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Family of 5’s DIY Truck Cabin 


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This is one family’s tiny cabin they built for their truck. And yes, they’re a family of 5.

It’s a really nice DIY truck cabin that’s actually built stronger and with more insulation than a truck camper. And it’s customized exactly to their needs. Pretty cool, right? What do you think? Would you design/build something like this? Seems like a pretty cool adventure rig too, doesn’t it? You could go almost anywhere! Your thoughts?

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A Tiny Cabin On Our Truck For A Family Of 5

Familys Tiny Truck Cabin

I thought you folks may be interested in checking out the little tiny cabin we built for the back of our truck.

Family of 5 Tiny Truck Cabin 002

We wanted something that could accommodate our family of 5 comfortably for long periods of time and not feel cramped like a traditional truck camper would.

Family of 5 Tiny Truck Cabin 003 Triple Bunk Beds

So we set out to build a space that fit us perfectly, it had to have permanent beds, be well insulated, we wanted to keep it simple, 12 volt only for the electrical.

Family of 5 Tiny Truck Cabin 005

Master Bed – Lights – Family’s DIY Truck Cabin Light Closeup More Lights

20 liter water jugs make up the water storage system also allowing us to fill up on water anywhere we can find a tap. The toilet is a cassette style chemical toilet that we can empty at any roadside rest stop.

Cassette Style Toilet Water Tanks and Plumbing

Family of 5 Tiny Truck Cabin 006

Fireplace

What would a cabin be without a tiny wood stove to keep it cozy warm on the cold autumn and winter nights. The interior is made of mostly reused and repurposed materials. We built our own light fixtures and all have LED lights. The Live edge table has removable legs and hangs on the wall when not in use for more space.

Family of 5s DIY Truck Cabin Family of 5 Tiny Truck Cabin 001

Our big thanks to Matt and family for sharing!🙏

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Alex

Alex is a contributor and editor for TinyHouseTalk.com and the always free Tiny House Newsletter. He has a passion for exploring and sharing tiny homes (from yurts and RVs to tiny cabins and cottages) and inspiring simple living stories. We invite you to send in your story and tiny home photos too so we can re-share and inspire others towards a simple life too. Thank you!
{ 14 comments… add one }
  • Sherry
    September 30, 2019, 2:04 pm

    If this is a fun camping time then it is great yet if living this way full then that is not how to bring up children imo. I really question if the children have proper facilities to do things like at a shower, wash their bodies, clean clothes, if in school how do they get there….studying, activities and the list goes on. Food preparation outside all the time, you can only cook so much in a frying pan outside….this would be great for those short camping trips and sightseeing around the country at different times of the year, just not full living is all.

    • Alex
      September 30, 2019, 6:26 pm

      It’s for long trips/adventures. 🙂

      • Theresa Perdue
        October 1, 2019, 9:00 am

        I love it. It has all the essentials and it’s cute and cozy 😍

        • Melissa
          October 1, 2019, 12:27 pm

          This is absolutely perfect! They did a GREAT job customizing it to meet their needs. The longer I own my motorhome, the more I wish I had gone with a DIY version. That way, I’d know how to fix things without needing a RV mechanic! Super jealous of your rig!

    • James D.
      October 1, 2019, 4:27 am

      Yes, long trips/adventures, which goes right along with RV’ing, just DIY instead of commercial built, but you’d be surprised, definitely not for everyone but there are people and families who travel full time and manage in even smaller vehicles.

      Check out Epic Family Road Trip for an example that documents their travels/adventures, for years now…They’ve downsized quite a bit from how they started…

      As for Kids, aside from summer vacation, they’re typically usually home schooled or have online teaching and lots of needs can either be met from resources found along the trip or they can have something they can set up once they find a place to set up a home base…

    • Eric
      November 24, 2019, 3:18 pm

      IMO… one can cook on that facility not only by frying pan, but also by grilling, or indeed even using one of those modern inventions called a dutch oven (/s).

      One of the problems with the world is we cook FAR. TOO. MUCH. Need to eat a lot more foods that are uncooked, in their raw natural state. Much more nutritious and good for the body.

  • Betty Porter
    September 30, 2019, 9:01 pm

    I love your truck cabin. I have a question. Do you have a shower or a way to bathe?

  • Matt Wrightson
    September 30, 2019, 9:34 pm

    It’s like our cabin at the lake…. any lake we want, or our cabin in the woods…whichever woods we want to park it in🤙. We don’t live in it full time, 4 weeks has been the longest stretch so far, when it’s shower time we’ll find a campground that has showers, but an indoor shower with on demand hot water is in the works!!👍, it’s surprising what you’re able to cook in a skillet and over an open fire, we’ve become pretty diverse in the traveling cooking art… even baking bread with that frying pan😉

    Build time was 3 months of evenings and weekends and our Costs were just under $4000, mostly because we were able to reuse, salvage and repurpose a lot of materials

    Thanks!!

    Matt

  • Alison
    September 30, 2019, 9:46 pm

    This reminds me of a site-built cabin my dad built when I was a baby. Wonderful memories of us kids sleeping in our three-tier bunks, eating at a table outside while Mom cooked on a Coleman stove. Outhouse several paces away. I hope this family enjoys their mobile cabin as much as we enjoyed our stationary one. P.S., Be sure you have a carbon monoxide detector in that tiny space with the wood stove.

  • Fred
    October 1, 2019, 12:24 am

    Pretty cool rig!
    Granted, once you pull the bed, your pickup is a cab-chassis and that point, you’re just building a class C motorhome, but this is still a cool rig.
    I like the mason jar lights and the exposed copper conduit wiring.
    Helps gives the inside a real “homey” look.
    That little box stove is pretty sweet, too. I’m gonna have to Google that one.
    Thanks for showing this to us, Alex. =)

  • Paul Larsen
    October 1, 2019, 7:41 pm

    This is really nice! I love the simplicity of it and the side entrance door. Makes it more cabin like and less camper like. The homemade 12 Volt lights are a great touch too! Gives me some ideas for those surplus mason jars we have around.

  • Marsha Cowan
    October 2, 2019, 11:27 am

    That’s pretty cool! Great design and it really does have everything you need for a large family. Great job!

  • Scott A Eddy
    October 6, 2019, 11:22 pm

    As a young boy, my grandparents took us 3 kids to a lake and we lived in a 10×12 army tent for 3 months at a time. No indoor plumbing, used a bucket to wash and then dump it on our heads to rinse. Drop behind a tree for a potty, dig roots and fish and any other things we can catch. This was the best living I have ever had. Miss those days. I think this is an awesome build. Love the wood stove. Beds are great as well. It’s a lot better than the camper I have now and I paid over $20 k for it. Great job

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