Advice for bed extending

[Guest]

Hello all,

On my boat, I have a slightly wider than single bed which is fine but I enjoy a roll about (who doesn't??) so would like a wider bed. I measured the width of my boat in the bedroom and it came to about 185cm wide which is great - king size bed.

Now one issue is that the bedroom is the last room before you get to the engine. So having a full width bed will mean scrambling over the bed to get into the engine room. Not the end of the world.

I actually came up with an idea that I think will work great. I bought two bed frames from Ikea that are 90cm wide, which looks like:

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/mattresses/slatted-bed-bases/lönset-slatted-bed-base-art-20278718/

What I'm thinking is on the starboard side of the boat, I screw a long beam lengthways down the boat as a batten for the second bed frame and the first bed frame sits on the bed platform that I currently have.

In theory this should work perfectly as the boat width is almost exactly the same width as the two bed frame.

If you look at the photos you'll see a grey section of the wall, which is a carpet that covers a sheet of timber. I drilled a test hole to check the width of that timber and its about 10mm thick, no more than that.

My concern is whether it'll be strong enough to support a supporting beam that would hold my weight.

Would anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on my plan? I reckon in theory it's bang on but whether it works in practice is another question.

Cheers! 

Edited August 2, 2017 by Guest

[starman]

Could you not drop 3-4 uprights down the wall from it to floor level to help?

[Rob-M]

^^^ Exactly what I was going to suggest.

[WotEver]

1 hour ago, Rob-M said:

^^^ Exactly what I was going to suggest.

^^^ me too

[Neil2]

1 hour ago, starman said:

Could you not drop 3-4 uprights down the wall from it to floor level to help?

That's what I would do, better than trying to search for battens behind the lining.  

This thread is no fun at all, everyone agreeing with each other..

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, starman said:

Could you not drop 3-4 uprights down the wall from it to floor level to help?

 

1 hour ago, Rob-M said:

^^^ Exactly what I was going to suggest.

 

5 minutes ago, WotEver said:

^^^ me too

And that's exactly what we DID on our NB 2001  we just used 2 'legs' each 1/3 of the 'way in' from the ends.

[Guest]

Well, that seems to be decided then. I'll have a go this weekend!

[Nightwatch]

Our bed,unusually wide at 3"11'.

Mrs Nightwatch has suggested that she'll be happy with an extra 6-7"

My plan is is to replace old and worn out mattress with a 4 footer, and also add a 6" bolster type of mattress. Create slats that will pull out from existing bed base held in place by inverted 'u' brackets, to allow support for pulled out 4' mattress. The 6" mattress will slot against the back bulkhead. Jobs a goodun! I don't want to rush into this, we've had Nightwatch nearly thirteen years.

 

[Dave Payne]

3 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Our bed,unusually wide at 3"11'.

Mrs Nightwatch has suggested that she'll be happy with an extra 6-7"

My plan is is to replace old and worn out mattress with a 4 footer, and also add a 6" bolster type of mattress. Create slats that will pull out from existing bed base held in place by inverted 'u' brackets, to allow support for pulled out 4' mattress. The 6" mattress will slot against the back bulkhead. Jobs a goodun! I don't want to rush into this, we've had Nightwatch nearly thirteen years.

 

This is exactly what i have done, can have a small bed or pull the slats out that are supported on three legs and drop the mattress down to make a king size, with just enough room left to squeeze down the side if need be.

 

I bought a super king size foam mattress and cut it to shape.

[Nightwatch]

I did think about the legs. Thought they'd be in the way during non bedtime times.

[mrsmelly]

Our built in midships bed is 6ft 6in long by 4ft 4 inches wide. Permenant and no problems getting past.

4 hours ago, Neil2 said:

That's what I would do, better than trying to search for battens behind the lining.  

This thread is no fun at all, everyone agreeing with each other..

What a crap idea, simply bloomin ridiculous........never work

[Neil2]

37 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Our bed,unusually wide at 3"11'.

Mrs Nightwatch has suggested that she'll be happy with an extra 6-7"

My plan is is to replace old and worn out mattress with a 4 footer, and also add a 6" bolster type of mattress. Create slats that will pull out from existing bed base held in place by inverted 'u' brackets, to allow support for pulled out 4' mattress. The 6" mattress will slot against the back bulkhead. Jobs a goodun! I don't want to rush into this, we've had Nightwatch nearly thirteen years.

 

Oooooooh  Matron....

[Nightwatch]

It took time,but you win the cake!!

[Lily Rose]

1 hour ago, Neil2 said:

Oooooooh  Matron....

Exactly what I was thinking but unfortunately the cake has already been won.

[cuthound]

3 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

I did think about the legs. Thought they'd be in the way during non bedtime times.

Desmo legs?

https://www.midlandchandlers.co.uk/store/category/midland chandlers/cabin and deck/cabin fittings/table desmo legs.aspx

During the day you unplug them from their sockets and store them in "Terry" clips in a convenient storage location. 

