If you love camping but don’t necessarily enjoy a combination of roots, rocks, and sticks poking you in the kidneys all night long, don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Pop-ups that attach to the top of your car are cool, but they are expensive and can significantly impact your mile-per-gallon performance. Instead, consider the truck bed tent.
With a truck bed tent, you get all the advantages of tent camping — mobility, flexibility, the lovely sound of rain pelting off nylon — and none of the disadvantages (namely scouring the ground for rocks before setting up your tent, and then still managing to sleep on one all night long).
A tent on a truck bed might seem unusual at first, but once you see what our buyer’s guide has lined up for you, we think you’ll be convinced.
So grab one of the best truck bed tents from our hand-picked selection, fill a cooler, and set out on an adventure.
Rightline Gear Truck Bed Tent
- Floorless design
- Soft straps and buckles
- Color-coded poles and pole pockets
- Rain-fly included
- Two internal gear pockets
- Lantern hanging hook
- Sky view vent
- Glow-in-the-dark zipper pulls
- One-year manufacturer warranty
PROS
- Floorless design
- Easy assembly
- Fits multiple truck-types
CONS
- Minimal venting – could get stuffy on hot nights
- The floorless design isn’t for everyone
Our first choice truck bed tent is the Rightline Gear Truck Bed Tent. The standout features here are a floorless design, a one-year manufacturer’s warranty (with a U.S.-based service team), and straightforward, color-coded installation. The stuff sack includes sewn-in setup instructions.
The water-resistant fabric features taped seams for protection from extra-hard showers, always a win with camping tents. On top of that, the tent features soft polypropylene straps and plastic buckles, so the finish on your truck won’t be damaged by the tent.
Inside the shelter, you get two gear pockets, a lantern hook for illumination, and a sky-view vent. Our favorite feature has to be the glow-in-the-dark zipper pulls, which make that midnight call of nature much less inconvenient.
The rainfly connects to the tent body with three buckles and three strings. As long as your fly is lined up correctly over your tent body, you are good to go!
The floorless design is a rare feature in this buying guide — every other shelter here has a sewn-in floor. This feature (or lack thereof) isn’t for everyone. Some folks want a little material between their pad and their truck bed, which can help keep their gear clean.
But the advantage to the floorless design (and we think it’s a big one) is that you don’t have to take your gear out of the truck bed to pitch the tent. It’s a massively useful design feature when you are trying to get your shelter set up in inclement weather.
The Rightline Gear Truck Tent comes in three different sizes to match your mid-size, full-size, or compact truck.
See Rightline Gear Truck Bed Tent on Amazon
See Rightline Gear Truck Bed Tent on Walmart
Napier Sportz Truck Bed Tent
- Rear cab access
- 4ft x 4ft shade awning
- Sewn-in full-bed floor
- Plenty of headroom
- Full rainfly and built-in storm flaps
PROS
- Spacious features
- Rear-cab access
- Full-bed floor
- Additional accessories available
CONS
- Limited sizing options
Napier Sportz Truck Bed Tent is designed for trucks with 6.5ft beds. The size stipulation is going to be a deal-breaker for folks with extended cabs or compact trucks, but if you happen to have a truck that fits this shelter, you’re going to love the features.
First of all, you get a four-by-four-foot shade awning that connects to the truck bed, alleviating any feelings of claustrophobia on rainy or super-hot days. A set of strap protectors keep your straps from scratching your truck and the tent comes with an expandable carrying bag for storage. Like our last option, you get a full-floor design and over five feet of headroom.
Plenty of mesh panels provide ventilation, and hanging gear loops adorn the interior for additional storage options. But we think the real standout feature is the rear access panel that allows you to get into the truck’s cab if necessary. A full rainfly and built-in storm flaps on the windows and doors round out the feature set.
If you’ve got a large family or you need even more room, you might consider the Sportz Link Attachment — a ground-based add-on that functions as a dining room or sleeping area for additional campers.
See Napier Sportz Truck Bed Tent on Amazon
See Napier Sportz Truck Bed Tent on Walmart
Millard Truck Bed Tent
- Sewn-in floor
- Small awning
- Storm flaps
- Lantern hook
- Rainfly
PROS
- Black and green styling
- Inexpensive
- Sturdy ripstop nylon material
CONS
- Only fits trucks with 6.5ft beds
This Millard Truck Bed Tent only fits trucks with a standard 6.5ft bed. So that’s going to be a problem if you have a smaller truck. On the other hand, the $160 price tag is on-point.
A little less spacious than the first few tents we’ve examined, the Miller Truck Tent is still roomy enough, with a full, sewn-in floor, and plenty of mesh windows to go around. A small awning with a storm flap keeps you dry when the weather gets rough.
A camping lantern hook and full rainfly are par for the course but still attractive features. The real standout is the rugged ripstop material, which should be burly enough to handle the inevitable scrapes, pokes, and tears a tent endures. We also like the black and green styling.
See Millard Truck Bed Tent on Amazon
North East Harbor Truck Bed Tent
- Polyester material
- Full-floor design
- Internal gear pocket and lantern-hook
- Fits trucks with 6ft beds
PROS
- Inexpensive
CONS
- Minimally featured
- Not many windows
The colorful North East Harbor Truck Bed Tent is even more affordable than the Millard Truck Tent. This tent fits truck beds in the 6ft range.
