Last part of my 3 posts about our van configuration. The first one was about our main config to eat inside the van, and the second one about the parents bed. On this third one, I will tell you how we managed to have two beds for our kids in the front of the van.
Our kids are about 5 and almost 3 right now. When we bought the van the sleeping configuration was easy : our son was a baby, so he had slept in our beds for nights and trips. Our daugther was already 3, so we only had to rolled out a mattress on the passenger and driver seats and everything worked fine.
Things started to get more complicated before summer 2019. Our son was alsmot 2 and we started to consider to do something to get the two of them sleeping in the front of the van. Better for them, and for us : we could have a longer evening in the van on dark ou cold days without disturbing them when they are already sleeping.
After many searches on the Internet I couldn’t find any configuration idea that would suits us. Finally we found the config ourselves by using other security straps to fasten a bed on top of the seats.
Once we found the bed on Amazon, things got easier. The only thing I had to do is to chop the bed feet to make the configuration quick to set. From then, the steps are the same every night :
- Take two security straps and put them on the van roof
- Pass the straps in the bed holes, one in the left ones, one in the right ones
- Fasten the straps
Once the first bed is ready for the older one, we put a inflatable hiking mattres on the passenger and driver seats, and another small mattress on it. The second one bed is ready too. At that ages, then don’t need the same perfect comfort than our adults backs need, so I think we could use this configuration for few years.
As you can see on one of the pictures, we also put our cool bow close to the passenger seat to prevent our smaller one to fall while sleeping 😉
As you can imagine, kids really love this configuration. They have a lot of fun being together like this. The only thing that can be a problem sometimes is than the straps are outside, so on a strong rainy night they can got wet and the capillary action can make the inside parts of the straps a little bit wet too. We experienced some major rain storms in the Dolomites last year using this configuration, and the straps were never a problem. Our daughter who slept in the top bed didn’t noticed everything so I think it is safe for almost every rain situation if you don’t forget to dry them the day after when it happens.
This post is the last one of our current van configuration. I hope you enjoyed the three parts and could find some ideas for your own configuration.
I will write other posts soon about some nice stuffs we use in the van : lights, stove, etc… So stay tuned !
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