[Nightwatch]

An idea yes, however there's not much exposed bulkhead left now. Our dining area/bed conversion is on two desks.

 

[WotEver]

7 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

I don't want to rush into this, we've had Nightwatch nearly thirteen years.

Don't you go rushing things you impulsive fool

[Nightwatch]

Thank you for your understanding. Don't call me a fool!!

[WotEver]

36 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Thank you for your understanding. Don't call me a fool!!

Sorry, typo... the f is too close to the t. 

[zenataomm]

I'm sure this says more about me than anything ..... but .... even after reading the title twice I still saw "wetting" instead of "extending"

[Drayke]

Something I found on the internet just in case it may interest anyone.

I’m aware that some of you don’t have the carpentry skills, tools or time to build this bed on your own.   If you are in that situation, I’d give serious thought to hiring a handyman to build it for you. Print out this post, including it’s photos and show them to him. This is fairly basic carpentry so any decent handyman should be able to instantly visualize what you want and be able to build it into your van.

Instead of using plywood as a surface, you use overlapping slats with a gap left between them so they can slide in and out.

This is one of those times when a picture is worth a thousand words, so it’s mainly going to be pictures, but let me give some instructions to help you visualize and build the bed:

To help visualize it look down at your two hands near each other with your palms up and  your fingers spread apart, then slide the fingers of the two hands together–that’s basically exactly what the bed is going to look like. You’re going to build the bed in two parts and they are going to slide into each other. The two parts are NOT connected to each other at all–the second merely rests on the first and slides in and out.

Basically you’re going to build two beds, but one part of the bed will have 6 legs and it will not move and the other part will only have three legs and it will move. The side of the bed with only three legs will rest on the other half of the bed that has six legs and will share the center support legs with the first half.

It’s like almost any other bed except you build it with slats instead of plywood and leave a wide gap between the slats. Lets say you use 1 x 3’s for slats. On the immovable part of the bed you would put the first slat at one end (being very sure it’s square) and screw it down. Then you would put another slat down and put something very thin in with it, like a yard stick standing on end. You don’t screw this slat down, it’s just leaving room for the “finger” from the other half of the bed to slide in and out. The reason you’re leaving the gap from the side of the yard-stick is so it’s not too tight and slides in and out easier.

Looking up at the bottom of the bed. The two sides of the bed share the center set of legs as support. You can see Andrew put his 2x4s on end, while I have mine laid down. Either works, his is structurally stronger, but it takes up more storage space under the bed. I prefer the storage space.

So far you have one slat that IS screwed down, then a yard stick on end and a second slat that is NOT screwed down. Now you place a third slat and screw it down. Next, you pull up both the yardstick and loose second slat and place them both beside the third slat as the fourth slat. You do NOT screw it down, instead, you place the fifth slat down and screw it in. Only the ODD numbered slats get screwed down, the even numbered slats are empty space. The even numbered slats will be screwed down to the independent third leg and slide in and out of the empty space. Hopefully you’re getting the idea, every other slat is screwed down and becomes permanent.  The empty spaces will be filled with slats from the “fingers” from the other “hand”and they will slide in and out.

To build the second part of the bed, take the third set of legs you built and place them flush beside the finished first part. Now start taking the remaining slats and laying them into place in-between the slats on the finished part and screw them ONLY into the third set of legs. At no time will the two beds be attached to each other. These slats should be 3 1/2 inches longer than the first because they need to be wider to go over the third 2 x 4.

 

Andrew built his third set of legs out of 2x2s so they would be lighter to push in and out–that works well. He also didn’t place it flush by the first half of the bed to adjust to the size of his mattress, giving him a wider seat on the couch.

You could just use a tape measure and pre-mark the spots where the slats go but that introduces a lot more possibility of poor workmanship–a small problem in the beginning becomes magnified into a big problem by the end. Because most of us aren’t experienced carpenters, that is a distinct possibility. Doing it the way I described, as long as the first slat is screwed on square, and the slats themselves are straight, this should be fairly fool-proof.

Hopefully this allows you to get the concept, once you have that you can adapt it to your van, the size of your mattress and your needs. The bed I’ve described here is the simplest, least elegant method of construction but it will make you a wonderful sliding bed. You can use it as a beginning place and use different sizes of lumber or even different materials altogether, depending on your skill level.

At the bottom of the post I’m also going to show you photos from my friend Nicole from thehttp://www.cheaprvliving.com/forums/ of a slider bed that she and her husband built. It’s a completely different type of construction using fine carpentry techniques from  cabinet making. Few of us have those levels of carpentry skills so I’m just showing it to you so you can adopt it to framing techniques if you like it. If I wanted to do it, I’d basically build two complete beds out of 2x4s along the sides of the van and then add the slider between the two of them.  Mine will be much heavier than what they built, but much simpler and require very little carpentry knowledge or skill. It won’t be pretty either, while their’s looks like a beautifully crafted piece of fine furniture.