Toyota Tacoma Truck Camping Setup

In this post we’ll walk through the step-by-step build process for our Toyota Tacoma truck camping setup and sleeping platform build.

This Tacoma truck camping setup is perfect for wedge-style platform campers like our Go Fast Camper, but it can also be used for solo truck camping in a traditional truck topper.

If you’re not entirely sure which truck bed sleeping platform option may be the best for your Toyota Tacoma truck camper build, head on over to our post about choosing a truck bed sleeping platform that’s right for your needs.

And don’t worry - if the prospect of building your own sleeping platform in your Tacoma seems completely overwhelming, know that we went into our first build having literally no prior experience with design or carpentry.

All you need is a little time, patience, and the right tools, and you can do just about anything!

Design Goals for this Tacoma Truck Camping Build

For this build, we were focused on making a Tacoma truck camping setup that could accomplish the following:

Provide enough space to sleep one to two children (or an adult in a pinch) in the bed of the Tacoma
The sleeping platform would need to be removable, but strong enough to support workloads if/when needed
Have a built in location for a camping stove
Have built in storage for a 6lb propane tank (optional)
12V charging ports for cell-phones & laptops
Allow space for a 12V ARB Elements Camping Fridge with interior and exterior 12v power outlets
Allow space for a 10 gallon DIY camping shower and water container
Convenient full-length 60” sliding drawer storage for all our camp kitchen gear as well as dry food storage
Maximize the interior storage space while providing a comfortable place to hang out in inclement weather

To accomplish this we reused many aspects of our previous half-platform design from our old Toyota pickup, while optimizing the dimensions for a short bed Toyota Tacoma - the length or width dimensions can still be easily modified for a long-bed Tacoma or a wider platform/drawer as well!

Toyota Tacoma Truck Camping Platform Materials List:

Materials Needed:

1 - truck camper shell or wedge camper
3 - 4ftx8ft cabinet grade ¾ inch birch plywood boards
1 - pair of 60” long 500lb rated drawer slides*
1 - recessed drawer handle*
1 - 100 piece box of 1 ¼ inch exterior Kreg Jig screws*
1 - box #8 1/2 inch self-tapping screws (for attaching the drawer slide)
1 - box #10 1/2 inch self-tapping screws (also for attaching the drawer slide)
Spray on Truck Bed Coating - we used 4 cans of Rustoleum Pro Grade Truck Bed Coating* on our short-bed sleeping platform

Tools Needed:

1 - Kreg Jig Kit* with Clamp* (This is a MUST HAVE tool - especially for carpentry noobs like us!)
Circular Saw or Table Saw (and a friend to help hold the plywood is really nice!)
Jig Saw
Variable Speed Drill/Bit-Driver
1 ¼” Hole Saw*
Speed Square* and 48” T-square* (great for making nice square cuts on long pieces of plywood)

A few things to know for this Toyota Tacoma Truck camping Build:

Because we are still complete carpentry noobs, throughout this guide we’ll make references to the below non-technical terms in order to help clarify parts of the assembly process.

Kreg Jig Joint - this is a wood joinery method using a tool called a Kreg Jig that allows you to easily and securely join wood using a drill and Kreg Jig screws - It’s like making your own DIY Ikea furniture!
Vertical Kreg Jig Joint - when a Kreg Jig Joint is used to secure something vertically (i.e., up and down, perpendicular to the ground)
Horizontal Kreg Jig Joint - when a Kreg Jig Joint is used to secure something horizontally (i.e., side-to-side, parallel to the ground)
Toenail - this refers to alternating the Kreg Jig joints from one side of a board to the other so that the screws enter at opposing angles

Now it’s time to measure, measure….yeah probably measure again. Then cut, Kreg Jig, and assemble. You got this!

Step 1: Measure your Tacoma Truck Bed Footprint

First, outline the footprint of your Tacoma’s truck bed to calculate how much space you have to work with and roughly how much plywood you will need. This lays the foundation for your Tacoma truck camping setup, and helps in planning the rest of the sleeping platform build.

The measurements throughout this guide may not apply exactly to your own Tacoma truck camping build, but hopefully the process of how we measured will, and you can simply add length/width to the dimensions to suit your own truck’s bed space or preference.

BONUS: Even though we designed this around our Double Cab 2004 Toyota Tacoma, if you’re a short bed Toyota Tacoma owner, these measurements should be very close to your own because Toyota didn’t change the 5ft bed layouts all that much over the years.

STEP 2: Make The tacoma Truck camping Platform Base

By placing a ¾” plywood Platform Base on the bed of the truck you’ll have a nice level foundation to build the rest of your sleeping platform on.

