what im
Leaning towards over my current otf tent

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