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Bought an Air Mattress for the back of the k5...

scouthead

scouthead

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i tried to sleep in the back of the K5 once... with the tailgate down, and the back seat flipped up.

I wanted more space, and felt like my feet were going to get eaten by bears (i was nowhere near bears).



I want to do some weekend exploring now that the blazer is up and running again... and since im single again, bought a twin size coleman "internal pump" air matress. Im hoping i can remove the back seat, and build a plywood platform for the rear passenger footwell. i think i end up with about 72 inches of space with the tailgate up and closed.

will be testing sometime this week.

also wondering if my cigarette lighter can output enough power to run an electric tea kettle through an inverter?? hmmm bedside coffee...
 
I wouldn't trust the factory cigar lighter wiring to run an inverter big enough to run a kettle. Hard wire to batt, 8 gauge or better depending on size of inverter.
 
OK. I’ll tell my air mattress story. Before my Big Bend vacation was cancelled had blazer loaded with camp stuff. I use a 4” camp pad to sleep on top of boxes in back. Well girlfriend decided that her air mattress was a great thing and insisted that we take it to sleep on in back of blazer. Well after many hours of me saying it won’t work and her insisting it would be perfect, you know because women know best, I just told her to get it. I threw it in I turned on pump to air it up. Well I’ll let the picture speak for itself. HaHa. That day I actually heard those seldom heard words “Well I guess you were right”.

582BE4F8-763A-4A87-9DEE-7125799F3635.jpeg
 
My first elk hunting trip I took the backseat out of my 77 K5 and stuck a regular twin mattress back there, it worked great.
 
well, this was in anticipation of making a bonsai run to death valley after thanksgiving, but my incorrect friend (with a jeep, and BECAUSE of the jeep)
need to pack up his bus and head home the day after i would get there... so probably not going to get this tested quite yet.

I do want to make sure the air mattress holds air though- I may have some time this weekend to mock things up and take some pictures.
 
I've slept in the back of my K5 pre-camper days. No back seat and the gate up. I'm 6 ft tall and had to sleep diagonally. Stuffed my duffel bag in one of the rear footwells to level it out for a backpacking-style sleep pad.
 
scouthead said:
i tried to sleep in the back of the K5 once... with the tailgate down, and the back seat flipped up.

I wanted more space, and felt like my feet were going to get eaten by bears (i was nowhere near bears).



I want to do some weekend exploring now that the blazer is up and running again... and since im single again, bought a twin size coleman "internal pump" air matress. Im hoping i can remove the back seat, and build a plywood platform for the rear passenger footwell. i think i end up with about 72 inches of space with the tailgate up and closed.

will be testing sometime this week.

also wondering if my cigarette lighter can output enough power to run an electric tea kettle through an inverter?? hmmm bedside coffee...
Click to expand...
I have slept plenty of times in my k5, most of it in a sleeping bag on the floor.
I did a couple of times with a 8" air mattress, worked pretty good except one time when it deflated around midnight.
I am 5'11" and I slept diagonal.
There was a time when in my 76 I took the back seat out and I slept straight, lifted up the passenger seat so I had room for my legs to stretch.
By the way I used a full size mattress
 
my folks let me use their 86 K5 quite a bit. Towed my exs Camero to fl with it. Let my new hoe drive a bit while I slept in the back.
6'2", had to sleep diagonally with the back seat up. Never got real comfy...

I miss that old truck. Dad offered it or the 87 r10 to me, I figured the pick up was more practical at that stage of my life. And it was.

But I miss that old K5.

Miss my folks.
 
FINALLY had the blazer running long enough to test it, AND the air mattress out. yes there is room to sleep in the blazer when the rear seat has been removed. I found it kind of a pain in the butt to remove my spare tire and all the tools and spare water jug and tools, and ice chest every night... and then pack it all back in and strap it down before hitting the trail again the next morning... but could have been worse. Actually think I preferred sleeping on the the old chaise lounge cushion that i have flopped in there. less work than inflating the air mattress- no concerns about deflating, and stays warmer. no tear down in the am- just flop it out of the way while loading the junk, and then flop it "in the back" on top of everything, and go!

I have all my tool bags with wrenches and sockets and 5lb co2 bottle etc, etc, piled up in the footwell of the back seat, and don't think its necessary for anything else to level that area out -was almost the same height as the rear bed area.


the air mattress was a twin sized Coleman durabeam (i REALLY REALLY liked the full sized one I had at my cabin for years), and has an internal battery and air pump contraption... in theory pretty cool. insert 4 D cell batteries, and it inflates and deflates at the flip of a switch. doesn't seem to inflate quite as firm as i usually would want, and I didn't figure out how to top it off with lung power. they advertise that if it looses air in the night, you can flip the switch and top off? -well probably not if your fat butt is still ON the air mattress. would have to get off, inflate, get back on. that would be a little irritating being in the blazer. I think I will stick with a bedroll of padding, and my sleeping back stuffed into a duffel bag for now.

on a different note - the slanted angle of the tailgate glass allows a pretty dang nice view of the stars if you sleep with your head near the tailgate on a dark desert night.
 
scouthead said:
FINALLY had the blazer running long enough to test it, AND the air mattress out. yes there is room to sleep in the blazer when the rear seat has been removed. I found it kind of a pain in the butt to remove my spare tire and all the tools and spare water jug and tools, and ice chest every night... and then pack it all back in and strap it down before hitting the trail again the next morning... but could have been worse. Actually think I preferred sleeping on the the old chaise lounge cushion that i have flopped in there. less work than inflating the air mattress- no concerns about deflating, and stays warmer. no tear down in the am- just flop it out of the way while loading the junk, and then flop it "in the back" on top of everything, and go!