The Platform Base has a small 4.5” wide contoured edge to match the contour of the Tacoma’s taillight housing protrusion in the rear of the bed - here’s a blow-up of this cut beside the taillight housing it fits into:

The Platform Base could be anchored through the bed of the truck using lag bolts once constructed, but we opted to leave ours free-floating for easy removal. Because our gear-filled storage totes, camping fridge, and water container are alongside the platform, we haven’t experienced any issues with movement while driving - even while off-roading.

STEP 3: Build the tacoma Truck Camping Sleeping Platform Supports

For our Tacoma truck camping build we wanted the top of the sleeping platform to fit just under the edge of the driver-side bed rail (13.5”) in order to maximize storage space in the drawer and sleeping platform for our Tacoma truck camping setup.

To achieve this we cut 11.75” tall vertical platform supports (strips) from ¾” plywood, which were then fixed vertically to the ¾” thick Sleeping Platform Base with vertical Kreg Jig joints in a toenail fashion. The dimensions of the three supports are shown in the diagram above.

**Note the Long Supports are angle cut on the cab-side top corner (see image below). This is done to contour the platform supports to the indention in the cab-side of the truck bed in the double cab 1st gen Tacoma, which allows for just enough room to fit the 60” drawer into the short bed with a Mountain Hatch Tailgate Panel installed.

The “toenailing” of the supports will give the joints an incredible amount of strength. Use a speed square to ensure all the supports stay as close as possible to 90 degree angles from the base as you install them, and use the 48” EXACT square to make sure the supports remain straight from front to back.

**TIP: Check your table saw or circular saw blade before making any cuts to ensure that the blade is set at a true 90 degree angle. This will ensure your cuts are nice and square which will help the supports stay square as well when joining.**

From two ¾” thick 4x8 plywood boards cut:

The Platform Base (L-shaped 27” x 60.75”) - **save the remainder of this board for later use with the Platform Cover**
2 Long Platform Supports @ 11.75” tall x 60.75” long
1 Short Driver-side support @ 11.75” tall x 8.25” long (see the below image, as this short support is cut to contour to the driver-side taillight housing on the first gen Tacoma)

The Short Platform Support is attached both vertically to the Platform Base and horizontally to the driver-side Long Platform Support with Kreg Jig joints.

STEP 4: Build the Tacoma Truck Camping Sleeping Platform Drawer

The drawer was designed with a 13.5” interior width, which will accommodate most 2-burner camping stoves, as well as a variety of plastic storage trays and dividers for keeping things organized while camping.

To accomplish this, we made sure the outer-most Long Platform Support (passenger-side) was positioned exactly 16.5” from the driver-side Long Platform Support. It needed to be 16.5” to account for each drawer slide needing ¾” of space to mount, and each drawer wall being ¾” thick plywood (total of 3”). This left 13.5” of interior width in the drawer to house our stove! Yay math!

After triple checking all of that math, you can then mount the drawer slides to the long platform supports as shown here in the photo. Note that they’re mounted ¾” in from the end of the drawer supports. This is to leave room for the Drawer Face to close flush in between the supports (in the above diagram you can see the Drawer Face sits inside the Platform Supports when closed).

The Drawer Base is what we refer to the bottom of the drawer as. The side and back walls of the drawer were cut and attached on top of the Drawer Base with vertical Kreg Jig joints in a toenail fashion as shown in the diagram above. Then the Side Walls and Back Walls were attached to one another with Horizontal Kreg Jig joints.

From one ¾” thick 4x8 plywood board cut:

Drawer Base cut @ 15” wide x 60” long
2 Side Walls cut @ 8” tall x 60” long
1 Drawer Back Wall cut @ 8” tall x 13.5” long

Once the three drawer walls (the two sides and back) are joined to the top of the drawer base and to one another, you can place the drawer in between the drawer slides. Then mount the slides to the drawer per the manufacturer’s directions using the #8 and #10 self-tapping screws.

**A couple drawer slide mounting tips:

Drawer slide mounted flush to the end of the truck camper sleeping platform drawer

Lay a few small 1/4” thick pieces of plywood under the drawer to lift the drawer off the Platform Base slightly while mounting. This ensures clearance from the Platform Base, allowing the drawers to slide smoothly once fully installed.
The drawer was mounted flush with the end of the drawer slides, as you can see here in the photo. By doing this, the Drawer Face (once attached to the end of the drawer) will close flush in between the long Platform Supports.

Finally you can measure, cut, and attach the Drawer Face to the Drawer Walls and Drawer Base with horizontal Kreg Jig joints (as seen in the picture above).

Form the left over ¾” plywood cut the Drawer Face:

16 ⅜” wide x 11 ⅝” tall

*This is the width between the Platform Supports minus ⅛” for clearance, and the height of the Platform Supports minus ⅛” for clearance.

You can now measure, mark, and cut a 2.5” x 4” rectangular hole in the center of the Drawer Face using a ¾” drill bit to start and then the jigsaw to complete the cut. Then install the recessed drawer handle as shown below:

In the image above, you can also see one of the two camping stove supports we installed inside the drawer to elevate the stove while still providing easy access to the storage space below the stove.

