basic diy on fitting and storing a foam matress in a truck bed

Step 1: Things Needed for Project.

A truck. A foam mattress or mattress topper. some paracord ... or rope. and something that will work as a latch or hook. Something to cut the foam with. I used a very sharp knife and a Utility blade.

Step 2: First Things First. Make Sure Your Foam Fits...

check.

I used a king size nuvafoam mattress topper that we no longer needed on our bed.

Step 3: Cut a Little at a Time.

this foam was very squishy and it tended to take the shape of what was around it. To make sure I didn't remove to much by accident, I cut about 6 inches of foam off the side at a time. I used a cutco hunting knife for the long cuts and a utility blade for the smaller cuts I made later.

Step 4: Cut Out the Foam Around the Wheel Wells.

I used my utility blade to cut these out. I didn't have any way of making an accurate measurement so I had to eyeball the cuts. Started by making the basic out line and left myself extra room around the wheel wells so that I could tuck the extra foam in if it was a little big. make sure you cut less as apposed to more. with foam it can be deceptive on how it will line up with the bed after you are fininshed cutting.

Step 5: Trim Any Extra Foam That May Push the Matters Out of Place or Create "bubbles" Around the Edges.

tuck the rest into place for a good, even, and snug fit.
Now the hard parts done.

Step 6: I Used a Smaller Parachord to Make a Rope Latch to Hold It I'n Place While Driving and Also to Keep It Out of the Way of Anything Else You May Have to Put in the Truck.

I Used a Smaller Parachord to Make a Rope Latch to Hold It I'n Place While Driving and Also to Keep It Out of the Way of Anything Else You May Have to Put in the Truck.

I used about 28ft of parachord with very simple knots to make this.

tied a loop on the starting end. made a loop knot at about 1ft from the starting knot. made this loop 4ft in length from knot to tip. looped a hook through and tied that off at around 6 inches from the knot and pulled the rest of the chord through said knot. repeated this two more times to have three latches in total.

Step 7: Roll the Foam Up and Latcch the Chord.

the three latches reach around the foam keeping it in place. the chord is looped through my cargo hooks and keep the whole thing from moving around when driving.

this is the first stage project. I plan on creating a tarped storage unit or bag in the future along with a thicker foam mattress and a better strap system. but for now I'm happy with how it came out. sleeping under the stars is a wonderful thing! :D