I have all my tool bags with wrenches and sockets and 5lb co2 bottle etc, etc, piled up in the footwell of the back seat, and don't think its necessary for anything else to level that area out -was almost the same height as the rear bed area.


the air mattress was a twin sized Coleman durabeam (i REALLY REALLY liked the full sized one I had at my cabin for years), and has an internal battery and air pump contraption... in theory pretty cool. insert 4 D cell batteries, and it inflates and deflates at the flip of a switch. doesn't seem to inflate quite as firm as i usually would want, and I didn't figure out how to top it off with lung power. they advertise that if it looses air in the night, you can flip the switch and top off? -well probably not if your fat butt is still ON the air mattress. would have to get off, inflate, get back on. that would be a little irritating being in the blazer. I think I will stick with a bedroll of padding, and my sleeping back stuffed into a duffel bag for now.

on a different note - the slanted angle of the tailgate glass allows a pretty dang nice view of the stars if you sleep with your head near the tailgate on a dark desert night.
Click to expand...
I’ll give you my new found favorite as far as sleeping pad/mattress. Exped Megamat. It ain’t cheap but it was a massive upgrade in comfort over everything I’ve used in the past.

It inflates with air but it has some padding inside it. The instructions do say it does self inflate if you open the fill valve. It don’t inflate enough for my comfort on its own so I give it a short burst with a Coleman inflator. Maybe 20-30 seconds is all it needs. That almost gets it too firm so I may let a little out. It is very comfortable to sleep on with zero pressure points where I can feel the wood below the mattress itself. The previous Kylmit pad I used wouldn’t support me and allowed pressure points to be at my hips, knees, back and shoulders depending on how I was laying on it.

This year was the first I used it and it’s a game changer. I actually sleep and don’t toss/turn trying to move the pressure points to different spots. Worth every penny and wished I found it sooner.
 
TJ1978 said:
P I C T U R E S....
Click to expand...
ha- might not have actually taken any of the matress setup, but at somepoint soon i will go through all the photos from the trip and get something posted about it... where to post a "i took this trip, and look at all my photos" thread? post it in the garage? the lounge maybe?
 
I've slept in various configurations in the K5 over the years. In general you want the backseat left at home, but if you need it, 1 person can sleep easily with it unbolted and turned to the side. Just bring something with you that fills the footwell. I've done this for random wheeling trips, camping out at dunefest, etc. If you have tons of stuff with you, things stay fairly dry stored underneath the truck at night (other than your oil leaks, so YMMV!)

For a dozen years I've used the same sleeping platform for overlanding and sleeping 2 people (I keep saying I'll build something better eventually but haven't gotten to it). It's basically plywood sitting on the wheel wells, with supports to the floor in several places. I have the late K5 bucket seats, where the back folds forward, so being this high gives you that extra head/foot room. We use 2 futon mattresses stacked and it's very comfortable. When I had the roll-up window tailgate, we were just short enough on space that we had to move the mattresses a few inches between sleeping and driving. The truck gate gives about 3 more inches at that level, so the mattress stays put. That should give a good perspective on how much space is in there.

In cold weather these mattresses provide tons of insulation, where an air mattress seems like it never warms up. If I have one of the kids in there, we each get a heavy sleeping bag and then put a large comforter-type blanket over the top of the whole bed and this has proven plenty warm down to freezing. If I was going to do true winter camping I would look into some kind of external heater. It's really the getting up in the morning that's tough.
 
Blue85 said:
I've slept in various configurations in the K5 over the years. In general you want the backseat left at home, but if you need it, 1 person can sleep easily with it unbolted and turned to the side. Just bring something with you that fills the footwell. I've done this for random wheeling trips, camping out at dunefest, etc. If you have tons of stuff with you, things stay fairly dry stored underneath the truck at night (other than your oil leaks, so YMMV!)

For a dozen years I've used the same sleeping platform for overlanding and sleeping 2 people (I keep saying I'll build something better eventually but haven't gotten to it). It's basically plywood sitting on the wheel wells, with supports to the floor in several places. I have the late K5 bucket seats, where the back folds forward, so being this high gives you that extra head/foot room. We use 2 futon mattresses stacked and it's very comfortable. When I had the roll-up window tailgate, we were just short enough on space that we had to move the mattresses a few inches between sleeping and driving. The truck gate gives about 3 more inches at that level, so the mattress stays put. That should give a good perspective on how much space is in there.

In cold weather these mattresses provide tons of insulation, where an air mattress seems like it never warms up. If I have one of the kids in there, we each get a heavy sleeping bag and then put a large comforter-type blanket over the top of the whole bed and this has proven plenty warm down to freezing. If I was going to do true winter camping I would look into some kind of external heater. It's really the getting up in the morning that's tough.
Click to expand...
I did the same thing with my k5 and then with my crew cab with a camper shell.
 
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