These camping stove supports are made using two oak 1x2s cut to 13.5” length (the width of the inside of the drawer) with a single Kreg Jig joint in each end; this way they can then be mounted to the inside of the drawer walls at whatever height is appropriate for your camping stove.

STEP 5: Make The Tacoma Truck Camping Sleeping Platform Cover

The Sleeping Platform Cover sits on top of the Platform Supports to form the top of the Tacoma sleeping platform and includes a long storage hatch to access the space above and behind the driver-side wheel well - this space is great for storing longer items like saws, axes, collapsible fishing poles, or a solar generator.

Using one 4ft x 8ft Piece of ¾” Plywood:

Cut one piece 26.25” by 59.75” - this will be the Platform Cover. **Note, if you cut the L-shaped Platform Base out of your first piece of plywood, there should be enough remaining to use for the Platform Cover**
We then notched the corners as shown in the diagram above to accommodate the rear taillight housing indention in the bed and the indention in the front bed corner (with enough additional room to pass electrical through as needed.

Cutting the Storage Hatch
The 31” x 7” storage hatch was drop cut into the space indicated on the diagram above (approximately 2” in from the edge of the platform cover).

To do this, you can use a 1 ¼” hole saw to create a hole that will act as both the handle for the hatch lid when finished and the opening for the jigsaw to cut out the rest of the hatch.

Next trace out your 31” x 7” rectangle and find something round - like an old coffee can - to round the corners of your template to follow with the jigsaw.

Finally, set the jigsaw to a 45 degree cutting angle, with the angle facing inward toward the opening while making the hatch cut out. This 45 degree angle will create a nice beveled lip and also create a very simple lid for the access hatch.
Optionally, you can also trace and cut out a section for propane tank storage as we did for our 6lb aluminum Worthington propane tank (see images at the bottom of this post)

Now you can secure the Platform Cover to the long Platform Supports below the cover using upside-down Kreg Jig Joints as shown in the image below and diagram above.

STEP 6: Apply Finishing to Your Tacoma Truck camping Platform

Though you can finish the platform any way you’d like - using wood stain, paint, or just leave it unfinished - we recommend using Spray on Truck Bed Coating* on the exterior for a couple reasons:

It provides a more durable protection for the surface of the Sleeping Platform while hauling stuff around when you’re not truck camping in your Tacoma
It is easily repairable - you can literally just spray more on
It’s WAY easier and faster than staining and sealing that much surface area

STEP 7: Install Fixtures To Complete Your Tacoma Truck Camping Setup

Now you can install your preferred camping power setup, camping fridge, camping water container, and storage totes. This is the fun part, and where your Tacoma truck camping setup will really come together!

For help determining your camping power needs and choosing the right Tacoma truck camping power setup, see our detailed guides:
- Camping Power 1: Electrical Terms and Principles Made Simple
- Camping Power 2: Determine Your Power Supply Needs
- Camping Power 3: Selecting a Camping Power Supply
- And check out the Overlanding Battery Setup we currently use in our Tacoma (it’s a game-changer!)

For help selecting a camping fridge see our guide on Choosing the Best Camping Fridge. Personally, we really like the ARB Elements Fridge for it’s low power consumption and incredible durability - you can check out our complete review here, after over 50K miles of off-road trails and overland travel it’s still going!

Want to make your own 10 gallon DIY camping shower & water container for your Tacoma truck camping setup? We have a detailed step-by-step guide here!

Buy on Amazon

As for storage totes - we highly recommend the Front Runner Wolf Packs.
They can be laid end-to-end beside the platform in the bed of the truck to serve as extended platform sleeping space for an additional person/child. Plus they stack easily and securely, when desired, to help maximize interior space - AND they’re highly weather resistant, so you can leave them outside while at camp giving you even more interior space in your Tacoma’s truck camper.
Or you can check out our guide on How to Choose the Best Camping Storage Boxes, Bins, and Containers for more options.

All-in, this Toyota Tacoma truck camping setup should take a day (or two) to build. Having the right tools, measuring everything multiple times to ensure cuts are accurate, and taking your time is crucial to making this Tacoma truck camping setup a success. You can download the free printable diagrams for this build by clicking below:

We really couldn’t be happier with this setup in our new first gen Toyota Tacoma Overland Truck Build, and hope that this guide can help you with your own Tacoma truck camping setup as well!

UPDATE January 2024: We did make an 8020 Aluminum version of this sleeping platform design, and you can check out the detailed build guide for that version here: How to Build an Aluminum 8020 Truck Bed Sleeping Platform [with Drawer Storage]

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And if you have any questions please hit us up in the comments section below - we’d love to help you make your Tacoma truck camper build a success!