Plans for My Safari's Convertible Bed

[Jennifer]

Hi everyone! Just for fun I thought I'd post my plan (sorry for the terrible paint image) for my Safari's bed. I needed a bed that could convert to a row of seats so my dog would have somewhere to sit without getting the bed dirty. Let me know if you guys have any suggestions or improvements. Thanks for looking!

[1Gary]

Hey Jen.Been awhile since we have heard from you.(yepper in computer time that is)Could you do me a favor???.Blue on this screwed up old computer and monitor I can't read.Like the drawings,but again,can't read what you wrote.

Thanks.

[astrozam]

Gary, did you click on the diagram? when you do it expands and then the text is black.

[Jennifer]

@ Gary: Thank for the feedback! Sorry it's been so long. I graduated college halfway through December and got really busy with my senior exhibition (art major pains). I finally have extra time again now that all of that and the holidays are over and can get to work on my van! Here is what I wrote in bold black... see if that's better: "Hi everyone! Just for fun I thought I'd post my plan (sorry for the terrible paint image) for my Safari's bed. I needed a bed that could convert to a row of seats so my dog would have somewhere to sit without getting the bed dirty. Let me know if you guys have any suggestions or improvements. Thanks for looking!"

[crash]

that looks like it will work. something to consider, you might want to put a 1"x2" strip across the front and rear to keep the front cushion from sliding forwards and the mattress from sliding backwards when the rear doors are open. or, if you finish the front/rear run the wood up slightly higher to accomplish the same thing. I'm sure some of the other carpenter guru types will give you better input than that.. but hey.. it's a start lol

[LiftedAWDAstro]

I would maybe consider going a little higher off the floor with the bed. This will give more storage under the bed for the heavy stuff you need to carry. How many miles is your trip going to be? Will you need a second full-size spare? I know you will want to replace the donut spare under the van now with a full-size one. You will want to carry some basic tools, extra oil, washer fluid, bulbs, water, food etc. All this stuff could go under the bed for out-of-sight storage. Dunedog uses mortar mixing tubs to slide under his shelf in the rear. They hold lots and are very durable.

[Great A'Tuin]

I agree w/ Lifted here. Make your bed platform high enough to fit a standard tote under it. All my gear lives under my bed/rear seat. I can fit something like 6 totes of gear under there.
I used the pull-out bench seat from a conversion van ($35 at the junk yard), but it only pulls out to 4'. I made a platform that fits behind the seat to add a foot of head room (it doubles as bedding storage) and a table that lowers to make foot area.

Another friend built a simple box platform that fits all his art supplies under it and pulls out into a bed. He removed the plastic panels in the interior to give him more room and built cabinets along the drivers side, similar to his old Westy. He also made same super-slick magnetically applied screens for the windows, I'll post pics when I've copied them...

john

[kamenz]

Hi,if you go with a full size spare ,which I also recommend, make sure you end up with the same OD as the tires mounted on your van.Don,t rely on the same tire size alone since the OD's seem to vary among the brands.This is very important with your AWD setup. And yes I averaged on a 4500mi trip,Washington,Utah,Arizona,Nevada,California,Oregon with my high top conversion 98 AWD, 3.43 gears 21mpg. And there where a lot of high mountain passes in the way.

[loopie]

Jennifer, there is 5'8" between the side windows...build a platform that goes from glass-to-glass across the van at the rear side windows. This leaves tons of space and even allows the use of the factory first row bench seat.

[Southern]

You could also go to the bone yard and look for an Astro/Safari conversion van. My van's rear bench seat folds flat (small bed) or fold up so that you can use it as a bench seat. My 60 lb dog can easily lay on the bench seat with it folded upright.

[Jennifer]

Thanks for all of the input... the bed is still at the drawing board and timelessbeing gave me an interesting thought about it the other night that I'm still working on. I'll take everyone's suggestions into consideration!

[Herbie]

I need to post some pictures of the conversion van bed currently installed in my project, just for illustration - Getting a good bed solution is harder than it sounds (and a bit harder than it ought to be).

First, regarding your drawing - you probably won't have a full 2 feet from the edge of a 6' bed to the back of the front seats unless you are very short or plan to pull your seats all the way forward. I am 5'6" and with the driver's seat in normal position, I think I have about 90 inches from the back doors to the driver's seat. If your bed is a full 72", it's going to be more like a foot and a half, depending on how tall you are.

Second, the additional bummer is that the factory locations for the benches don't correspond to your drawings. (Only a problem if you planned to use the original benches). When I was experimenting with my bed solutions, I tried both the 2nd and 3rd row benches (3rd row has the sliders), and the most I was able to get was about 15" from the front edge of the bench to the back of the driver's seat, using the sliding bench in the rear-most position. For reference, it IS possible to use the "3rd row" bench in the second-row position by swapping over the seatbelt receiver hardware and trim pieces. I ran like this for several months because the extra space made it easier to get baby into carseat...

Currently I have a van-conversion bench seat installed, bolted through the floor, and it sits almost mid-way between the two factory bench locations in order to give me a 72" bed. (Important detail: my conversion van seat comes forward about 10" as it lowers into a bed, if it did not, then the bench would mount just a bit past the rear floor cups for the 2nd row)

OK, now regarding bed-height. Everyone is advising you to raise the bed platform to gain storage underneath. Not a bad recommendation, but you have to balance this against seated headroom if you plan to have passengers ever sit there, or if you want to be able to sit up in bed. My conversion-van bed is from a dodge with a higher roofline. The seat cushion is the same height as the stock Astro bench at the front edge, but where the Astro bench rakes down slightly towards the rear, mine does not. Also the seat back on my bench is a bit more "upright" than the Astro seat back. The result of these two differences is that you "sit" a bit higher in the van and some of my taller passengers actually are very close to hitting heads on the roof. Just something to watch out for. I'm preserving as much height to maximize storage space in my build by using a very "low profile" mattress platform and slightly shorter plastic storage bins (rubbermaid roughnecks). Pictures of this as soon as I've built it - maybe this long weekend.

[VanGoGo]

I finally posted a few pics, might give you some ideas for your bed...the post is in the van camper section. enjoy~

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