How to Bear-Proof Your Truck Bed

Bears and other critters have a phenomenal sense of smell, approximately seven times better than a bloodhound’s and 2,100 times better than ours! As a result, every piece of trash or food item matters; all it takes is a forgotten candy bar or jerky wrapper wedged in your pickup’s door pocket to attract a hungry bear. 

To prevent accidentally luring bears to your campsite, keep your food and trash locked inside sealed, smell-proof containers.

Piggybacking on the previous tip, be sure to keep any food or food trash out of your sleeping area. Whether you’re positioned off the ground in a rooftop tent or curled up in a sleeping bag on the ground, avoid late-night snacks or taking any food into your tent or sleeping area. If you think waking up to a bear in your truck’s bed is undesirable, try waking up to one in your sleeping bag!

If you sleep in your pickup, be sure to keep your food and food trash in a sealed container away from your vehicle.

Bears don’t just have a good sense of smell, they’re also highly intelligent. After years of raiding coolers and trash cans for food, bears often develop a connection between these items and a meal. As a result, regardless of whether food is present, the sight of a cooler or trash can alone is enough to lead a bear to investigate. 

Therefore, keep your coolers, trash bags, and other storage containers out of sight. Even if you hide them in your vehicle, cover them with a blanket or other cargo, reducing your chances of luring a bear into your pickup!

With your food locked away inside smell-proof containers, it’s still wise to bolster your overall bed protection with a rugged, locking hard tonneau cover. Think of a bear as a potential thief looking to steal your valuables in the bed; you wouldn’t trust the security of your cargo to an open bed or a tear-prone soft cover, would you? 

Installing a premium hard tonneau cover, like the BAKFlip MX4, provides secure, locking protection for your food, supplies, and valuables against bears, raccoons, and other suspicious critters.

Next, we have tool boxes. While these products are typically used to secure your tools and equipment, you can also repurpose them as a lockable storage box for trash, food, coolers, and your gear; just be sure to place any sweets in a smell-proof, sealed container beforehand! 

Products like the UWS truck bed utility chest provide heavy-duty aluminum alloy protection against claws and sharp teeth, keeping anything inside safe and secure. Additionally, we carry bed slides, like the DECKED truck bed storage system, that prevent access to your cargo inside without opening the tailgate. With your tailgate locked, breaking into the DECKED system is practically impossible, even for a crafty bear!

Finally, every bear-proofed pickup needs a smell-proof and lockable cooler for your perishables. Don’t trust your food to your dad’s ancient steel cooler; instead, invest in the heavy-duty construction, smell-proof seals, and locking tabs of a heavy-duty cooler from RealTruck, like the Engel 45 quart lower profile cooler! This heavy-duty cooler is manufactured from rotary-molded plastic and features a reinforced lid with locking tabs, allowing you to insert a padlock at each corner to keep bears out. Alternatively, we offer portable fridges/freezers, like the Engel 84 quart AC/DC fridge/freezer.