Embedded Files
A comfortable bed is one of the most crucial features of a camper van, in my opinion. Having a great time on the road requires great sleep to recoup and get back out there exploring. The long driving days can be exhausting too and it's important to stay mentally alert. So I needed to feel like I was at home, in my own comfy bed.
I'm not going to say it's as good as my bed at home, but it's pretty damn close. I can get a good night's sleep and wake up feeling refreshed and energized.
At 75.6" wide, the Promaster is 5.5" wider than the Transit and Sprinter. Once your walls are in you've usually still got about 72" of width, or six feet, which is adequate depth for most people under 6' tall to sleep comfortably. So most Promaster vanlifers put their bed horizontally (side-to-side) rather than front-to-back. It allows for more living space up front and I understand why it's preferred by most people. Some taller people even add flares to extend their horizontal bed space a few more inches.
Despite being advised against it I decided to put my bed front-to-back anyway. For one, it was important to me to have room for a Bike Rack to store my bike or two in the garage space under the bed, so even if my bed were horizontal, I would still need to allow enough room for the bike. I might save a few inches, if that.
But the biggest reason I decided to go front-to-back with my bed was because I wanted to have storage drawers along the sides for clothing and other storage. With my bed already being high up (necessary to accommodate the bike storage) I was hesitant to add upper cabinets - I worried about waking up and knocking my head all the time. (A vanlifer with an upper cabinet setup recently confirmed my suspicion on this, stating that he lives in a "perpetual state of concussiveness." I don't think that's a word but I understood what he meant.)
This picture from a VanLife Customs build (left) was one of my inspirations for adding the side storage drawers. I put drawers like this along both sides of the bed. Their build looks more professional of course.
I've seen a lot of vanlifers do very cool things with their bed, like Murphy beds, beds that can be disassembled into a living room area, beds that can be raised and lowered. While I really love the elevator beds they aren't cheap and seemed too complicated to incorporate into my first build.
I was also firm on the fact that I didn't want a bed I would have to make/remake every day. It reminds me too much of my least favorite part of backpacking: the nightly chore of putting up/taking down your tent. So in the end my bed did end up taking up a lot of real estate in my van, but it's okay with me.
Bed parts & tools:
Baltic birch plywood - covered in the Flooring section
Makita drill - covered in the Flooring section
2"x4" studs - $36 for 6
A lot of 1" and 2" wood screws - $25?
Drill bit set - $24
Lancher hinges - I ended up using about 24 of these throughout my whole build, $77 total
Custom fitted sheet - $100
Weighted blanket - $84
Total cost = $1,005+ sweat equity
One of my early attempts at mapping out the build in a 3D design program. I toyed around with the idea of having the toilet pull-out from under the bed.
I cut a box to cover the wheel well and started to test placement of the bed supports.
After cutting down the center support to the proper size.
The bed supports are attached to the frame of the vehicle using the same pain-in-the-ass crossnut/rivnut technique described for the Paneling. Here is a drill hole location marked with lipstick on one of the studs. This techique didn't work as well in the soft 2"x4" as it did in the firmer plywood panels.
Once the three 2"x4" supports on each side were connected to the vehicle frame, more studs would be laid across horizontally.
There are some horror stories circulating on the internet about RV mattresses collecting mold due to lack of air circulation. While reading about this I happened across a web forum in which RV users were raving about these Froli bed systems. They are basically mattress springs for RVs. It is said to not only be beneficial for increasing air circulation, but also quite comfortable. So I decided to shell out the $400 for the queen sized version and trim it down to size.
My bed ended up clocking in at 56" wide x 72" long x 4" high (6" if you include the springs), somewhere in between a full size and queen size.
When the Froli springs arrived, the bed platform was still in its early phases, but I wanted to try it out and learn how to put them together.
They're kind of fun, actually. Just click them together, it's easy.
Here's what the Froli springs look like under the mattress. It does add about 2" of height to my bed, but seems to be more comfortable than the 4" foam mattress would be by itself.
After reading a million reviews on Amazon and nearly collapsing from decision fatigue I finally ordered this 4" memory foam mattress topper. Rather than pay more and wait longer for custom-sized foam, I decided to try cutting it down myself.
I knew from past experience that the foam would have to be cut immediately before it expanded too much. The tailor scissors I had from the Thinsulate install worked great for this.
Testing out the mattress in the early build process. I ended up having to trim a few more inches off the side.
Testing out the size of the divider that would go between the bedframe and the front half of the van. That's the subwoofer box from the House Stereo System and the Laguna table mount for my Desk on the bed, too, because I'm always trying to do too many things at once.
