Anyone use a pickup truck tent?

Any feedback would be great. Nissan Frontier 6 foot bed is the truck.

I assume you are talking about the in the bed type. I’ve used them.

Make sure the rain fly stays over the bed rails.

I have the Kodiak Canvas and love it.  

Look up the youtube videos.

It is tough and holds up to rough weather with no leaks.

You also get the added use of the tailgate length.

Ventilation is awesome. Even if its raining you can have the top windows open because there is an overhang on each end of the tent.

There is also a window that lines up with the sliding rear window on the truck if you need a pass through.

Attached File

Attached File

Attached File

Attached File






OST. Kinda...

Our fambly of three used one when I was stationed in England.  We had a hard time staying warm.  The metal of the truck bed would suck the heat outta ya.   Bring lots of bedding.  
We brought one of those instant-up canopies at the entrance, over the tailgate.  Tailgate was our kitchen table, utility table, etc.  Worked well.

Cheers!

I was lucky my truck already had a bed rug in it before I bought the tent.

That adds extra insulation and cushion to floor and sides.

Worst of all worlds. Can't use the truck once it's set up, it's not hard sided, and you can't leave everything in it like a slide in camper or shell.

I've used one.
good points are
Gets you off the ground (reassuring when their is a alligator warning sign 25 feet away from your campsite.
Never floods out in heavy rain.
No rocks or roots in your back.

Downsides are
Kinda of a pain to set up and take down
You have to empty the bed to use it.

Important thing to remember is a heavy mat to put in the bed before the tent because standing or kneeling on the bed or liner ribs is not pleasant when barefoot.

Attached File

Coming off of an 11,000 mile road trip (7k out into the Rockies and back, 4k to New England and back) the only place where a truck tent made more sense than a ground tent was when I was bivi'ing out in a former quarry in the Black Hills of SoDak - the ground was awful, jumbled rock, and there were a lot of cattle coming through.  That's it.

Everywhere else, it was way more convenient just to have a ground tent, or bivi inside the double cab of my Tacoma, or open air bivi in the bed.

With a ground tent, in places where I was going to be staying a while, I had a 1-man tent I set up in a NF, sometimes for weeks at a time, and I'd just take my truck into the NP or into town on a daily basis, without the need to break down camp.  2 tents, 2 sleeping bags, 2 sleeping pads: a frontcountry setup that stayed setup longer, and a backcountry setup for backpacking/climbing.  The heavier, more robust set stayed in the frontcountry at the unimproved NF site; the lighter weight set would go into the backcountry of the NP.  After 4 days or so in the backcountry, I'd come back to my frontcountry site in the NF, and my tent and sleeping stuff was already set up and ready for a hard crash.

At rest stops along an interstate or highway, or at pullouts in NPs, you can't set up a truck tent, so it doesn't do you any good there.  Other places where you could set it up, if you need to go somewhere in your truck, you have to break down the tent, and store whatever else was in the bed of the truck ... then drive.

For people who are just going to a campsite, and remaining fairly static, or that particular campsite/trailhead is the foot launch point for all the other stuff, ok, a truck tent would make sense.