AC for bed of truck for summer camping?

I have a shell over my tacoma bed and use it to camp/sleep in when camping. It is perfect for me, but I want to cool my sleep area for those warm summer nights as I live in the south. I've seen those small cooling machines on Amazon, but can't find anyone that has used them - Any other suggestions?
Thanks

 

A small window ac unit might work. The little 5000 btu ones like the lg lw5016 only pull about 450 watts. Hard part will sourcing that much power for 8 hours.

 

Now that's really roughing it!

 

Something like the Ridgid 18v fan ($69 home depot) with the bigger battery (same one used for the drill) is supposed to be able to run for 45 hours on the 5 Ah battery.

 

Here ya go
Easy set up

 

I have a17' camper with no AC I can stay cool enough with a 5" computer fan that probably would run several months non stop on a car battery.

 

Serious answer though as I hate sweating while trying to sleep too- I open the sliders, open the rear and drape a mosquito net over it and use a small fan that takes a couple of D cell batteries or a 12v adapter (voltage stepdown). I've also got one that I can plug into a USB port; they're inexpensive on Amazon. With a steady breeze flowing over you and a very light sheet it's not terrible (and we get temps in the 90s with humidity almost as high; I did the same thing overseas several places including Malaysia and the Philippines). You could add a mister in front of the fan but overall swamp coolers work much better in drier climates, not so well on this coast.

There are plenty of folks who buy small window units and run them off something like the quiet Honda generators. I've also seen a few roof top tents that owners had installed vents in and connected floor model heaters or A/Cs to depending on the season. There are examples on ExPo and if you do a google images search for truck camper air conditioner or some variation of that.

 

I don’t know if you are talking about those small cooling fans that use evaporative cooling as their claim for air conditioning? I think it needs to be dry heat to be effective.? I’m not sure.

Something like this?

 

Run the AC in the cab and rig up some flexible ductwork though the rear window of the cab into the front window in the shell.

I'd rather camp in Maine during the winter with no heat than in parts of the south in the summer with no AC

 

you're gonna need a generator to run AC with the truck off. They draw way too much juice for a battery powered option.

You are correct, swamp coolers (evaporative cooling) work best at low humidity. They're pretty useless is the hot humid south.

 

An evaporator cooler in the South would be miserable.

 

Yeah, swamp coolers don't work very well in high humidity. If you've got enough air moving over you to evaporate the mist off of your skin it'll help, but for our humid southern environment an actual A/C would be a much better choice- if you have a way to power it.

Probably the cheapest, and most ghetto, I've seen were the small window units from a big box store with homemade ducting (usually something like a dryer vent hose) routing the cool air into a window with something stuffed in the open part or some sort of duct attached. Several people in the VW bus club I used to be in used them and they worked well, just not the most convenient and as noted, they work best where you have a power outlet so you don't have to run a generator.

 

Not sure about running your truck all night but for the sake of discussion, there are vent attachments made for police vehicles so that they can route the airflow into their vest- if you've never worn body armor in the summer it sucks big time.

 

ive gone down this road before. Its just too much work for 2hrs of ac, even if you put all that battery power its just not worth it. Only way to do it is with a generator and theyre way too loud, even the muffled ones. If youre urban camping people are gonna call the cops, no one wants to camp next to you cus of your loud generator. I just installed an air vent on top of my shell and I use a small fan inside aswell.

 

A friend of mine installed an RV mini-vent with a fan on the top of his cap and that seems to work well. Running full time AC overnight you'll probably need to plug in to the grid.

 

Small quiet gas inverter generator such as the Ryobi 2200w can run a small 5000 btu window ac. That would be what I would do in your situation. There are other uses for a small inverter that would benefit you while camping.

 

Those things are loud. Everyones gonna hate him.

 

Ice bag pillow… $2.50/night.

 

See pic on top I installed 12v dometic fantastic fan, draws very little. Just fet a usb fan aswell & and go commando. I strictly just camp in the mountains/woods when it gets really hot, rn its kinda cold so I’ll go to ghe dessert.