Few things beat the convenience of not having to set up camp when you get there. Early backcountry tours, sleeping at a rest stop or trailhead to get an early start the next day, and always seeming to arrive at my campsite later than I hoped all taught me how convenient it is to sleep in the back of a truck. This also taught me how much I hate sharing my bed with a freshly-tuned splitboard or a full load of camping gear. My solution? A raised sleeping platform with compartmentalized storage underneath to hold my gear.

While I intended to leave the platform in the truck most of the time, I still wanted to be able to use the bed for general truck duties, so that meant the platform had to be easily removed and stored. I also wanted a large compartment underneath that could hold as many snowboards as I could fit passengers. This meant a relatively simple design, and the large snowboard compartment meant using ¾” plywood so I could space the supports further apart.

Utilizing two sheets of ¾” cabinet-grade plywood, I started constructing a sleeping platform similar to the one in my old Nissan, but the Tacoma offered a distinct advantage: a lip running down the sides of the bed exactly at wheel well height. It was as if Toyota designed the bed with the intention of installing a raised platform. This meant that I could attain a perfectly level and fully supported platform with just a single T-shaped support underneath.

Given that an average snowboard is around 12” wide, I decided the main compartment had to be at least 36” wide at the narrowest section by the wheel well. I also wanted the lengthwise support to rest on one of the raised ribs of the bed because of my bed mat, and found that having the divider resting on the 4th rib inwards from the passenger side yielded a large compartment of exactly 36” at the narrowest while keeping the other compartments usable. Without the bed mat I would have positioned the support between the 3rd and 4th rib.

Knowing the dimensions I needed, cut the pieces for the T-section and attached them with two 3 ½” stainless steel door hinges so that the assembly could be collapsed for easy storage. The top of the T is 54 ½” and the leg attaches at 12 ½” in from the passenger side. Both sections are 8 ¾” tall because of the bed mat—without it they would need to be 9 ½”.

I then cut a 47” by 73 ½” sheet of plywood and two 36 ¾” by 10” pieces for the top. To hold the pieces together, I ran a 1” strip and 4 ½” strip down the bottom of the larger piece with a 1” overhang for the small pieces to rest on. This gave me removable access panels.

After test-fitting everything together and using a router to make sure there was 1/8” of clearance on all sides for the carpet, I sanded all the edges and applied two coats of 1-2-3 Primer to seal the wood. I planned to use outdoor carpet before discovering a conveniently sized outdoor rug made of the same material that was about half the price at Home Depot. I cut up the carpet and glued and stapled it the three top sections of the platform, making sure to wrap the carpet under the sides so that the plywood would not rub against the sides of the bed.

The key to the success of this design lies in the precision of its dimensions. Each piece was carefully cut, test fit, clearanced, and sanded to ensure a perfect fit. There are no rattles and nothing slides around offroad thanks both to the snug fit and heavy weight of the ¾” plywood. The entire assembly takes just a few minutes to remove and collapse when I need to use the bed, and assembled it comfortably sleeps 2 with either 4-5 snowboards or complete camping gear underneath. Without a need to store snowboards, more compartments could easily be added to the bottom.