Mattress & bed setups for moto van/camper setups?

[jamesm113]

Hey folks, I'm trying to streamline the mattress setup for my Chevy express moto van. The way my van is setup, the bed platform is stowed on the walls during transit, and then when I arrive, I pull the bikes out and setup the mattress for the weekend. When the weekend is over, I tear down the bed and load the bikes back in. Pictures attached to better explain the setup, but while it's fairly modular/multi-purpose, setup and tear down is turning into a chore, especially as we go on more trips.

We camp year around in southern California. While the van is insulated, there's no heater, so it can get cold inside (low 50's), especially on cold windy nights. We've camped down to 20F.

As a mattress:

• 1-2 Nemo Roamer sleeping pads. 1 pad is 30"x78, and 2 pads is 60"x78" (basically a queen).

For bedding:

• 1-2 coleman 20F rectanglar sleeping bags for colder trips and maybe some sheets and a duvet for warmer trips

The pros:

• The Nemo Roamer sleeping pads roll up pretty nicely, smaller than a car camping sleeping bag
• The coleman sleeping bags roll up relatively easily
• The Nemo roamer pads are well insulated and handle cold nights just fine
• The coleman sleeping bags are warm enough for cold nights

The cons:

• Setup takes time, especially for the nemo pads - have to wait 2+ hours to inflate, plus have to manually blow into them to top them off
• The coleman sleeping bags have to be unrolled and zipped together
• Tear down takes time - have to manually roll up the pads 2x each to make sure all the air gets out of them, then unzip and rezip the coleman pads
• The pads could easily spring a leak, especially with sharp gear or the dog running around

We'd like to streamline this setup and am curious what other setups are out there. Ideally, we wouldn't have to manually inflate/deflate the pads every single trip, and something that would stay warm and soft on colder nights.

 

[Rovertrader]

We did one for same application several decades ago- built a platform bed, had 4 pieces pipe (like 1.5” diameter) mounted vertically at corners, and positioned to raise/lower said platform. This allowed bedding to stay in place. Was a little rudimentary but sure worked nicely. Eventually added a come-along to assist raising the platform…
Good luck, pics when solved please.

 

[jamesm113]

We did one for same application several decades ago- built a platform bed, had 4 pieces pipe (like 1.5” diameter) mounted vertically at corners, and positioned to raise/lower said platform. This allowed bedding to stay in place. Was a little rudimentary but sure worked nicely. Eventually added a come-along to assist raising the platform…
Good luck, pics when solved please.

Unfortunately, there's no room on the ceiling, the dirt bike handle bars routinely hit the ceiling during loading/unloading. With a taller van that is definitely the way I'd go though!

 

[Ozarker]

We did one for same application several decades ago- built a platform bed, had 4 pieces pipe (like 1.5” diameter) mounted vertically at corners, and positioned to raise/lower said platform. This allowed bedding to stay in place. Was a little rudimentary but sure worked nicely. Eventually added a come-along to assist raising the platform…
Good luck, pics when solved please.

How did you raise and lower the bed?

Two Coleman camp cots attached to the walls with pipe clamps, unfold the legs and swing it down, toss the bedroll on and that's it.

 

[Rovertrader]

How did you raise and lower the bed?

Two Coleman camp cots attached to the walls with pipe clamps, unfold the legs and swing it down, toss the bedroll on and that's it.

A come-along and couple pulleys…