On the first post about our Renault Trafic configuration, I told you how we use an Ikea furniture to pack things behind the front seats and to make a seat for our kids when we all eat inside the van. On this second part, I will tell you how we use it as a part of the adults bed. The pictures below show you the final beds, ready to be used for a night.
All the equipment we use to build the bed is packed on the back of the van and secured with a security strap (see the picture on the right).
The equipment list is :
- A mattress of 160*190cm foldable in four. Found on Amazon.
- Four pieces of plywood of 75*80cm (thickness of 1.5cm) to make the bed base
- 6 hinges to make two pairs of two plywoods set together (3 for each pair)
- 2 wood boards/planks of 125cm long, 9cm large, thickness of 2cm (use for the bed structure)
- 4 square wood posts/poles of 4.5*4.5cm (thickness). Two are 100cm long and two are 51cm long
- 8 small set squares to screw on the boards (see pictures below)
- 2 hinges to put together each wood post of 100cm with a another one of 51cm (see pictures below)
- 4 elastic straps
- Few screws
Thats all.
Once you’ve got all the pieces, you will need to put together each 4.5*4.5cm wood post of 100cm long with another one of 51cm using one of the hinges. Make sure to make the junction like on the left picture below.
Once it is done fold the back seat and place the posts between the seat and the Ikea furniture like on the pictures below (they are both placed against a headrest). Use elastic straps to secure the posts.
Next step : you need to place the two wood boards on top of the posts and fix them using the small set squares to make them stable (see pictures above and below to see how to place the set squares. The set squares of each pair are separated by around 4,5cm to fit on the wood posts. I will let you find yourself the correct positions of all set squares pairs to fit your need, but mine are separated by 74.5cm on the left board, and a little bit more on the right one (I don’t remember why…).
The left board is the one on which will be placed the middle of every pair of plywoods pieces that make the bed base (see pictures further in the post).
Once your structure is stable, all you need to do is to make two pairs of pieces of plywoods set together on the 75cm side with 3 small hinges (see pictures below). Then place these ones on the structure to make the bed base.
Remember to put the junction between the pieces of plyswoods right on the left board. The top part of the bed set is placed on the back of seat which is steel made.
Then, unfold your mattress and its done. Your bed is ready to go to sleep 😉
We use this configuration since winter 2017/2018 and we have spent so many nice nigths and trips in this van using it. It is not the quickest configuration possible, but it takes only a few minutes to make it when you park somewhere and nothing is fixed anywhere in the van structure (which was our main prerequisite when we decided to find a configuration to sleep in the van).
Now (summer 2020) I’m thinking of doing a new one a little beat different but nothing is clear and I’m almost sure we will do another summer trip with this one.
On the next post, I will tell you about something more simple which was challenging for us once our second kid got older and stopped sleeping between us in the adults bed : how to make a double bed for kids on the front of the van.
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