Step one. Bought the van.
Hello Everybody, First post. I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change. Here it is. Bought it Wednesday. Dro...
Forum Discussion
Today's Safety tip.
Don't wear shorts while working on the sofa-bed.
The exposed bolts can do a number on you before you've even noticed.
When it's all finished and installed they won't be a problem. But for now, lesson learned.
Slept on the sofa-bed last night in the garage for the first time. Not bad at all. Slept straight through the night.
I am going to make a couple changes. I had bought 3" thick foam padding. Nothing special. Just what they carried at the local Fabric & Foam store. I've read a lot of nice comments about Memory Foam toppers. So I bought one of those planning to add it to the foam on the sofa-bed. When you get the Memory Foam home it's wrapped up into a tight ball. The instructions are to roll it out then let it expand for 24 hours. The best place for that was on top of my regular bed.
Here's the problem. After it expanded and I got a chance to lay down on it I found it so comfortable I decided to add it to my regular bed. So now that I know how much I like sleeping on one I'm going to have to get another one for the sofa-bed.
One other change is the Top Brace you can see in the above pictures at the back of the sofa-bed. It was supposed to do three jobs. Provide support for the Back Platform when in the sofa position; help align the Back Platform as it moves into the sofa position and give rigidity to the top portion of the End Pieces.
Problem is the Top Brace overhangs the sleeping area when the sofa-bed is in the bed position. I think I'll be able to eliminate it from the final design. Now that I've beefed up the End Pieces they are already plenty rigid. The Back Platform is more solid since I added the two recessed panels. Just using corner blocks on the End Pieces should be enough to fully support the Back Platform. if I want more back support once the sofa-bed is installed I can just attach something to the van wall at the appropriate height.
I was never quite happy with the Top Brace design. Spending a night on the sofa-bed helped me come to a conclusion. I guess this is a literal example of the phase, "If you have a problem you should sleep on it".
More food for the bone pile.
Don't wear shorts while working on the sofa-bed.
The exposed bolts can do a number on you before you've even noticed.
When it's all finished and installed they won't be a problem. But for now, lesson learned.
Slept on the sofa-bed last night in the garage for the first time. Not bad at all. Slept straight through the night.
I am going to make a couple changes. I had bought 3" thick foam padding. Nothing special. Just what they carried at the local Fabric & Foam store. I've read a lot of nice comments about Memory Foam toppers. So I bought one of those planning to add it to the foam on the sofa-bed. When you get the Memory Foam home it's wrapped up into a tight ball. The instructions are to roll it out then let it expand for 24 hours. The best place for that was on top of my regular bed.
Here's the problem. After it expanded and I got a chance to lay down on it I found it so comfortable I decided to add it to my regular bed. So now that I know how much I like sleeping on one I'm going to have to get another one for the sofa-bed.
One other change is the Top Brace you can see in the above pictures at the back of the sofa-bed. It was supposed to do three jobs. Provide support for the Back Platform when in the sofa position; help align the Back Platform as it moves into the sofa position and give rigidity to the top portion of the End Pieces.
Problem is the Top Brace overhangs the sleeping area when the sofa-bed is in the bed position. I think I'll be able to eliminate it from the final design. Now that I've beefed up the End Pieces they are already plenty rigid. The Back Platform is more solid since I added the two recessed panels. Just using corner blocks on the End Pieces should be enough to fully support the Back Platform. if I want more back support once the sofa-bed is installed I can just attach something to the van wall at the appropriate height.
I was never quite happy with the Top Brace design. Spending a night on the sofa-bed helped me come to a conclusion. I guess this is a literal example of the phase, "If you have a problem you should sleep on it".
More food for the bone pile.
