Truck camping with hybrid engine and sleeping in the car
 

Originally I was thinking of getting a base 4 door and put a camper on it but then I remembered the reclining seats. Can someone tell me if they have tried sleeping in their truck for camping or would it be better to get a truck bed topper?

tesla has camping mode that allows their cars to run the ac at night. Does anyone know if Ford does too? I would more likely go camping if I had ac during the summer nights.

My goal for this truck is stealth camping. I want to see some more national parks out west while working like a digital nomad.

some options I thought I would need is the desk, 4wd. I’m up in the air about the generator. 7.2 sounds like an overkill. At most I would have a little plug in fridge, cell phone, iPad, MacBook and various 18v batteries for my tools. I wasn’t planning on getting the more expensive models until I thought about sleeping inside the truck vs building out the bed.

thanks!

"My goal for this truck is stealth camping. I want to see some more national parks out west"

No fan of whole concept of "stealth camping". You are simply stealing. Parks and other facilities are bought, serviced, and maintained by the users who pay to be there. Either directly to a park owner/operator or tax funded, you are stealing from those who pay to support them. KM

lol. I’m going to national parks using my park pass and I plan on paying to stay at camp grounds so I can use their services like laundry and bathrooms.

not going to buy a $60k truck to skimp out $30 a night. I want to be able travel across the USA and not worry about being a target to thieves. Eventually i want to drive down to Panama through Central America and even maybe ship it to Colombia and head down to Peru. I don’t want to haul a fifth wheel or have a huge pop up. I was going to do a van conversion but I think a truck is better financial investment since I’ll own a truck I could sell that would hold its value.

Not sure what "stealth camping" is..... I thought it meant simply a "quiet" ie:, no loud generator, experience, like tent camping. But if you're right, agree completely. Hopefully the OP will clarify.

As to the truck, I would go with a lower trim non-PB 2.0kw setup, and go with an RTT on a bed rack. When my kids were younger, we had that setup (no 2.0kw!) and it was great. If you search the RTT threads here you'll see pix & info.

my buddy has a rtt. I wanted something if I was sleeping at a rest area no one would even know. I was wondering if that 180 reclining from seat a viable option.

im guessing I could leave the car running with the hybrid battery I could have full climate control all night and I wouldn’t have to build out the bed. I could just buy a cover for the back and secure stuff like clothes, etc. that’s why I thought about upgrading to a model that would allow me to recline the seat back.

I’m actually doing something similar, though with a very different plan and style.

I currently have a 2007 F150 XL reg cab 8’ bed. It has a Leer 180CC cap on it. I routinely sleep in the back of the truck. Normally I just set up a cot in the back and use that. Sometimes just throw a pad on the bed floor if I’m only there for a night. A propane catalytic heater (Big Buddy by Mr Heater) heats it when it is below 40 or so. I’ve used it down to about -10F with no issues.

My next truck will be a Supercab 8’ bed, and I plan to expand on this model significantly. 1st, I plan to build two folding and removable bunks, possibly that attach into the boxlink brackets. The truck will be capped either with an ARE MX HD or a Leer 180CC. These bunks Willa low me to sleep three people comfortably while still having tons of room for large and bulky equipment, and simultaneously having a loaded roof rack.

I also plan on plumbing in an auxiliary heater core with a blower to heat the bed while the engine is on. This is not intended to heat the bed while it is occupied, as that is a huge carbon monoxide risk and also highly inefficient. It is more intended to defrost the cap while driving and to preheat the bed prior to parking. Jegs makes several hot rod heaters in the range of 30,000 BTU that should quickly heat and defrost a bed while driving. I haven’t decided as to if I plan to plumb this in parallel or series with the cabin heater core.

To heat the bed with the engine off, I have four options I am considering. My requirements are that it is quiet, safe, economical, and requires zero bed space. (Fortunately there is a huge amount of room on the 8’ bed models between the outer shell and the inner bed shell.)

Option #1 would be a portable catalytic propane heater, which I already have. Option #2 would be a small RV style vented propane heater, which could be permanently mounted in the space between the bed and the outer bed shell (it’s a good 7”+ gap) and vented into the bed.

Option #3 would be a gasoline-fired coolant heater, or essentially a heater that burns gasoline and circulates coolant through the engine and heater cores. This one is more expensive, but it would have triple duty in that it preheats the engine, heats the cabin with the engine off, and heats the truck bed through the auxiliary heater core.

Option #4 would be a gasoline fired air heater, which would be mounted in the outside of the bed like the coolant heater or RV heater.


