People sometimes ask what it’s like to camp under the truck cap in the rain. They ask if it’s dry and warm. The truth is it’s fairly dry, moderately warm, but certainly not hot or completely dry. It’s best to describe it as cool and damp.
The fiberglass truck cap does keep the bulk of the rain out. But the past two truck caps I’ve owned both leak a little bit around the windows. Not a lot, but in heavy rain, there trends to be an occassional drip drop. Building your bed up, using a stack of sleeping pads and mats helps, but it’s still kind of damp.
A bigger issue is the humidity under the truck cap. When the windows are closed in the truck cap, there is still air ventilation in and around the bed of the truck. Not a lot, but still enough to ensure there is some fresh air. But because the ventilation is low, and not up at the top of the truck cap, moisture tends to accumulate at the top of the truck cap, from the heat of one’s body and even just the moisture one breathes into the air.
Is it drier then a tent? It depends, a lot on how the tent is set up, how well it’s waterproofed, and the drainage of the tent. The truck bed is always up high, so you don’t have to worry about flooding. The truck cap is naturally waterproof, even if you do get an occasional drip-drop around the windows.
If you don’t dress properly and try to keep your bedding out of the damp parts under the truck cap, it can be problematic. It could lead to hypothermia, because it’s chilly and damp back here. But if it gets too cold out, once can always hop in the cab of the truck, crank the heat, and get warm and dried out that way.
