2003 Mitsubushi FG Overland Camper Renovation

[mhiscox]

Nice of you two to share the planning; thanks. One question:

To sleep queen size, the plank is up-lifted...

Uplifted from what was the sofa, right? I assume it didn't work easily to have the bed extension slide out from under bed, but based on my experience wrangling the somewhat smaller and lighter duty bed board in the Jensen Sprinter, you might want to re-examine if there's any way possible to make it pull out at the same level. Lifting and rotating a board that long and wide, even if hollow core, has proven a bit awkward in an enclosed space.

Plus if the bed extension could pull out, the seating could remain for whoever wakes up first.

 

[GR8ADV]

Sausage in the making. Many times the thought process is more interesting or maybe more valuable than the final result.
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Great feedback Mike on the issues surrounding the moveable bed. My wife had similar concerns so it is great to get actual feedback.
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In the world of trade offs....
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I put a lot of value on a good nights sleep. That is why I love having a real mattress to sleep on rather than foam. Heck even the cheapest motel has that. With the separate slab concept my mattress is now the seating pad of the sofa. Not bad because they are getting better, but not a real mattress. In addition due to set up logistics this system would appear to not allow a mattress topper either, and maybe be best suited to sleeping bags.
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So for the bed I am back to leaning onto the fold up piano hinge design of that portion of the bed rather than the complete removal option shown. This would allow the second mattress sheet, topper and pillow to be stored on top of the other mattress after both are up. It would also allow most of the seating to remain in the house with the whole bed set up making it much less disturbing for the one already in bed. Now the slide out/in option would be e best however I am concerned with making sure the second 24 inch mattres is at exactly the same height as e other.
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Anne and I like to play cards and board games. So an opposite facing seating arrangement works best. Thus I think the dinette concept would work best and with some creativity we could creat a lot of additional sitting/ lounging areas.
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Lots to discuss...at least half the fun.

 

[GR8ADV]

The new fixed, sandblasted, tempered glass panel for the shower is on the shower valve side... The new sight lines are not into the crapper... The shower head will be in the wall / glass panel corner pointing to the toilet, so when you shower, your back will be to the ****tter...Out of sight, out of mind... I am leaning to hammered aluminum for the fixed wall shower enclosure...

More tomorrow...

This will work very well. I shared with Paul our love for natural materials, wood, stone, and metal rather an plastic and its cousin fiberglass. We even hope to stay away from too much paint as well so we can enjoy the natural beauty of the surfaces.
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Still wondering if we can do an inward opening door in the shower to preserve the floor space infront of the shower as that is a nice out the way place the dog usually sleeps at night.
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The trade offs continue.

 

[mhiscox]

Still wondering if we can do an inward opening door in the shower to preserve the floor space infront of the shower as that is a nice out the way place the dog usually sleeps at night.

I hear you about the dog, but there is a big advantage (IMHO) if you hinge an outward-opening door on the aft side of the wet room "cabinet" and size it so it meets up with the aisle side of the refrigerator cabinet and then latches perpendicular to the aisle. This creates a private "dressing room" area next to the wet room and gives you a space to dry off and dress without standing in the same sport you just got wet. You could choose the floor material in that area to be optimized for that use.



This plan would be even better should you end up changing the fridge form factor, thus freeing up some space in that cabinet to store some clothes to put on while standing in your dressing room.

 

[Haf-E]

I've seen a sort of "accordian" arrangement of wooden slats that can be pulled out for the larger bed and then pushed back for the reduced space during the day - the space between the slats opens up or closes. This allows the two halves of the bed to stay at the same level when the supports are extended. Maybe the extra matress can be stored vertically against the back wall of the bed too when only one person is sleeping there.

Having a bed that extends over a table with room to leave items is a great detail - it is nice to just close a laptop and leave papers there and then go to bed without having to pack it all up.

Seems like you could do a face to face dinette on the side where the bench is and have even one seat and part of the table available with the bed fully extended still? Would work nice for mornings etc when only one person is up as you could leave the bed alone and not disturb the other person sleeping.

