Has anyone come up with a good idea on how to do this?
I'm talking about a 2500 QC... not the MC.

There will be times I take an extended trip (a few days)
in the wilderness where there won't be motels and such
to spend the night in... Removing the rear bench might be
an option.

Suggestions?

Thanks...
Charles

 

You might not want to do this, but if you are alone you can remove the passenger seat and come up with a legal sleeper with a piiece of plywood.

 

Thanks for pointing this out.

I am still ignorant about the legal perspective... So you are saying
that by removing the (REAR?) passenger seat/bench (let's not
forget, this is a QC, so it has a large bench in the rear of the cabin)
and placing a divider, it entitles me to legally sleep in the truck, which
would be otherwise (legally) unfeasible? Clarifications, please...

Do you know of sites that show with practical examples more or
less how to go about it with style, or are you willing to contribute
more details on how to do it (have you done something like that
yourself?)

If doable, I'd still have room for three in the front, and a place
to sleep (for one) and keep personal items (maybe even organized
in drawers and locked in for added security) in the back of the cabin...

I did considered the possibility of putting a tall cover on the short
bed and using it instead for that purpose, but I'd rather use the
truck's bed (with a roll-on type of cover on it) as a needed space
to store things in it and the (modified) cabin as sleeping quarters...

 

My buddy had a 96 regular cab dodge that had that type of a converison done to it. I can't remember the companies name right off but they basically put a like 1/4th size cmaper shell on the back, cut out the back of the cab and and put a very big seat back there. Then you slide the seat forward and the bench seat lays down into a bed.

That thing had more room in it then either on or our 4 door trucks and probably twice as much a quad cab truck, really close to the size of a mega cab because the bed went from 8 feet of useable space to a little less than 6 foot, it alot of room, but I'm sayin is you can figure out a way for the seat to slide down like his that might be our ticket.

 

You didn't say if your truck was a CMV requiring logging . If not , you don't need to worry about a " legal" sleeping area . Just never log sleeper berth time . There are many requirements to meet to have a legal sleeper including restraints to hold the occupant , access to the driving area and more . That info is hard to find unless you know right where to look . I was about to give up when I found it . http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regul...section=393.76

 

Thank you so much for providing the link pointing to the current
sleeper berth rules.

No, no logging of any kind in my case, or so I assume, the
truck being my personal vehicle (not used in the course of
business).

To make it very clear: whenever I'll be in the sleeper space,
the truck will NOT be in motion, but parked somewhere... (this
in reference to the desirability of restraints to hold the occupant,
etc.)

So, I wonder if those rules apply at all in my case.

All considered, I think it safe to assume that those rules do
not apply in this case. If that's true, all I need to do is to
figure out a way to utilize the available space in the best
possible way... It would be very helpful if someone were
to point to some companies specializing in this type of
work, so as to have an idea what the options are...

 

That must have been quite a piece of work... I wonder though if I
need to go to the length of adding a shell to the back of the truck...
It seems to me that, once the big seat in the back is removed, the
space should be enough for my purposes.

I tried to search google for visual examples of how that's done,
but haven't been able to come up with anything at all...

 

took out the seat, installed an accross the bed tool box from a small truck,
Tool box opens at ends for easy storage,

Foam Mattress on top for sleeping...

 

I used the just lay across the seat in the back and go to sleep. I'm only 5'7" so it wasn't that bad.

 

How about getting a fold flat floor and a foam pad? That way you could keep your back seats and just fold up the seats and fold out the floor when you need to snooze. Also, depending on what you use your truck bed for, you could get a truck cap and an air mattress from Cabelas (the kind with cutouts for the wheel wells). Doing it either of those ways you probably wouldn't have to worry about the legalities of it.

 

I actually like this idea a lot... I assume the bed tool box
was bolted right into the threads typically used for the seat,
right? The ideal thing would be to find a uniformly flat tool
box (so as to make it as comfortable as possible when the
foam mattress goes on top of it) and also one that pretty
much fills up the floor space that becomes available
after removing the back seat, so as to maximize
storage space and provide good support for the mattress...
with the plus of being a very secure storage space (bolted
to the floor and locked).

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what specific
model tool boxes would be most suitable for this?



That's definitely a very easy fix, most easily done... If it can be
reasonably done, though, I'd rather do what qwest just suggested,
it sounds much more comfortable that way...


I don't really have a use for the back seats most of the time,
so I'd rather look into what qwest suggested and see how
reasonably that can be done first.
Also, I need the truck bed (with one of those roll-on covers
installed on it) as a permanent storage area, so I think that the
foam-mattress-on-top-of-tool-box idea is likely to work best
in my case...

 

why don't you just put the back seats up and the things down that make the floor flat. Put a piece of ply wood over this to keep it even and glue a foam matteress to the plywood. That way you can take it in and out.

Tool boxes are only like 2 foot wide.

 

when my buddy was hotshoting with a car hauler in his 01qc he just threw some sheets and blankets over the rear bench and went to sleep. he had to log and everything just like any other commercial driver. i guess according to "the law" that wasnt legal but he never once had any issues. he's about 5'9" or so

 

Just take note that if you remove the rear seat, there is no insulation or covering on the back of the cab and it is real noisey until you insulate it. Helps with noise anyway getting it covered.

 

Right... so it wouldn't work the way I thought...

OK...

I hadn't thought of that, either... So, removing the back bench
creates some problems... Thanks for pointing that out.

Now, it turns out that if I install a camper shell (truck cap,
whatever you wanna call it...), that would allow the truck to
have non-commercial status and save me several hundreds
$$$ in DMV fees each year (such are the laws in the "Land of
Fruits & Nuts"), so what was suggested by t-boe ("truck cap
and an air mattress from Cabelas") is not a bad idea either,
after all, given that I won't be using the truck commercially
anyway.

I did look into those A.R.E. caps (the Z-series looks quite
appealing), and they seem to be among the best on the
market, but they come across as frail plexiglass caps
(not sturdy enough, really)... I'd like to hear from truck
owners who have installed one of those and have
converted the truck bed into a sleeper berth that way...
Which cap did you get, did you add anything else to the
bed, how satisfactorily is the whole thing working out?

Thanks...