We hope you enjoyed this video! If so, be sure to check out some of our playlists! VAN TRAVELS: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FG0uNu_0ufg.html VAN BUILD: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VS0MIeX6_9A.html
Thanks for the video, Steve and Audra. I converted my second van about 40 years ago and fitted everything inside with an exact fit like your bed platform with 3/4 " plywood. A car ran into the side of the van just behind my driver's seat at about 80 Km/hr. After looking at the damage, the insurance guy said this way of constructing my wardrobes saved my life. They took the impact! We had to crowbar the guy's car off the road. My van was still driveable.
Thanks, Arie! So nice of you to watch and take time to leave us some comments! That's really too bad that someone hit your van after you did all that work but good to hear how well it held up! Do you still have your Renault and use that for travel?
I'm finally finding videos of people showing us how they're aligning the wood to the plus nut rivet. All of the top search results are talking about them but aren't filming how they're attaching and aligning the wood to it. It's been driving me crazy and you're the second video to show this after altering my search settings. Thank you.
So glad we could help! We're also happy to answer any questions or provide more details if you ever need them. We're certainly no professionals but we're learning a lot as we go!
Thanks, Rachel! Our goal is to provide videos that are helpful and that provide a few laughs, so your comment means a lot! We hope you'll check out our other videos and reach out if you have any questions!
IKEA midframe telescoping platform suspension bars and brackets, Light weight and no tools required you just buy some slats and Velcro them on top. You can also get a suspension bracket in the kitchen cabinet department and you can slide the bars across
For someone considering the options what do you think is the cost for all the parts needed for that configuration? That might be a nice alternative for someone who wants a different design.
@@SteveAudra Well the suspension brackets were $15 and the mid beams that go across we're $15 each and the slats were 30 and the brackets and the screws were free or should I say included in the price so I ended up buying eight brackets six for the bed $175ish
Oh my thank God someone already commented this. Props to Steve and Audra for their hard work and dedication on this install but hopefully anyone watching this video will come to the comments and see that there is a far better off the shelf solution. The IKEA telescoping bed rails and slats are the fastest easiest way to install a bed in a van.
Thanks, Charles! That really means a lot. We hope the installation and build go well for you. We're learning as we go and are happy to share our experience with others. Please let us know if you have any questions and if you share any photos or videos of your build. We'd love to see your progress!
Thanks so much! The plus nuts (also called cross nuts) were so handy for securing things to the walls and roof of the van without adding additional holes. Here is a link to what we used: amzn.to/3U7ff9M
Thank you SO much! Sometimes the build can get stressful but we try to remind ourselves to enjoy the time. Stress does no one any good so it's important to readjust focus and attitude during those times!
I am glad to find your channel. I bought a 2017 Ford Transit high roof extended. I have prototype version one of our bed made from wood built. Version 2 will be higher to make room for bikes. I like how you measure for your bed height.
Thanks, Lonnie! We're glad you found our channel too and hope you'll find it helpful! We've been very happy with the height of our bed. It's worked very well for storing the bikes and other things underneath and comfortable for sitting on the bed! We hope you'll check out our other videos and follow along on our adventures!
Thanks, Dave! We don't have much construction experience, but the van build definitely helped us develop better skills as we learned from the School of Hard Knocks! We enjoy working together. Somehow after 25 plus years we can still manage to be together almost 24/7 and not kill each other! 😆 Thanks for leaving a comment!
Thanks, Ashley! We really appreciate that! If you find this and our other videos helpful, the best way to help us get our content in front of more people is to like, comment, let the videos play to the end, and share with others! Let us know if you have any questions and maybe we'll see you on the road someday! 🙂🚐
Why would you attach the frame to the van ? The frame can not move anywhere if built strongly frome side to side, and you can demount it easily. If the space is needed for someting else.
Nicely done. I enjoyed the humorous touches and your humility regarding your skills. The finished product looks like you scribed the contours, if fits so well. Two questions: 1. One premise of your build was to be able to fit bikes underneath. By my calculations, it seems that 32" is a minimum height requirement to fit adult bikes without the wheels. The placement of your 2 x 4's looks like it would leave a space of less than 30". Are you actually able to fit your bike underneath? 2. With such a tight fit along the edges of the platform, have you found that this leads to the wood squeaking in contact with the van?
