Truck Camping Gear List

What’s the world’s best camper? It’s the one you already own: Your truck.

No need to go out and buy an RV or trailer. Don’t waste your money on a fancy “adventure van” (unless you just really want to). If you have a truck, you’re ready to get out there. Here’s our gear list to turn your humble pickup truck into the ultimate camp machine.

SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS

Sleeping Platform
For a quick overnight or weekend trip, you don't need to over-complicate your truck. Slap a pad in the bed of your truck and enjoy sleeping under the stars (unless it’s raining). Even a short-bed pickup will have enough room to sleep in with the tailgate down.

For the frequent camper, you’ll want to consider something more comfortable and functional: a sleeping platform that sits above the wheel wells for maximum bed width and ample storage beneath. A homebrew plywood platform will get the job done, but we highly recommend the much more robust and weatherproof DECKED Drawer System (yes, obviously we’re biased). It’s much more durable, completely weatherproof, uses your bed space a lot more efficiently, and has considerably higher-performing Drawers. Plus, it’s designed to work perfectly with our D-co Case System, which will make your camp setup approximately 200% more dialed.

Pad or Mattress
From there, your options for a mattress are as wide open as the sky above your head. You could jam in an air mattress, grab some cheap RV foam pads and cut them to size with a bread knife (don’t ask us how we know this), or spring for the hotel-like comfort of a Hest Dually Mattress that fits perfectly on DECKED Drawers (measure your specific configuration before ordering).

Cap, Camper or Tent
Now that you’ve got the area underneath you covered, what about above? Truck bed caps or camper shells are a no-brainer for people who frequently sleep in their trucks. Not only is it a weatherproof cabin on wheels, a truck bed cap is also the ideal place to jam your camping, hunting, fishing and outdoor gear on the weekends — or load up with valuable tools and gear on the weekdays if you use your truck for work. Plus — because a cap is a hard-sided enclosure — you’ll never have to stay up all night in a tent wondering if that rustling sound outside is a chipmunk or a mountain lion.

Want to get even fancier? The sky’s the limit, with a dizzying array of rooftop tents, wedge campers, and good-ol-fashioned truck campers available to delight and overwhelm you with possibility.

When all else fails, a traditional tent will always get the job done. You might be slightly more likely to find a snake in your sleeping bag, but if you wanted 5-star accommodations, you should have booked a room at the Ritz.

Whichever sleeping arrangement you decide on, always remember to pack a comfy pillow.

CAMP COOKING SETUP

It’s a scientific fact that everything tastes better at the campsite. But having a solid camp cooking setup will mean the difference between you serving a bag of chips for dinner or impressing your family and friends with a 4-course fireside meal.

Camp Stove
Grilling food over a campfire is great, but it’s not something we’d recommend relying on. Get yourself a portable propane stove, like this classic Coleman. A single burner is fine, but a double burner is better, and means you can make coffee and eggs at the same time in the morning.

And the two items to never forget: propane and a lighter.

Cooler
Got ice? It’d be a lot cooler if you did.

To truly enjoy camping, you need more than just a party-sized bag of chips (but bring that, too). Hot dogs. Steak. Cheese. Leafy greens. Eggs. Yogurt. Milk. You get the picture: it’s time to grab a cooler.

Nowadays, you can find anything from a gas station styrofoam trash to one of those coolers that keeps ice cream frozen for days (shoutout to the cooler GOATs at Yeti). Before you go out and buy the first cooler you see, do a little research. Consider your needs: How many people will you be feeding for how long? How much space do you have in your truck, and could you nail it with perfect measurements? And remember that they work best when packed full of ice, so bigger isn’t always better.

Refrigerator
While not necessary, a fridge can be an excellent alternative to a cooler for those who camp frequently and have the electrical system required to power such a device. The advantage is that there’s no ice required (and no soggy food in melted ice), and you can keep your food chilled as long as you’ve got power. The disadvantages are that they cost a lot more and require consistent power. As with coolers, there’s a plethora of options, but Dometic is a trusted name.

Coffee Making Setup
Friends don’t let friends drink instant coffee crystals (At the very least, go to your local roaster and get some of that fancy instant coffee).

To brew your own, you’ll need a pot or kettle to boil water. Then we recommend either a stainless steel French Press or a pour-over dripper and filters (we linked top-tier options, but there are numerous budget versions). There are also French Press plunger attachments for common pot sizes. Grind your coffee ahead of time, or buy pre-ground coffee that works with your brewing method. Or, to really one-up your friends, hand-grind your beans right there at the picnic table.

Your friends and/or family might roll their eyes when you bust out your mobile barista kit, but they’ll for damn sure accept a cup from you.

Outdoor Dishes Cookwear or Mess Kit
Unbreakable camping dishes and cups are a wise investment. They’re easy to clean, and save you from carrying around a trash bag full of paper plates — or cracking your home dishes on the way to camp. You can get anything from dollar store plastic to enamel to titanium, but Stanley makes some great options that pack together to save space.

OTHER CAMP COOKING ITEMS

• Water jug
• Depending on where you’re going, clean drinking water
• 1 or 2 nonstick pans (or seasoned cast iron for the real ones)
• Can opener
• Knife
• Wood or nylon cooking spoon/spatula
• Cups & bottles
• Cutlery
• Cutting board
• Tinfoil
• Food storage tubs with lids
• Sponge
• Camping soap for washing hands and dishes
• Microfiber towels
• Toilet paper
• Shovel or trowel for use with above
• First aid kit
• Biodegradable body soap
• Flashlight
• Headlamp (why do we always forget the headlamp?)

STORAGE AND ORGANIZATION

Now that you’ve gone out to your local Bass Cabela REI Mart and picked up the supplies you need, it’s time to figure out how to store and transport it all.

Might we recommend DECKED D-co Cases? These ultra-burly cases and bins fit directly in the modern DECKED Drawer Systems, and also stack together on their own a pile of cinder blocks. Having a couple dedicated cases for camping makes life so much easier when you want to switch gears from the work week to the weekend. Just pull out whatever you normally run in your Drawers and throw in your camping bins. Boom, you’re ready to camp!