 

[Maninga]

Could the bed be lifted up during the day, allowing more seating underneath, then lowered at night leaving 1 seat free/available if someone gets up early or goes to bed late? Having a fixed bed is awesome in many ways, great for storage options and not having to do anything to set it up, but now that we've got it the compromises in internal space (it takes up 35%) I'd probably design it with a U shaped couch and a lifting bed arrangement.

 

[mhiscox]

I put a lot of value on a good nights sleep. That is why I love having a real mattress to sleep on rather than foam. Heck even the cheapest motel has that. With the separate slab concept my mattress is now the seating pad of the sofa. Not bad because they are getting better, but not a real mattress. In addition due to set up logistics this system would appear to not allow a mattress topper either, and maybe be best suited to sleeping bags.

As always . . . FWIW.

The mattress in Sprinter II does double duty as the sofa cushion and we're very happy with it. It was selected first as a mattress (5" of foam mattress from Ikea cut to shape) but it is working fine as the sofa cushion. This is in contrast to the sofa/bunk cushion in Sprinter 1, which was chosen to be the right firmness for the sofa cushion, but was not nearly compliant enough for sleeping. You could (just sayin') get the queen-size mattress from Ikea and slice it longitudinally into the part that stays permanently on the bed and the part that does double duty as a backrest cushion and the mattress for the widened bed.

You're right, I believe, about the value of facing each other while eating, card playing, etc. So to expand on your idea of the hinged piece (and to eliminate the need for stacking the mattresses, which would reduce your ability to grab a quick nap on the permanent part), you could reconfigure the "dinette" setup you have so include a full-width sofa on the aft side. The backrest for this sofa could be hinged at top and have a permanently-attached backrest cushion made from the sliced-off part of the queen mattress.



Nothing to do at night except raise the backrest and latch it in place (and probably pull out a couple of rods to better support the extension in the middle). You couldn't sit facing forward on the most curbside two feet of the sofa because of it being too close to the kitchen cabinet, but it'd work well for lounging.

 

[PaulJensen]

Mike, I like the design except for the floor space compromise... And the water tank shrinks...Unless it gets move back to there...???... The water tank is the elephant in the room...

Now, how do you deal with the kitchen countertop below the bed.... I have an idea, but the hinge points get complicated because of the mattress...

Mattress integrity is at the top of wish list according to Ken and Anne... If it starts to get cut up due to the couch backrest, you get pocket holes or seams... Reducing the countertop space below is not an option...

Fully agree on the comfort of the IKEA mattresses...

 

[GR8ADV]

. The water tank is the elephant in the room...
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Agreed. Around 60 gallons has shown to be a good amount. Finding a place for that on the driver side ( for weight distribution) and still allowing for several drawers for 4 seasons of clothes, shoes, pantry, etc is the puzzle here.

 

[PaulJensen]

07

(above) Back to the scale model...The bed support is two, hinged panels that will stand vertical when not in use (not demonstrated here)... Nice open floor space...

(above) Here the hinged panel is opened up for full mattress support...

(above) New water tank and fixed seat...

(above) A 3x3 table fits here...How that gets mounted isn't the issue now...

(above) With the bed support folded out...

(above) The table will drop down to make a bed platform... Water tank near the shower here...

(above) ...or at the rear...???...

I like this design (with the tank on either side) since floor space isn't sacrificed for extra seating, and hinging the mattress is simplified...

 

[mhiscox]

Mike, I like the design except for the floor space compromise... And the water tank shrinks...Unless it gets move back to there...???... The water tank is the elephant in the room...

You might consider whether you gain any useful flexibility by using two connected 30 gallon tanks which would be easier to place and help any weight distribution issues.

Now, how do you deal with the kitchen countertop below the bed.... I have an idea, but the hinge points get complicated because of the mattress...

It's a long countertop, and if it needs run all the way into the permanent part of the bed. my plan isn't too good. Consider, though, that you could easily make up the loss of two feet at the aft end by adding a fold-up counter extension in front of the entry. (You'd probably want to do that, anyway; we had that in Sprinter I and it was Sue's favorite feature.)

Mattress integrity is at the top of wish list according to Ken and Anne... If it starts to get cut up due to the couch backrest, you get pocket holes or seams.