Thank so much, Richard! We really appreciate the feedback. Good questions! We have to take the seats and front tires off the bikes and we also fold Audra's bike handlebars down. It's a little more work that way but it gives us the space we need in the van and lets us take our bikes. The height of the space is 26.5" (floor to bottom of 2x4) - just enough to fit the back wheel in. If you check out our van tour video, you can see how it looks when the bikes are in there. We haven't had any squeaking. We used those strips of polystyrene insulation between the wood and metal. Not sure if that was necessary but we haven't had any problems and it was cheap to buy so we didn't think it hurt! Feel free to reach out if you have more questions - and we'd love it if you'd subscribe to our channel, if you haven't already!
@@SteveAudra Thanks for that info. You have given me confidence to go with a lower height. I'll be checking out your other videos as I continue my build. Just ordered some plusnuts! We have a 2019 Transit with the high roof and extended body. Our bed will be positioned lengthwise, to allow for insulation, even though we sacrifice 15" of living space in the process.
@@SteveAudra This is a terrific video! I really enjoyed your humor and hilarious editing. Also like the explanation of the platform height, since I would like to put recumbent tricycles (one with a 26" rear tire) under the bed. With the rear rack above that single rear tire, I suspect our bed would be more than 30" from the floor. Heck, we don't even own a van yet, so at this stage, I'm just babbling. Thanks for making it look totally doable, though. Safe and happy travels to you.
@@gmaneis We appreciate that so much! And that's not babbling! A year before we bought our van we started researching and doing potential designs for our build so we knew it was doable BEFORE we bought it. We had an idea of costs and plans well in advance. It's not too early to start dreaming and planning! We hope to hear from you in the future when you have your van! And we hope you'll find our other videos helpful or inspiring too!
@@SteveAudra yes I just got a Nissan NV2500. Completely empty right now and I am working on my plan to do a basic build. I had a minivan that I built out and used for 8 years. Stepping it up!
@@SteveAudra I saw that Eco Flow power station thing you have in another one of your videos. Is that working out? Seems like a nice way to skip becoming an electrician and just have simple power. Curious if you are running a fridge with it all the time or not. Thanks
@@OnTheDocks The Ecoflow Delta is great for the 12v stuff we run and really simplifies things for sure. (We're hoping to do a video just on the Delta and how we have everything wired but just haven't had a chance to do it yet. In our video coming up this week we will show more of our setup on the back side.) The jury is still out on the AC stuff such as our laptops and fridge. We're still trying to figure that out but running the built in inverter definitely draws down the battery more quickly. If we had a 12v fridge, we think we'd be able to run the fridge all the time with no problem. Once we mount solar panels, it might be enough to run our 120v dorm fridge full time - or at least more often. For now, we often just use it as a cooler.
We weighed our van a couple years ago when it was almost finished and it weighed 7520. Now that we're full time, our guess is that it's closer to 7800 or less, definitely less than 8000. The gross vehicle weight rating for the van is 9000. We also still get pretty good gas mileage - averaging around 18 mpg.
I'm 17 episodes in in one go doing great love watching you work things out, the weight often surprises me, a lot of builders are mad on weight saving than I think it's a van it must be able to carry much more ha, love the style you went for id like to give it a go but uk van prices are a joke at the moment.
@@neiljemmerson8826 We appreciate you binge watching! 🙂 We definitely bought at the right time. You never know. Hopefully you can find a good deal somewhere or prices will get more reasonable.
Hello! Thanks for watching! We screwed through the frame of the boxes to secure each to the plywood subfloor. We prefer to use screws in case we ever need to take things apart in the future.
Hi Michelle! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! We've also seen videos where folks have drilled holes and have heard opinions for and against. We did not and we have not noticed any problem. I'm sure it can't hurt but we have not seen any moisture or mold and we've now been using the bed for about a year!
We use a 14" full size mattress and it just fits lengthwise side to side. The width of a queen would probably fit with our design but I'm pretty sure it would be too long.
Thanks so much for watching, Barbyl! Building out a van can definitely get pretty noisy. The shrill noise from drilling in screws actually bothers me more than the sawing! Sorry if the saw noise was distracting or annoying! -A
Safety Sue, Steve is actually wearing work boots that are made to look like open-toed sandals! Aren't they cool? 🙂 But seriously, thank you for the concern! I'll tell him to stay away from sharp blades when his toes are exposed!
In the middle of the episode when I'm getting run over by a mattress! 😁 Sorry, we'll try to mess up more regularly so we can provide more blooper entertainment for your viewing pleasure!
Hahaha! We hope you enjoyed it. We probably got a little too caught up in having fun with editing when we were first starting making videos for the channel.