The internal gear pocket and lantern hook help out with gear storage, while the full-floor design keeps your sleeping pad and bag from getting dirty. Polyester material in the body and rainfly is sturdy enough to stand up to moderate abrasion.
The awning is minimal, and there are better-ventilated tents on our list, but at just over $100, the price is hard to beat! A great starter tent.
See North East Harbor Truck Bed Tent on Amazon
See North East Harbor Truck Bed Tent on Walmart
Honda Truck Bed Tent
- For Honda Ridgeline only
- Rear cab access
- 4ft x 4ft shade awning
- Sewn-in full-bed floor
- Plenty of headroom
- Full rainfly and built-in storm flaps
PROS
- Spacious features
- Rear-cab access
- Full-bed floor
- Additional accessories available
CONS
- For Honda Ridgeline only. See the Sportz Truck Tent (#3) for more sizes
If you liked the look of our third pick (the Sports Truck Tent) but you happen to have a Honda Ridgeline, the Honda Truck Bed Tent is for you.
Honda Ridgelines are great trucks but they tend to have short and oddly shaped beds. This shelter is made specifically for the Ridgeline but offers the same features as the Sports Truck Tent — including that great four-by-four-foot awning.
Features to look for in truck bed tents
Type
Most of the truck bed tents in this buyer’s guide sit inside open-bed trucks (that is, trucks without a camper shell). Of these open-bed style shelters, all but one have full, sewn-in tent floors that sit between you and the surface of your truck bed.
The advantage of a sewn-in truck bed tent is that you won’t get dirty while camping, nor will your gear. The disadvantage is that you have to move everything out of your truck bed to pitch the tent, which can be a pain, especially when it’s raining or snowing. So choose accordingly!
Seasons
We’d recommend all the shelters in our guide for three-season use — summer, fall, and spring. That said, most of the tents here are double-walled shelters with full rainflys and arching multi-poled designs. Such shelters are warm and stable and are likely to hold up well to a few inches of snow.
You should always be aware of both your tent’s limitations and your own. Playing it safe is best.
Length
This is a critical consideration because not every truck bed tent fits into every truck bed. Indeed, many tents in this buyer’s guide are specific to truck beds of a particular length or design. The product page for each offering in our guide has detailed information regarding tent and truck bed compatibility.
Height
Almost all of the truck bed tents in our guide have over five feet of headroom. You rarely have to stand up in a tent, so five feet is plenty!
A few of the shelters we feature here have variable heights because they can fit into various truck bed lengths. For these tents, the shorter the truck bed, the higher the tent goes; the shorter length pushes the arching design of the tent higher.
Poles
The tent poles in this guide are plastic, fiberglass, or aluminum, with elastic cordage connecting the segments. To assemble the poles, slide the female and male ends together, allow the elastic to contract, and tension the pole segments to one another.
To disassemble, pull gently on the segments to stretch the elastic and fold the segments together until you’ve got a compact bundle. Be careful not to pull too hard, or you’ll snap the elastic, a malfunction that is both a pain in the rear and often not covered by manufacturer warranties.
Waterproofness
Most truck bed tents are polyester or nylon and feature panels of mesh to allow ventilation. In this configuration, your tent is not waterproof (obviously). That’s where a rainfly comes in. The rainfly will be polyester or nylon and feature an additional waterproof coating to keep you dry.
Look for a rainfly that offers maximum coverage and connects easily and quickly to your shelter. Nothing is worse than getting soaked while struggling with a rainfly in the middle of a storm.
Accessories
A few of the truck bed tents in our guide come with accessories such as lantern hangers, internal gear pockets, awnings for additional space, carrying cases, and so on. We’ve noted these accessories when we felt they stood out from the pack in terms of usefulness or uniqueness.
Ease of Setup
How many straps and buckles does a tent have? Does it have color-coded poles and pole sleeves? How hard is it to attach the rainfly? All these considerations are important because nobody wants to spend precious camping time struggling to set up a tent.
Truck Bed Tents FAQ
Q: What is a truck bed tent?
A truck bed tent is a tent designed to fit into the back of a truck bed. In our guide, you’ll notice a few different styles, but generally speaking, a truck bed tent includes a tent body, a pole-set, and a rainfly.
Q: Can a truck bed tent be used on the ground?
Not really. Truck bed tents rely on the structure of your truck bed for stability. They don’t come with stakes to help secure the tent, nor do all of them have floors. We suppose that with some ingenuity and hard work, you could figure out a way to rig one up on the ground, but we can’t see a reason why you would.
Q: Can I drive with my truck bed tent up?
Bad idea. Truck bed tents should not be up while the truck is in motion. We expect they would blow away at all but the lowest possible speeds, creating litter and trash at best and dangerous driving hazards to other motorists at worst.
The only time we’d recommend putting your truck in motion with a pitched tent is when you’re moving your campsite or truck location by a few yards and at a very low speed.
Q: How do I measure my truck bed tent compatibility?
Each truck bed tent has its own measurement requirements based on design and intended use. Once you’ve identified a truck bed tent that has the feature set and price point you want, poke around the Amazon page for measurement charts, user reviews, and other relevant information. Some truck bed tents in our guide only work for trucks of specific makes, models, and bed sizes, while others are more flexible.