Some notes based on my experiences already;

1. If camping in the cold, you MUST get a well insulated sleeping pad. High end camping pads are rated in R-value. At a bare minimum you want an R-value of 4 or higher. 6 or more is preferred. You can stack pads for additional R-value.
2. If you will be doing ANYTHING that involves combustion, including but not limited to stoves, heaters, engine idling, etc. you MUST carry and use a carbon monoxide alarm. The $20 it costs to buy one is well worth it compared to waking up dead. Do not use a combustion heater (except catalytic) or stove inside the cap. Do not idle the engine while occupying the bed.
3. Humans, and especially catalytic heaters, generate a lot of water vapor. Make sure you have a means to ventilate, or it will rain down condensation on you.
4. If you have access to campground electricity, a single 1500W fan forced space heater will keep a truck cap at around 70 degrees down to about 20F. It also generates a lot less moisture than a catalytic heater, reducing the ventilation requirements. These heaters are $10 at Walmart (grab a fat extension cord too), though you need to pay for electric access to use it.
5. A 9000 BTU catalytic heater like the Portable Buddy will keep a truck cap warm down to about 0F. The 18,000 BTU version also works great, and is especially useful when you need to heat the cap quickly, and also throttles down well to 9,000 or 4,500 BTU.
6. Grab a cheap 12V electric fan to plug in under the cap. Especially with radiant or catalytic heaters, the heat becomes impressively stratified. It might be 85F at the top of the cap but 45F at your feet. Clip the fan as high as possible blowing almost straight down or vice versa to break up the stratification.
7. The big gap between the bed and the tailgate is a big entry point for mosquitos and other insects, as well as mice and other rodents. Consider getting a gap guard, but if you do ensure you have an alternate means of ventilation first. I usually don’t plug this unless the mice get really aggressive.
8. Try and get a cap that has multiple ways to escape. On more than one occasion I’ve had to wait out a bear that was pawing at the glass while I was inside. Fortunately nothing ever happened, but it kind of sucked knowing I only had one way out.
9. Spend some time in advance planning how you want to organize things. Even in an 8 foot bed, it quickly becomes a tight space with even just two people.
10. In the summer, the cap will get quite hot. Plan for as much ventilation as possible, and bring several 12V fans. Make sure that the total amp draw of your fans is less than 1/30th of the amp hours of your starter battery. (Meaning in 10 hours you draw only 33% of the total amp hours of the starter battery. Less is preferred.)
11. Put multiple 12V powerpoints in the cap. A couple fans and a few phone chargers add up quickly. Add in some 12V LED lights. If you use a lot, consider adding in dual batteries.
12. A 6.5’ shortbed will be far tighter than a full size 8’ bed, but is still doable. A 5.5 bed can maybe sleep one person diagonally or two people crumpled. I recommend the 8’ bed if you can afford it. Your average cot is 78” long for reference.

Gotcha. RTT is probably out then, as it's a magnet for attention.

Depending how big you are, you could also potentially do something on the rear floor of a supercrew, with the seats folded up. I have not experienced the fold flat seats, but it sure doesn't seem like something I'd want to do more than an hour's nap in.

Honestly, sounds like a Transit van or full size SUV (Expedition) might be a better fit for what you're attempting, tho I'm sure you could make an F150 work.....just maybe not ideal.

I consider the term "stealth camping" to be parking in a lot and hiding the fact of camping to use areas prohibited skipping payment. Lots of examples of such on Youtube.
I have camped all my life. Never in a RV or RTT. I'm a backpacker and wilderness canoe traveler so it a tent and sleeping bag. What sidwin describes in yhe third post is simply vehicle based camping, as I would consider it.

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sidwin, thanks for clarifying!
My suggestion would be a truck cap and a Decked storage system. This would give good cover and a flat, full width surface for sleeping, and a set of drawers for gear. AC could be simple as a pass thru to the cab.
And I do use the digital environment, just not as you describe.Laptop and digital camera gear are always with me when vehicle camping, solar cells and power supplied by GoalZero, but will keep with tenting, as I have for 5 decades. KM

man I never thought about passing the school through the rear window vent,,,,, that would probably work well. I would just have to make a small duct….

I work for zoom and they said I can live anywhere so I’m thinking why not travel a week out of every month. My cousin works for a Ford dealership and said it would take 3 months but I would get it for family pricing. I’ve never owned a truck before. I thought about building a van but I do think this could work better.

I think the original questions were:

• Can you sleep in the cab and leave the Powerboost “running” to operate the AC? I think you can. It would run the AC off the battery and cycle the engine about once every 10m to charge the battery, though that might wake you every time it starts.
• Are the gold flat seats comfortable enough for a few nights? I have no idea, I don’t have them. Has anyone slept a night in them? Also, my own question is: How comfortable would the standard seats be for the same thing, reclined as far as they go?