Testing the placement of the Drawers in between the bedframe and the kitchen. It's a tight fit.
Painting the divider and bed sides. The bed is white, while basically everything else in the van is grey.
Finished painting!
In version 1 of my bed platform, I was only using one 1/2" layer of baltic birch plywood, and was concerned that it would not hold up well over time, at least not with an additional stud to hold it up in the middle. Putting weight on it was already causing a slight bow in the middle. I really wanted to avoid having middle bed supports because it was going to conflict with placement of the Bike Rack.
While my handyman Jeff was at the house working on another project I asked him to take a look. (He hates working on van projects, because "nothing is straight! There are no 90 degree angles!") His suggestion was to add a second layer of 1/2" plywood going the opposite direction, and drill it all together with closely spaced screws. So that's what I did.
I certainly did not skimp on the wood screws. I had fun spending an afternoon drilling all these.
I haven't talked too much about hardware because I've gone through so many different types of screws and nails I can barely remember them all. But I believe I used 2" Hillman Phillips head screws from Lowes to attach both sheets of plywood to the studs below.
In a lot of DIY tutorials they skip over the basic stuff. When I started I thought you just push a screw against the wood and fire up the drill and, voila, there you go!
It's not that simple, at least not with good quality wood like this baltic birch.
Here are the steps I took:
1 - predrill the hole using a drill bit that is slightly smaller than your screw
2 - open up the top of the hole a bit using a countersink drill bit, this allows your screw head to be flush with the wood rather than having sharp metal edges sticking out on your bed platform
3 - now you can drill in the screw. I recently learned there are drill bit/countersink tools like this which combine steps 1 & 2. I have no idea if the nuts I included are necessary. Probably not.
Here's a look at the bed supports on the driver's side. They're attached to the vehicle frame through holes in the wall panels. Jeff the handyman helped me make sure these were super solid.
The water tank would eventually be covering this wheel well.
On a semi-related note, I did not know that there are three different sizes of Phillips head drill bits (#1, #2, #3). If the screw is slipping you're probably using the wrong size. I stripped a lot of screw heads before I figured that out.
Here's a time lapse video of me working on the bed:
van build mattress.mp4
I also drilled small air holes for ventilation on the completed plywood platform as a preventative measure. Here's the drill holes marked.
Here you can see the completed ventilation holes, and the space on the side of the bedframe where the storage drawers would go.
Here's a better look at the gap on the side which I left open for my storage drawers. I eventually cut off the thin plastic edges of the Froli springs.
With the double layered plywood, I found that even without middle supports the platform could hold plenty of weight without bowing. Yay!
I must have cleaned it up to take that photo on the left. More typically this is what it looked like during the build process.
After adding the dividers between the bed platform and storage, it was starting to really look like something!
The bedside storage drawers basically wrap around the underside of the bed so you have a few extra inches of clothing storage.
I tried to map it out with 3D programs and sketch it out but I had a really hard time visualizing this part of the build.
The storage on the driver's side also needed to provide a frame around the water tank. Here's a look at that project in motion (a mess!)
Here's a look at the completed driver's side storage. The water tank is on the bottom, the outdoor shower door above it, and the L shape on the top is the bedside storage.
I realized on my early van trips that one error I'd made was making certain things rather inaccessible, like the water tank. I guess I'm on v.3 of the build now, and this time around I made a few modifications to make it easier to access important functions for maintenance and such.
Once the underside of the storage drawers were complete, I cut and painted the doors for the top.
For my door handles I went with these sleek little tabs in keeping with my minimalism look.
We're looking good, huh!?
I eventually ended up covering up the studs underneath with a layer of very thin plywood, and drilled some ventilation holes there too. Here's a look at the underside of the bed.
I ordered a custom fitted sheet on Etsy, which was a bit pricey and probably unnecessary. But it did arrive in a cute little package. I think these are normally used for babies' cribs and I'm the only weirdo who ordered one for a camper van.
This is from earlier in the build process when I was still trying to develop a "hidden toilet pull-out" idea. But I'm including it here to show you my weighted blanket which I love.
I've played around with some different bedding. This is how it looked on my first journey. I also got this silly sit-up reading pillow which I never actually used and won't take next time.
Lounging in bed with a good book on my first trip...
...on a beautiful day along the Colorado River!
(note that bedside carbon monoxide/smoke detector too! Safety first!)
As soon as I roll out of bed in the morning you know I'm headed to the Kitchen for some breakfast!
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse