How to Sleep a Family in an '06 Tacoma Short Bed

Our family is very into off-roading, overlanding, vehicle dependent expeditioning, whatever you prefer to call it. My husband and I bought our 2006 Toyota Tacoma double cab short bed TRD with factory rear locker and 6 speed manual tranny brand new and immediately went to work improving it. We went with Deaver 10 leaf packs in the back with reservoir shocks, and Icon coil overs in the front with Camburg upper A arms, giving us 3 inches of lift. We went with an All Pro rear bumper, front winch bumper, and rock sliders. Then 33 inch Goodyear Mud Terrains and we were all set. For sleeping accommodations we got a Sportz truck tent. We were in heaven, wouldn't you be with a set up like this one below?

We had tasted life camping off the ground and could never go back. Months later, surprise, we're having twins! You can't fit a family of four into the short bed truck tent. We were crushed. We had the perfect set up and were now back to square one. My first choice was some sort of heavy duty tonneau with a roof top tent mounted to it. We were never able to find a roof top tent that when folded would fit onto such a small tonneau that was also large enough to sleep two adults and two kids. We had heard of FlipPacs, but figured we'd never have the money, and they don't ship. Well, Tucson was about as close to Riverside as we ever got and we came into some money, so we detoured on the way home and went to Riverside to buy a FlipPac. Closed, it is barley larger than a topper, canopy, shell, or whatever you want to call it. It only weighs 300 pounds, and has a double sized mattress in it. The added weight of the FlipPac did lead us to upgrade our rear suspension to 12 leaf All-Pro Expedition packs which added a fourth inch of lift without the weight of gear and camper and leaving us back at out original 3 inches of lift with the weight of gear and camper. Below is a photo of it closed.

Here is a photo of it open at Castle Rocks in Rabbit Canyon, CO. The company's slogan is "Shell to Camper in 30 seconds", and that is spot on.

With the optional rain fly we were ready to go, except for one thing, where would the girls sleep? We talked it out and decided that a raised platform above the wheel wells was the way to go, the question was how to execute it best. My husband's talk was of a sheet of plywood with a frame under it, I wasn't excited by that prospect, and to make matters worse there were no inflatable mattresses that were well sized for the project. Then I had an epiphany, Ikea. I recalled how they not only have odd sized mattresses for children but they also use a slat system for their bed frames, so we went shopping. For a little over $150 we walked away from Ikea with a full sized Sultan Luroy slatted bed base and two Vyssa Sloa children's mattresses. The slatted bed base fit perfectly width wise on the frame my husband built, the length did not matter as you could space the slats as close or as far apart as needed. The mattresses came with a zip off cover and were just foam, so I cut 3 inches off the length of each, and once stuffed back into their covers they were a perfect fit on the platform in width and length as well. Then all our gear stores beneath the entire set up.

We had intended that the girls sleep lengthwise, one on each mattress, but in the last photo above they test out their new sleeping area side to side, perhaps in preparation for a trip on which they would have to sleep side to side as they would be sharing the mattresses with a third 5 year old. A friend of mine, her 5 year old son, my two 5 year old girls, and myself stayed quite happily over nearly 4400 miles and 12 days. So I can officially declare this set up a success.

One night we even had a sixth person join our party. Two adults slept up top, the smallest adult slept below with two children, and one child slept on the "hammock". The "hammock" is a fabric sling that, when fully extended, is there to hold the mattress in place when the FlipPac is closed. When sleeping up top in the camper the sling can also be extended to offer some privacy from below. The wider part of this fabric sling can be folded back leaving a narrow sling that can support 100 pounds, whether gear or child.

This inaugural trip with the FlipPac unfortunately did not involve any off-roading as evident in the use of street tires as opposed to our Mud Terrains. We have another trip coming up in a few weeks where we will indeed be putting our off-road tires back on and will test the weight and girth of the FlipPac on trails in northern Colorado.

ON DANDELIONS

Well, I thought perhaps this year was the year. I was so fed up with the dandelions that I thought I was going to finally break down and call a company to come out and treat our lawn. I am tired of them invading my flower beds and thought that ridding the grass of them would alleviate this problem, and it most likely would. But earlier this spring as I was watching our bird feeders and all our visitors, I saw something I had never seen before. This was not for it being something new I'm sure, but rather that I simply had never been privy to its happening before. I watched as an American Tree Sparrow went about picking dandelion seeds straight from the heads of the flowers and wolfing them down heartily. I first felt guilt at the thought of taking away a food source for the birds. My next thought was how do I get the birds to eat MORE dandelion seeds? So, my initial urge to call a lawn company dissipated and a little, then more time passed, and then came the butterflies. My daughters and I were outside one warm spring day chasing great spangled fritillaries, painted ladies, and red admirals when we started seeing monarchs and hummingbird moths. We watched in amazement as the monarchs and hummingbird moths both drank nectar from the dandelions. Well, that was it, I was now quite convinced that I was no longer interested in attempting to eradicate the dandelions in my yard. I mean, in many countries their greens are eaten and seen as a delicacy, so they couldn't be all that bad. Funny thing was, a few weeks later my mother gave me a newspaper column (she often cuts and saves for me newspaper columns, articles, coupons, and even clothing adverts with notes next to them saying "this would look good on you") and this column was all about dandelions and whether or not they were a weed. The author of this opinion piece talked about the age at which a child "learns" that dandelions are not flowers but rather weeds and the sadness a child feels when their unwanted bouquet is cast aside by parents. While I had already made up my mind to leave the dandelions in the grass, I have to admit I found myself starting to feel as the author of the column felt about dandelions, that they were an ornament, just as any other flower, and I came to even deeper peace about my yellow laden lawn and my decision to leave it that way.