Custom Built Truck Bed Camper: Micro Cabin for Your Truck

Reset A− A+ One of our readers, Mark Lacroix designed and built his own micro cabin for his truck. Yesterday I showed you his off grid tiny/small cabin which you can see photos of.

His micro cabin though is basically a custom truck bed camper for his Toyota Tacoma. Recently he had to move out of his 16’x20′ cabin. And since a tiny house on a trailer is big and way more expensive he figured a camper for his truck would be better for his situation. I’ll let him tell the story, in his own words, below:

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Why a Micro Truck Cabin…

A little background first, I recently moved to Edmonton Alberta from Ottawa Ontario, 3600km’s 6 months ago. Right before I moved out here I had just completed building my off the grid cabin. I’ll attach a photo. Its 16x20feet and I designed the floor plan to use all spaces and made my feets 10 feet high so my loft would have more ceiling room. I think my cabin could possible be another story? or it may be considered to big for tiny houses.

So after moving out here I miss my cabin and thought to myself what would be the cheapest way to own a cabin out here without breaking the bank. I’ve always been a fan of tiny houses and spaces. Plus now that I’m out west there’s so many great places to road trip too and building a tiny house on a trailer isn’t ideal for dozen’s of trips each year. So I decided to build a camper cabin, a camper to fit on my truck and that looks like a cabin for my love of cabin’s and tiny houses. Plus there’s nothing else like that out there.

Custom Built Truck Camper that Looks like a Cabin

I bought this run down camper for $100 in hopes of refurbishing it into a mini cabin. But shortly after taking off the metal siding I noticed it was all rioted and it would be impossible for me to work with that shell. Also seeing how easily campers are built I decided to scrap that one, take the windows and door off of it and build my own. So I measured my box of my truck and started from there. My box is 6 feet, and only 4’6″ wide. Campers are made out of plywood and that’s it! simple eh.

I built my shell with 3/4 inch plywood and 2×3’s for my roof. I wrapped the whole thing in thick vapor barrier to stop any water or moist from getting in. At home depot they sell 1/4 inch t&g pine v joint boards. I used that for my exterior siding and interior. It is very light and ideal. My roof is steel tin panels. can be easily cut with tin snaps. Gravity sink will be installed this weekend, and table turns into bed. Simple space and roomy for its size of 6×6. I made my ceiling just tall enough for me to stand up in.

So far my cost of the camper plus the $100 I spent on the first one, which I did get the windows and door from which from a junk yard would cost that anyways. I would say I’m at $600-$650 to build it and will take another $200-$300 to finish the interior. So the whole project is under $1000 and is custom made to any truck which is pretty cool.

Everyone who has seen it is very impressed and find it’s neat looking. Not like you see this everyday.

I will be using it for road trips and traveling. Weekend trips to 1 or 2 week trips. It’s ideal to get around with and perfect for two people or small family.

My family loves it, and knowing me aren’t very surprised since I built my cabin back home.

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Interested in contacting Mark to purchase plans to build your own? Here’s his Facebook.

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Alex

Alex Pino is the founder of Tiny House Talk, a leading resource on tiny homes and simple living since 2009. He helps readers discover unique homes, connect with builders, and explore alternative living.

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