sleeping on a fold down bed
- Thread starter xracer144
- Start date
cwsqbm
Explorer
One drawback I can think of is that the bed "mattress" typically isn't in one piece. How this affects you depends on which direction the seam is - length-wise or width-wise.
Herbie
Rendezvous Conspirator
Agreed, if the seams run across the bed and the heights and thicknesses don't match perfectly, it's like sleeping on a fold-out couch at home - there's always that friggen' bar across your back. If everything is dialed in, though, it's pretty darn good. In any case, it's usually more comfortable than an ultralight backpacking pad on rocky ground...
dwh
Tail-End Charlie
My camper van has one that runs lengthwise down the side behind the driver's seat. First night I tried it, was parked at the curb in front of the house...
The street is crowned. The van was tilted a bit toward the curb. I spent the whole bloody night scootching back up from the edge so I didn't roll off into the aisle.
When the van is level though, it's fine. Mine is 6'4" long, and so am I and I don't feel like it's too short (back of driver's seat at one end, floor to ceiling cabinet at the other). Way back in high school, I had a "hippie van" that had a 6 footer across the back. To sleep on it, I had to be catty corner, but it was fine as well.
One thing is that the one I have now, the bottom part is on springs, but the back part isn't - it's just a thick pad of foam. So there is a difference in the give, and I tend to stay on the wider sprung part. And, since that's wide enough, I usually don't even bother folding it out and making it up anymore. I just stretch out on it as a couch and use a sleeping bag. Quick and easy.
I'm actually getting ready to rip it out and build a wooden box instead. The problem is that the bottom doesn't raise up. It does, but only a couple of inches...just enough to do the fold out thing. But under the couch is the water heater, the fresh water tank, the water pump, some plumbing - including the drain into the top of the gray water tank - as well as quite a bit of usable storage space, and I can't get to ANY of it except by laying in the aisle and reaching in from the front. And since I don't fold it out anymore anyway... I've already drawn up the plans, plotted the cuts for the plywood and sourced the foam. Might get around to it next week.
That wasn't a problem before - with the hippie van I could just open the back doors and access the area under the couch. Can't do that with this one.
The street is crowned. The van was tilted a bit toward the curb. I spent the whole bloody night scootching back up from the edge so I didn't roll off into the aisle.
When the van is level though, it's fine. Mine is 6'4" long, and so am I and I don't feel like it's too short (back of driver's seat at one end, floor to ceiling cabinet at the other). Way back in high school, I had a "hippie van" that had a 6 footer across the back. To sleep on it, I had to be catty corner, but it was fine as well.
One thing is that the one I have now, the bottom part is on springs, but the back part isn't - it's just a thick pad of foam. So there is a difference in the give, and I tend to stay on the wider sprung part. And, since that's wide enough, I usually don't even bother folding it out and making it up anymore. I just stretch out on it as a couch and use a sleeping bag. Quick and easy.
I'm actually getting ready to rip it out and build a wooden box instead. The problem is that the bottom doesn't raise up. It does, but only a couple of inches...just enough to do the fold out thing. But under the couch is the water heater, the fresh water tank, the water pump, some plumbing - including the drain into the top of the gray water tank - as well as quite a bit of usable storage space, and I can't get to ANY of it except by laying in the aisle and reaching in from the front. And since I don't fold it out anymore anyway... I've already drawn up the plans, plotted the cuts for the plywood and sourced the foam. Might get around to it next week.
That wasn't a problem before - with the hippie van I could just open the back doors and access the area under the couch. Can't do that with this one.
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