Also check out ourvideo about building our bed.

How did we build the support structure of our bed? First we use the factory made holes to attach the vertical battens. This sounds easy, but it's not.

There is hardly any room to work in the very tight spaces in the metal ribs of the van. It took us forever to get every nut and bolt secured and we had to use every trick in the book! We even used ducktaped magnets on wrenches and sticks to get the nuts into position on the inside of the metal ribs. Profane language was used repeatedly.

On both sides we attached a horizontal wooden beam to the vertical battens. These will support the beams that will be put in from side to side. Our daugthers bed, that partly doubles as a bench, is built on the side. Where this bed ends, the dividing wall between garage and living area starts. Here we will place the first woorden beam from side to side.

This is aproximately in the middle of the double bed, so it has an extra support function. A second beam we'll position at the location of the dividind wall on the far end of the garage. So these two beams also hold the horizontal beams on the side apart, so they can't move inwards.

The two beams in the middle section of the bed we will double by a second beam on top, to give it double the strength to make the bed as strong as possible. These beams turned out to be a bit warped, so when installing them we had to use adhesive and clamps to keep it tightly together. On the far ends we used huge screws to secure them.

For the remaining sections of the bed we made double beams, with left over bits in the middle to give them more strength. On these custom made beams we also integrated the plywood plates on the front and back of the bed. For each we built a custom design, with an integrated cover en extra battens for optimal strength.

With all the beams in place we've created a sturdy flat surface to place the two slatted frames on, that will form our king size double bed. This construction actually turned out to be much stronger than we initially thought, but better safe than sorry.

With the bed in place our design turned out to be exactly what we aimed for. And we had definitely chosen the right heigth of our campervan. The Mercedez Sprinter L4H3 (high top) leaves that very welcome extra space of about 15 to 20 cm above your head while frolicking around in the bed. Which makes the bed an added living space, you can lounge and sit in. As opposed to a small, low ceiling space you can only sleep in.

All in all we are very happy with the result. And we have a spacious bed with enough head space for a great variety of leisurely activities.

Also check out ourvideo about building our bed.

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