There's isn't any way to avoid a minimum of two mattress pieces to make the queen bed, is there? Having just one long top-to-bottom seam may be as good as anything.

My new-found kibitzing comes from being bullish on two things I've grown really fond of: having the narrow upper bed available for use at any time, and having a seating area that is not the dinette. We're really enjoying all of the flexibility of the seating in Sprinter II.

 

[mhiscox]

By the way, I can't help but think that the general layout of the back part of Sprinter One would work. It was a bit too small to be optimum for the 10' x 5.5' floor space we had, but there's much more space in the Kenmobile, and that would really open up the layout, giving an open feel more like Sprinter Two.

We had to use space under the bed for the feet of the people sleeping on the 4' long sofa, but that'd be irrelevant with a 6+' sofa. The mountain biking couple who bought Sprinter One switched to having a section extend of the top bed to make a queen-size bed they sleep on heads-aft.

The facing seats and pullout table were correctly spaced for the Sprinter, but they'll be extra space in the Fuso cabin. There might even be a good way to make the "dinette" seat lift up when needed and be out of the way the rest of the time.

If I was doing my cabin in this amount of space--I trust everyone is noting the mix of envy with boredom from having my own campers finished?--I might try that strategy. But recognize that I definitely want the two sleeping areas separate; two people sleeping peacefully through an entire night is but a faint memory, and we also occasionally want to travel with a friend rather than the spouse, so two beds is a feature.



Easy enough to use the same plan with a bed extension coming off the permanent bed to get one queen size bed and a sofa that can be used when someone gets up early. (Probably important not to cover the coffee-making apparatus with the extension.)

 

[GR8ADV]

My innocent kibitzing from trying to keep two things I've grown really fond of: having the narrow upper bed available for use at any time, and having a seating area that is not the dinette. We're really enjoying all of the flexibility of the seating in Sprinter II.

Indecision is the key to flexibility. Thus, I may just never make up my mind. Here is the thought process thus far.
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My first thought was to have the bed fold down to create the backrest for the seating transversely along the bed. But in addition to losing 5 square feet of floor space we would only be picking up 26 inches of seating area, or one seat. As Paul mentioned it would also require that the bed be broken into a third piece due to the long counter. This is just not ideal. There would also be issues with cushions and mattresses. We really did not want to have to assemble it when the second person decided to come to bed, or disassemble it when one person get up. So when one goes to bed, we just fold down the section, slide over the mattress and wrap the bottom sheet on the smaller portion of the bed; done. No real making or unmaking of a second bed and everything, including the kitchen sink , is available to the other person. And when it comes time for the second person to come to bed they just slide in with no muss or fuss. Same is true for the early riser in the morning; no unmaking of a second bed required.
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Also by not having transverse seating along the bed, or a pull out table, there is complete and useable access to the long counter; fun and roomy when Anne is cooking something up and I am making fresh lime margaritas. And yes we will be adding a flip up piece on the end as well.
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I am willing to forgo a bit of ultimate flexibility for ease of use 90% of the time. The design concept as it stands will be great for two of us. Adding a couple extra folks to sit and chat should be fine on a long sofa, albeit not as nice as a 90 degree angle or an opposing chair. Dinner would be a doable squeeze for 4, but again, I really don't want to plan around that occurrence and I am fine with a reduction in the table from 36 to 30 inches square.
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With the table reduction comes a narrowing of the seats from 36 inches wide to 30 inches wide which is much better for seating facing the kitchen and it creates a nice 91 inch long useable sofa while adding roughly 4 square feet of floor space. The added floor space goes a long way to reducing the 'living in a hallway' feeling.
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A 60 gal tank should tuck nicely under a 36x30 seat so we should not have a problem.

 

[southpier]

...My new-found kibitzing comes from being bullish on two things I've grown really fond ...

hey, somebody's got to carry the load. when's the carbon fiber coming out?

 

[GR8ADV]

Fully agree on the comfort of the IKEA mattresses...

These folks in Portland make spring mattresses of most any size including a hinged Queen Mattresses. hmmm. http://portlandmattressmakers.com/helpful-tips/