At 6'5" tall I just don't fit on the short queen beds that most RV manufacturers provide. When I purchased my trailer I knew the bed was too short. The bed is a north south bed and you can walk around it which is a feature I wanted to keep. I figured I would just slide the mattress down a bit and use some pillows at the head to fill in the gap for sleeping and then slide it back onto the bed in the morning. Well this method worked for all of one night because the mattress sagged off the end and just wasn't comfortable. So I set out to come up with a supported bed extension that I could easily remove in the morning. Below is a brief, well 14 picture write up of what I did.
Here is a before picture of the end of the bed with me laying comfortably on it.
The mattress ends right at the hem of my jeans and the rest is a bit of overlength eggcrate foam under the sheet.
I went to Home Depot and bought
1) 1 10 foot length of 1 inch PVC pipe. I only needed about 4 feet.
2) Two matching PVC pipe caps
3) Two 1 inch threaded PVC fittings
4) Two pipe flanges that screwed onto the fittings
5) Eight 1/4-20 carriage bolts and locking nuts
5) One 4' x 8' sheet of 1/2 inch thick plywood and had them rip it right down the middle so I had two 2' x 8' pieces. I only used one piece.
I laid one piece of plywood across the foot end of the existing bed platform and trimmed it to match the contours of the existing bed.
I mounted the pipe flanges onto the new plywood extension with the carriage bolts on the mattress side and the nuts on the bottom. But the Flanges were so thick that they would not allow the extension to slide up fully on top of the existing platform in the morning. So I cut two notches into the existing bed platform to allow the extension to stow away flush in the morning.
Here's a picture with the bed raised up and looking at the bottom.
Here's another picture with the bed down showing the extension stowed away with the legs still on. I usually unscrew and store the legs under the bed when not camping.
The extension in the extended position.
A shot of the legs when extended. If you think it makes a kind of tunnel my kids would whole heartedly agree with you. Add some blankets hanging off the bed coupled with the pictured heater vent and you can probably guess where I find at least one sleeping kid on cold mornings.
And finally a picture of the mattress in the extended position.
Ok, that's how I built it, but now how do I use it and what do I do about the gap at the head of the bed? Here's the gap.
And here's the back from my dinette that almost perfectly fills most of the gap.
The rest of the gap which is on my DW's side is filled with two pillows. Since she's a bit shorter than me she's not bothered by the pillows.
Add a couple of sleeping pillows and it's a done deal.
Finally. here's an after shot of my newly found legroom.
In the morning I simply remove the pillows and cushion from the gap at the head of the bed. Then I just slide the mattress and extension back up onto the bed platform.
In this picture I slid the mattress and extension over to the side so you can see how much overlap there is when deployed. I never feel a bump from the plywood for a few reasons. One is that I'm not a princess and it's not a pea. The second is that it's only a half inch thick and way down the mattress almost to my feet. Well actually it's more like behind my knee but either way I can't feel it.
So there it is. Here's a link to the pictures so you can look at the album if you want, but they're kind of out of order. link
Here is a before picture of the end of the bed with me laying comfortably on it.
The mattress ends right at the hem of my jeans and the rest is a bit of overlength eggcrate foam under the sheet.
I went to Home Depot and bought
1) 1 10 foot length of 1 inch PVC pipe. I only needed about 4 feet.
2) Two matching PVC pipe caps
3) Two 1 inch threaded PVC fittings
4) Two pipe flanges that screwed onto the fittings
5) Eight 1/4-20 carriage bolts and locking nuts
5) One 4' x 8' sheet of 1/2 inch thick plywood and had them rip it right down the middle so I had two 2' x 8' pieces. I only used one piece.
I laid one piece of plywood across the foot end of the existing bed platform and trimmed it to match the contours of the existing bed.
I mounted the pipe flanges onto the new plywood extension with the carriage bolts on the mattress side and the nuts on the bottom. But the Flanges were so thick that they would not allow the extension to slide up fully on top of the existing platform in the morning. So I cut two notches into the existing bed platform to allow the extension to stow away flush in the morning.
Here's a picture with the bed raised up and looking at the bottom.
Here's another picture with the bed down showing the extension stowed away with the legs still on. I usually unscrew and store the legs under the bed when not camping.
The extension in the extended position.
A shot of the legs when extended. If you think it makes a kind of tunnel my kids would whole heartedly agree with you. Add some blankets hanging off the bed coupled with the pictured heater vent and you can probably guess where I find at least one sleeping kid on cold mornings.
And finally a picture of the mattress in the extended position.
Ok, that's how I built it, but now how do I use it and what do I do about the gap at the head of the bed? Here's the gap.
And here's the back from my dinette that almost perfectly fills most of the gap.
The rest of the gap which is on my DW's side is filled with two pillows. Since she's a bit shorter than me she's not bothered by the pillows.
Add a couple of sleeping pillows and it's a done deal.
Finally. here's an after shot of my newly found legroom.
In the morning I simply remove the pillows and cushion from the gap at the head of the bed. Then I just slide the mattress and extension back up onto the bed platform.
In this picture I slid the mattress and extension over to the side so you can see how much overlap there is when deployed. I never feel a bump from the plywood for a few reasons. One is that I'm not a princess and it's not a pea. The second is that it's only a half inch thick and way down the mattress almost to my feet. Well actually it's more like behind my knee but either way I can't feel it.
So there it is. Here's a link to the pictures so you can look at the album if you want, but they're kind of out of order. link
