Post by cam on Dec 30, 2009 23:41:55 GMT -5
DISCLAIMER: I aint no carpenter. I'm a welder. If you give me wood and a saw, I'll give you back sawdust. That being said, this aint no professional carpentry fabrication job. I almost started to do this little buildup out of iron tubing, but had enough free wood laying around that I thought I'd give it a shot. That being said...
Mods...feel free to move this thread...Frugal Living was about the only place I could see where it fit.
The whole reason I got me the longbed Tacoma was so I could sleep in the dang thing. I've grown to hate tents with a passion, but I hate the thought of mosquitoes and the wolfman messing with me while I'm sleeping on my cot unprotected, so I decided to get me a campershell for the truck.
Originally I thought about just using a cot in the bed of the truck, but then I started fantasizing about having a place to sleep, along with storage so I could keep my toys with me and not outside the vehicle in the elements. So, last week, I started tinkering. Was up in the attic at my parents place and found a big throw rug that my sister had used back in her dorm days in college. She wasn't much of a partier, and is a helluva neat freak, so I knew the rug would be pretty well clean and free from dirt, vomit, cathair, and hopefully blood. Here we have it...the base of my bed. The rug was cut to fit around the fenderwells and provides a good non-skid base to the truck bed. Oh, and it was free...thats frugal enough for me.
Ok..so now the work starts. I decided to go with this...3 2x6's, turned on their side, running the length of the bed, and a sheet of plywood cut to fit the area of the bed.
I got the lumber from the local correctional facility that we've been trapping hogs at. Made a swap with the farmboss and some of his inmates...a large hindquarter off one of the trapped hogs in exchange for a sheet of plywood. Figured that was a good trade. Hell, my tax dollars feed the inmates...I reckon I'm worth a sheet of 5/8ths plywood!
For the 2x6's, get this...I went to Home Depot and found a bunch of 4 foot peices of 2x6's that were drops back in the back where they cut lumber. Located a supervisor and asked him how much for the drop peices and he told me to take all I wanted for nothing. Frugal??? Frugal.
Mated the peices of 2x6's together to make 6ft lengths. Sketched out a pattern to go around the front of the wheelwells and cut it out of the plywood. Mocked it up, screwed it down. (I left the area to the rear of the wheelwells open because theres 2 storage compartments in the bed behind the wells. Wanted to be able to access them.) Here's the naked platform:
The spacing between the 2x6's works out pretty nice for my storage compartments. They have stops up in there, so I can fit my bows, guns or whatever, while keeping them from sliding to the front of the bed whenever I slam on my brakes to keep from hitting one of these dumbass Okies who like to pull trailers without tailights in the dark.
I went to a carpet store and asked for scrap peices of carpet padding. At first they were gonna charge me for it, but when I told them what I was gonna use it for, the guy goes, "Ah haail...thats pretty cool man....just take the stuff!" Frugal? Indeed.
Carpet?? Yeah...not so frugal there. I couldn't find anybody to let me HAVE a 6'x anything peice of carpet for nothing. So I went to Wall's...this cheapo depot store down south of McAlester. They had scrap carpeting, but nothing like I wanted. So I bought a 6' x 5 or so peice of carpeting for $15. Oh...and it was 2 inches short of what they said it was. I'm writing a letter to someone over that crap!
Scrounged around and found some recessed screws and washers and screwed all of it down. So....Here 'Tis. My Bush Bed. I'm gonna try it out this weekend, either in the front yard or out in the woods to find out what it needs. I'm thinking it should provide a sound, fairly well protected sleeping quarters for long distance camping trips, particluarly this West Texas hunt at the end of January!
Now...I may have made this thing more work than what it was worth....because heres what I'm thinking: The 1st muddy, bloody, lice and tick infested hog that gets thrown up on the platform, that carpet and padding will have to be changed out.
Guess that'll keep me looking for ways to acquire free padding and carpet, huh?
Cam
Mods...feel free to move this thread...Frugal Living was about the only place I could see where it fit.
The whole reason I got me the longbed Tacoma was so I could sleep in the dang thing. I've grown to hate tents with a passion, but I hate the thought of mosquitoes and the wolfman messing with me while I'm sleeping on my cot unprotected, so I decided to get me a campershell for the truck.
Originally I thought about just using a cot in the bed of the truck, but then I started fantasizing about having a place to sleep, along with storage so I could keep my toys with me and not outside the vehicle in the elements. So, last week, I started tinkering. Was up in the attic at my parents place and found a big throw rug that my sister had used back in her dorm days in college. She wasn't much of a partier, and is a helluva neat freak, so I knew the rug would be pretty well clean and free from dirt, vomit, cathair, and hopefully blood. Here we have it...the base of my bed. The rug was cut to fit around the fenderwells and provides a good non-skid base to the truck bed. Oh, and it was free...thats frugal enough for me.
Ok..so now the work starts. I decided to go with this...3 2x6's, turned on their side, running the length of the bed, and a sheet of plywood cut to fit the area of the bed.
I got the lumber from the local correctional facility that we've been trapping hogs at. Made a swap with the farmboss and some of his inmates...a large hindquarter off one of the trapped hogs in exchange for a sheet of plywood. Figured that was a good trade. Hell, my tax dollars feed the inmates...I reckon I'm worth a sheet of 5/8ths plywood!
For the 2x6's, get this...I went to Home Depot and found a bunch of 4 foot peices of 2x6's that were drops back in the back where they cut lumber. Located a supervisor and asked him how much for the drop peices and he told me to take all I wanted for nothing. Frugal??? Frugal.
Mated the peices of 2x6's together to make 6ft lengths. Sketched out a pattern to go around the front of the wheelwells and cut it out of the plywood. Mocked it up, screwed it down. (I left the area to the rear of the wheelwells open because theres 2 storage compartments in the bed behind the wells. Wanted to be able to access them.) Here's the naked platform:
The spacing between the 2x6's works out pretty nice for my storage compartments. They have stops up in there, so I can fit my bows, guns or whatever, while keeping them from sliding to the front of the bed whenever I slam on my brakes to keep from hitting one of these dumbass Okies who like to pull trailers without tailights in the dark.
I went to a carpet store and asked for scrap peices of carpet padding. At first they were gonna charge me for it, but when I told them what I was gonna use it for, the guy goes, "Ah haail...thats pretty cool man....just take the stuff!" Frugal? Indeed.
Carpet?? Yeah...not so frugal there. I couldn't find anybody to let me HAVE a 6'x anything peice of carpet for nothing. So I went to Wall's...this cheapo depot store down south of McAlester. They had scrap carpeting, but nothing like I wanted. So I bought a 6' x 5 or so peice of carpeting for $15. Oh...and it was 2 inches short of what they said it was. I'm writing a letter to someone over that crap!
Scrounged around and found some recessed screws and washers and screwed all of it down. So....Here 'Tis. My Bush Bed. I'm gonna try it out this weekend, either in the front yard or out in the woods to find out what it needs. I'm thinking it should provide a sound, fairly well protected sleeping quarters for long distance camping trips, particluarly this West Texas hunt at the end of January!
Now...I may have made this thing more work than what it was worth....because heres what I'm thinking: The 1st muddy, bloody, lice and tick infested hog that gets thrown up on the platform, that carpet and padding will have to be changed out.
Guess that'll keep me looking for ways to acquire free padding and carpet, huh?
Cam