Rear Seat Options...

[JMyerz]

Took my first mini road trip this last weekend and was able to take note of what was needed where. The advice of just getting out and taking notes is a great one and I would recommend anyone doing a buildup just throw everything in the Van and bring a drawing pad.

First item of need is a better bed / seat combo. Are there any other options besides:

Discount Van / Truck
SMB Gaucho
Van specialties

FWIW, I'm looking to re create a car seat safe version of the Westfalia Weekender interior into my Chevy Express...

Thanks!!

J

 

[rotor]

If you want to DIY, I made my rear bench/bed using one of my factory bench seats and a fold down bench seat frame out of a conversion van. I'm still not 100% complete and I still need to make my rear cushions and add curtains.

 

[JMyerz]

Thats awesome Rotor!

What year / model did you pull the frame out of? Did you take any photos of how to put everything together?

Thanks!

J

 

[Herbie]

Here's my $100 solution for the start of my sleeper:

Its from a Dodge conversion van, found via Craigslist. This crappy cellphone pic is from the test fit the day I brought it home. You can see that the width is perfect. The fabric is an "OK" match to the interior, so I'll just clean it and leave it for now. This "bed" is about 44" long without the headrests, so I'll extend it another 28" or so with a platform behind the bed that butts up to the rear doors.

The bad news about "layback" style beds is that they're generally pretty low. Mine is 16" floor-to-seat-cushion in the seating position and about 17" in the bed position (it comes up slightly as you lay it back). This means my bed platform will be similarly low, which constrains what cargo I can put under it.

One other option is to use reproduction VW "Rock and Roll" bed hinges and build your own seat/bed box from plywood. The hinges are about $100 and the build is fairly easy. The nice thing about the VW hinges is that they come "up" a bit more. Its hard to picture unless you see a van with the rear engine platform/bulkhead, but the bottom part of the seat raises up 3-4 inches or so with this design. Here's a very good sample from the Samba:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=352049

 

[Herbie]

If you want to DIY, I made my rear bench/bed using one of my factory bench seats and a fold down bench seat frame out of a conversion van. I'm still not 100% complete and I still need to make my rear cushions and add curtains.

AWESOME STUFF! I like that you reused the stock seats, it keeps the interior very cohesive looking. If I may ask, how tall is your rear platform? I looked at some other conversion van frames and some were VERY low. It made for great headroom both sitting and sleeping, but was almost too low to be comfortable on the knees when sitting. (Plus the small amount of under-platform storage as I mentioned above)

I considered using the VW hinges so that I could build my own box to get the storage I wanted under the rear platform (21" or so, to clear a fridge), but that would have made the sleeping headroom very tight (like 22" or so!) and my wife nixed the idea as she's a tad claustrophobic.

 

[Herbie]

For completeness, here are some other links I collected while doing my own research:

http://www.swcampers.co.uk/index.php/part-conversions/seat--bed/rib-seat-bed
http://www.aircooledtech.com/camper_interior/z-bed_install/
http://www.cpcparts.com/products/re...ID=58&sSubCat=Bench/Sofa Seat: Complete Seats

 

[rotor]

AWESOME STUFF! I like that you reused the stock seats, it keeps the interior very cohesive looking. If I may ask, how tall is your rear platform? I looked at some other conversion van frames and some were VERY low. It made for great headroom both sitting and sleeping, but was almost too low to be comfortable on the knees when sitting. (Plus the small amount of under-platform storage as I mentioned above)

I considered using the VW hinges so that I could build my own box to get the storage I wanted under the rear platform (21" or so, to clear a fridge), but that would have made the sleeping headroom very tight (like 22" or so!) and my wife nixed the idea as she's a tad claustrophobic.

The frame I used originally had power slide and 13" underneath and I felt it was a little to tall. I removed the power slide and now there is about 9" underneath the seat, and about 8" underneath the platform.

I think my setup is a little lower then the factory seat(maybe 1"), but I wanted as much headroom as possible. Most of me gear goes on the 7' X 4' rack on the roof anyways.

I still need to add armrests to both sides of the seat(will fill the width perfectly when down) and a vinyl skirt around the bottom to make it look nicer.

 

[rotor]

Thats awesome Rotor!

What year / model did you pull the frame out of? Did you take any photos of how to put everything together?

Thanks!

J

All I know about the bench/bed that I used for the frame is that it came out of a full size van and that a dog used it for a bed. I picked it up on craigslist on the cheap and it was already pulled. The manufacture date on the frame is 1999. I'll check for who the manufacturer was this evening.