I'm back!! I haven't been on here for the last several months; going through a divorce. She got the boat, but the good news is i got the Suzuki! 

Anyways, now that i'm a free man I've got lots of camping trips planned this winter season. Out here on the West Coast we hardly get any snow, so we can easily camp all year round.  All you need are lots of tarps and a good pair of gum boots cause what we lack in snow we make up in buckets and buckets of rain! 

I've always been a tent'er - still am. But when the forecast calls for 40-50 mm (that's almost 2" for you Americans) of rain in 24 hours, having a warm dry truck to sleep in is a nice option. So this weekend i started drawing and measuring and i think i can make something that'll work.

The requirements of this bed structure are;

• it has to be flat, duh!
• i should have a low profile so i can pack gear on top of it
• it should be small enough so that i still have room to seat three people

After just a couple of hours of messing around here's what I've come up with:





With the passenger seat moved forward all the way, i was able to cut the platform at 68" long - juuuust long enough for me to stretch out. Who knew being 5'7" would ever come in handy! 

Of course i'm not done yet, I'm going to cut the platform where it hangs over the back seat and install a row of hinges so the thing can fold up and allow the passenger seat to be used. I'll probably also build some sort of drop down legs to support the hinged bit that over hangs the back seat. Lastly i'm going to paint on some sort of water resistant finish. Unfortunately i ran out of time this weekend, but i'll post more pics as soon as i find more time to work on the bed.

great idea

Are you going to attached a dense foam 'grunt' pad to it also... or just roll one out on it when you bed down for the night?

That is going to get real cozy with three people!!  Or, are you going to tell them to find a tree to get under?
You have some great places to go camping out there.  Wettest place in North America is just over the hill from you.

As of right now the plan is to just roll out my thermarest pad. It's not exactly luxury but it's good enough. If sleeping in the truck turns out to be something i'm doing a lot then i'll probably look into getting a piece of foam cut to fit.

The three person requirement is including the driver and was intended for seated passengers not sleeping accommodations! 

I am more then happy to give people a lift to the camp site, but once we arrive their gear is out of the truck and they are on their own! If you know what your doing tenting in the rain isn't the worst thing ever - I've just done it for long enough that i now feel I've earned my spot inside the truck! 

This is the one big regret I have about getting a 2dr instead of a 4dr before I really thought about what I wanted to do, LOL

Now you need a small roof mounted TV and video player mounted in the back facing forwards so those soaking rains are not so boring!

My plans are to find a 4dr and take my time and basically eliminate both rear seats like you did the one seat.

My daughter traded off her CRV for an Element that came with the optional camping tent.  It is a pretty cool set up.  It extends out the rear of the truck and has a floor and everything.  You sleep in the back of the Element and then have the tent extension for stacking gear, getting dressed, etc. It wraps and secures around the top of the Element.   Course, the horizontal clam shell doors facilitate this type of extension.

Still, even with a swing out door, it would seem some kind of pop OUT tent would work for these trucks, 2 door or 4 door.  I leave my back seats folded down all the time.  Usually no more than two persons in my truck and the extra room for gear, sleeping bags, rucks, rods, guns, tools, and everything else is more useful than having the seats (IMHO).  Besides, it makes a great dog carrier when I pick up my 4 legged Boxer grandson.  Solid base and puts his face right at window level.  He loves it.  If I need the seats, they are still there to flip up.

Something like this:

http://www.sportomotoring.com/Results.html?ListID=305652961635897&ModelID=30711288342680&BrandID=304676513339102

Or this:

http://hiconsumption.com/2012/10/autohome-maggiolina-carbon-fiber-roof-top-camper-tent/

My personal fave is the small version:

http://www.autohomeus.com/rooftop/carbon.php

Sure, it's expensive as hell... but if you are into traveling AND camping ALOT this baby would pay for itself in a couple of years plus it moves alot of the camping gear out of the truck that normally gets stored there  during excursions and frees it up for other gear uses.  If you don't do the travel and camping gig too much it would be a huge waste of money.

Buy a different truck after a couple years....?  No problem.  Pull it off your old truck and mount it on your new one.  Don't want to drag it around when you aren't in excursion mode?  Pull it off and store it on pulleys in your garage.  It's sweet!

Well, here's the completed fold out bed:











Overall i'm pretty happy. With the bed folded up there's more then enough room to allow the front passenger seat to go all the back in it's travel. And with the bed folded out there's quite a bit of storage space just in front of the rear seat.

Now that the bed is done there are few other things I'm working on to make sleeping the Zuk a little more comfortable. I'm currently working on rigging up a way to open the rear door from the inside. And i'm going to modifying the clutch switch so i can start the truck just by turning the key - just in case i need a blast from the heater in the middle of the night.

Well, here's the completed fold out bed:











Overall i'm pretty happy. With the bed folded up there's more then enough room to allow the front passenger seat to go all the back in it's travel. And with the bed folded out there's quite a bit of storage space just in front of the rear seat.

Now that the bed is done there are few other things I'm working on to make sleeping the Zuk a little more comfortable. I'm currently working on rigging up a way to open the rear door from the inside. And i'm going to modifying the clutch switch so i can start the truck just by turning the key - just in case i need a blast from the heater in the middle of the night.

Well, here's the completed fold out bed:











Overall i'm pretty happy. With the bed folded up there's more then enough room to allow the front passenger seat to go all the back in it's travel. And with the bed folded out there's quite a bit of storage space just in front of the rear seat.

Now that the bed is done there are few other things I'm working on to make sleeping the Zuk a little more comfortable. I'm currently working on rigging up a way to open the rear door from the inside. And i'm going to modifying the clutch switch so i can start the truck just by turning the key - just in case i need a blast from the heater in the middle of the night.

I lived out of mine for a few months. I did pretty much the same thing you did, but I did the whole back area with plywood. A cooler fit really nice in there. I used a blow up air mattress in mine. Your right not being able to open the rear door from the inside really makes it hard getting out of it. And when it gets cold you will need the heater.

It's been years, do you still have the zuki? have you improved the bed set up? abandoned it all together? I'm planning on doing something similar and found this thread. if it's dead I'll start a fresh one, but your old post got me curious.