Truck tents convenient, easy and fun to camp in
As I woke up to leafy boughs waving overhead and cool air smacking my face, it took a moment to realize where I was. In a motor home? A trailer? A tent on the ground?
No. We were in the back of our small pickup truck at Potato Patch Campground in Prescott National Forest. We were truck-tent camping.
This affordable (less than $200) tent that attaches to the truck bed provides a fun way to camp anywhere the truck can go. It sleeps two adults comfortably and can be set up fairly quickly. Our second home stuffs into a bag.
My husband and I were ready for a change. We’d been to Europe and Hawaii several times over the past three years. Wouldn’t camping be an adventure for a couple in their 60s? Neither of us had tried it for 25 years. But we didn’t want to be on the hard ground, and we wanted convenience.
Strolling through a camping megastore, we asked a sales associate if there was a shelter that could fit in a short-bed truck. He answered, “A truck tent.” Neither of us had ever heard of one.
“Most people just stumble across truck tents,” said Loran Evans, owner of Rightline Gear in Asheville, N.C. “We don’t put advertising dollars behind it. Yet, sales have increased six or seven times over the past five years.”
We purchased ours online and did an overnight practice run before heading to the Oregon coast for three weeks of camping. Note to rookies: Set up the tent at home first to work out the bugs.
Lesson 2: Don’t plan on truck camping for just one night and then moving on. We did this for three nights on our