azsorenson
New member
Hi Ian, I'm in Phoenix , also have an ambulance camper I've been screwing around with for a year and a half. Send me your # and next time we're up there I'll see if you're up for a beer and some ambulancing.Ok. Progress on the bed.
I've been scratching my head on this for probably a month before I even got the ambulance.
Initially figured a murphy would be the way to go but.. decided I'd really like a window in that wall that is accessible in the day. (and not just when the bed was down)
The flip style seemed solid and simple but a couple people told me that they found it a pain in the ass moving the mattress around
I spent a few days looking at slat bed designs and beds using drawer slides but they just seemed too fussy or.. wouldn't extend from bench size to double.
Requirements:
able to grab a quick nap without adjusting anything
bench to remain as stock a possible
I want it to be a fairly comfy couch.
End of a long day I really don't want to have to shuffle a full mattress about or flip two halves from one side to another.
So here's what I came up with:
I built the two frames shown the pic. Each will be hinged to the corner of the bench and since the lid overhangs the bench, they will fold completely out of the way.
The factory bench pad will be replaced with a roughly half a twin mattress.
The other half will be mounted to a sheet of plywood and upholstered.
When in bench mode this will be the back rest. In bed mode of course it'll just be flipped down on top of the frame and secured tightly to the other half the mattress.
I didn't fab it up but there is room for a smaller flip out support in the middle and I'll need to make a middle support for the cabinet side.
It might be hard to tell from the pics but the captains chair will have to come out as it's in the way of the bed.
If a person wanted a queen size width then adding two drawer slides per frame would allow them to extend further than there is room for across the bench.
I may add the slides anyway so that the bed can become two singles. I'll be doing a fair bit of climbing trips and especially for ice season I won't be able to expect that my non-romantic climbing partners always sleep outside.
Cheers,
Ian
Mark