Another sofa to bed conversion...

[Gabbi]

Mrs. Gabbi here. I go to work, and my retired husband decides to do his own kind of work - pulling out the jack-knife sofa/bed from our 98 Concourse. We have seen some great ideas for building a platform for a bed with storage underneath. Unfortunately, we are better at destruction than construction, so we may need to pay someone to build it for us. Plus, we do not have the work space or necessary tools at home to do the job. Still, we are heading in the right direction.

[Warthogg]

I did not build a new base. I used the existing frame and added to it. Super simple. Took longer to remove the old sofa than install the new platform. Ordered some 6" thick padding from Amazon. I couldn't figure out how to add a pic on the other site so I'll add a rotated one here.

[bolerama]

Gabbi, removal is the first step. Good stuff! For that side, you may want to consider a slide-out double bed. There are lots of good diagrams online if you look at van conversions. If you are also removing the dinette, single beds really open up the space.

A Kreg jig really helps for screwing together the framing.

Warthogg, where did you get the back cushions?

Lisa

[Warthogg]

The back cushion was made by the previous owner for the dinette. Basically made the dinette a sofa. It just happens to be the right fit for the new bed/sofa. I flip it over and it fills the gap perfectly when the whole area is turned into a bed.

[Gabbi]

Mrs Gabbi & I decided we wanted a permanent platform bed to replace the jackknife sofa. We constructed a short “wall” paralell to the driver’s side wall. We screwed 2 x 4s which are 48” long as the slat supports from the ledge under the window to the top of the wall which sits in the “aisle”. We, then, affixed a 4’ x 6’ sanded birch plywood sheet 3/4” thick on top of the 2 x 4s. A 48” x 72” and 5” thick memory foam mattress goes on top. Voila ! A platform bed with which we are much happy.
Here are in progress pictures :