Bed?

[MrEarp]

My wife and I spent a week camping out of the truck last week. It's been about 20 years since I have done anything like this and thought I was "ready".. After the first night I just about gave up and went to a motel.

We spent the our days exploring Michigan's Upper peninsula driving the seasonal roads, kayaking and just generally having fun.

Night sucked though because I dreaded sleeping on the coleman airmattress. I might as well have slept on the ground. I woke up more than once and I attribute the way I slept to a pinched nerve in my arm which basically ended the trip a few days early.

I need some ideas on a good bed. Something comfortable. I read a few threads already but I'm really interested to see whats out there.

Any help is appreciated.

Tnx

 

[goodtimes]

Marisa and I just spent a couple weeks sleeping in the back of my Dodge. We used to use a cheap inflatable mattress (we had it, it worked . . .), but it was always cold, and rather fragile. It finally developed a small leak, so we scrapped it a couple days into the latest trip.

We replaced it with a couple 'Landing Pad' inflatable pads. Similar to the uber-cool Paco Pads, but with a slightly softer foam, and considerably easier on the wallet. We're completely satisfied with them.

If you want something even nicer (comfort wise), check out the Thermarest Dream-Time pads. Incredibly comfortable - but they would be harder to keep clean than either the Landing Pad or Paco Pad.

 

[Accrete]

"out of the truck"... ?
Without much to go by i'll share my thoughts.
When we had our TACO set up with a sleeping platform/truckBedz air-bed we slept comfortably. Now that we've switched to a van we use the Froli system (easily as comfortable as the most luxurious home-based beds, in fact so comfortable, my wife has requested i build one to replace our sealy pillow top queen in the house!)

IF i were to do a truck again? I would somehow work out a way to have a sleep platform in the bed that was raised enough to allow a workable basement for storage, then, have some sort of removeable platform that covered the Froli/mattress so we could sleep soundly at night and still have lots of storage under the shell on top of the bed during the road trip. The completed Froli system with mattress in our rig is 6" so it is doable IMO with upper and lower storage under a typical topper/canopy. We had plenty of room above the ~9" inflated air bed in our TACO's ARE Shell with ~12" basement below.

Just ramblin' best wishes on the build/adventures : )

 

[jim65wagon]

Our solution is a large tent (10x10) and two cots. The cots are like sleeping in a bed and comfortable. It's not as "cool" as sleeping in your truck and certainly not as cool (or as pricey)as an RTT on your truck, but a good nights sleep is one of the most important parts of a good trip. It may take a little more time to set up and take down, but for my money (barring a teardrop trailer with a ready made bed) the tent/ cot combo is hard to beat.

Our tents are Cabelas Quad Pole tents and the cots are Slumberjacks, both have lasted for many many camping trips over the last 4 years. Plus it gives you a changing room you can stand up in and under bed storage for your clothing. If you feel like really glamping you can throw in an end table and some teak flooring.....

 

[Douglas]

I bought a "Comfort Cot" from REI last year and spent 10 straight nights on it in the desert last year. 40 year old male with two blown disks in my back, and absolutely love sleeping on this. If I decide to "rough it", I now sleep without a tent on my cot with a sleeping bag and bivy sack.

http://www.rei.com/product/765277/rei-comfort-cot

 

[MrEarp]

Sorry I should have clarified a bit.. We slept in a tent not in the truck. (frankly sleeping in the truck would have been more comfortable as we were not prepared for the 40 degree temps last week at night)

 

[MrEarp]

Definitely have gotten some ideas to start with. We are planning on getting a new tent since the old tent is a bit small for us. So it looks like I'll be investing in a few things . Tomorrow night I'm going to hit a few stores to see if anyone has any of the various products on hand so I can lay on them and see how they feel.

 

[Curmudgeon]

Sounds like you might be a candidate for a camper or trailer with a real bed in it. Some people think that's not really camping, but if you're miserable, what's the point of even going. Do whatever it takes to make your time out enjoyable.

JP