Can You Sleep in a Tacoma?

The Toyota Tacoma is the model of reliability. It’s only natural to want to take it on all sorts of exciting adventures like camping or offroading. But it’s definitely a lot easier to take a truck camping if you know you can sleep in it.

You can sleep in a Toyota Tacoma. If you are an easy sleeper, you can sleep in the passenger seat with just a sleeping bag. Otherwise, you can sleep in the truck bed fairly easily with just a couple of blankets to keep you warm. A camping shell can also increase the liveability of your truck bed.

This is great news for you adventurers out there! All you’ll need to do to make this dream of outdoor adventure into a reality is to pick up a couple of truck accessories for use at bedtime. But you might not be comfortable sleeping in a truck bed with nothing but blankets, so what options are out there to make you more comfortable?

Sleeping In A Truck Bed

It turns out that you can sleep in pretty much any truck bed that you can lay down in as long as you have a quilt or blanket to prevent yourself from losing too much heat out the base of the bed.

This means that Toyota Tacoma drivers aren’t the only ones lucky enough not to need a tent on a camping trip!

However, there are several things about straight-up sleeping in a truck bed that can be a little frustrating. For one thing, if you struggle with back pain, it can be extremely uncomfortable to sleep on that hard metal overnight. If that’s you, you’ll likely want to invest in a truck bed mattress so that you can get a good night’s sleep.

If you don’t have a camping shell, you can also end up getting wet with the rest of nature in the morning. Morning dew can make you cold and wet, so sleeping out in the open isn’t always a good idea. This just makes it all the more important to have a camping shell.

Of course, it’s also possible that your body is just too long for the truck bed. In that case, you’ll probably need to sleep with the gate down so that you can lie down all the way.

If none of this is working for you and you still want to sleep in the back of your truck, it might be time to start working on some DIY projects or modifications to make things a little easier on your body.

Making The Truck Bed More Comfortable

There are many projects that you can do to make your Toyota Tacoma a little more liveable. It isn’t necessary, but if you need it to sleep well in your truck then it’s definitely worth the time and money.

Sleeping Platform

Building a sleeping platform to keep your mattress on top of can be helpful for a lot of people who have trouble sleeping with the mattress directly on the truck bed, and it allows you to cordon off different sections of the bed for different people if you’re traveling as a family.

Sleeping platforms can be built out of wood, PVC, or any other building material that’s light enough for your truck to easily carry. Another advantage of sleeping platforms is that they allow you to also add some basic storage areas in your truck bed to help you keep organized for long trips.

Darkening Curtains

It’s great to be able to sleep in your pickup truck and all, but if you don’t have any way to keep the back of your truck dark, you’ll end up waking up with the sun every morning regardless of when you went to bed.

Most camping shells have some way to keep the truck pitch black when you’re trying to sleep in it. Otherwise, you’ll want to invest in some blackout curtains and install them wherever the light is coming in from. This will make nights so much easier for everyone sleeping inside.

Storage Space

This isn’t so much important for your sleeping habits as it is for making sure you can find all your equipment every day that you’re out. There are all sorts of options for setting up storage for your truck bed that involve varying levels of effort on your part.

You could just get some plastic storage containers, or you could build a couple of wooden cubby spaces to place along the wall of the bed. Do whatever fits into your budget most easily and you should have your stuff organized in no time.

The Stealth Option

If you don’t want anyone to be able to tell that you’re sleeping in the back of your truck and you think that you can fit in the bed with the gate up, then you can hide completely with a bed cap. Obviously, you’ll need to make sure that there’s some ventilation in there so you don’t suffocate, but on the other hand, if you’re a quiet sleeper you’ll be practically invisible.

Unfortunately, you won’t have very much sleeping space at all, which might make it tough to actually fall asleep if you aren’t utterly exhausted. But if you’re willing to hide in the back of a capped truck bed then you’re probably pretty tired in the first place, so that might not be the first thing on your mind.

How Far Can You Take It?

Many creative people have, in fact, found ways to live their lives out of the back of their Toyota Tacomas. It takes a lot of modification, but it is in fact possible to set up your Toyota Tacoma so that you don’t even need a home anymore!

You’ll need to find a place for a fridge, a cooking space, and a separate sleeping space all in the back of the truck if you want to live this way. Of course, it will probably be tough to get used to for the first couple of months (not having access to running water is a big turn-off for me personally) but it is technically possible if you truly have a deep love of the open road.