I’ve been thinking about buying a truck and building a camping set up for it for a number of years. I finally bought a Toyota Tacoma about a month ago, which really got me thinking about the specs for the camping set up. I want to be able to use it year round, but I really want to use it for skiing. I started the project by making a CAD model of the truck based on dimensions I found on tacomaworld.com. [1]

Originally I had planned on building two drawers and a separate area for skis. One drawer would be a dedicated “kitchen” and would be based on the dimensions of my camping stove. However once I modeled this out I realized that the other drawer would be really small and I would only have room for one pair of skis. Because of this I decided that it would be a better use of space to just build two drawers. With a basic idea of what to do I turned to the internet to see what other people have done. I found some “K.A.M.P drawers” built by Sam Chou that were a much more polished version of what I had initially envisioned. [2] I ended up being heavily inspired by these drawers.

Functionally I really just wanted to have a place where I could discretely sleep on ski trips. It was important to me to have enough space for 3-4 pairs of skis, as well as a dedicated cooking set up. Aesthetically I aimed for a clean simple look, perhaps with a utilitarian influence. Part of a clean aesthetic will require building something that will still look clean and be resistant to dirt since camping is inherently dirty. 

I actually completed this project for the most part during spring break. Structurally and functionally I’m ready to go camping.  At this point I have two drawers and a box that houses the drawers and acts as a sleeping platform. I also painted the box and added carpet to the top to protect against splinters. Eventually I will likely finish the insides of the drawers and possibly add dividers, but I want to use the set up a few times to figure out exactly where I want things. Also, one of the drawers has some play that I need to fix. Finally, I attached the drawer latches with screws, but they’re not quite strong enough so I want to replace the screws with bolts.  

[1] https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2nd-3rd-gen-detailed-6ft-bed-dimensions.646199/ 

[2] https://www.kampdrawers.com/