Building A Vanlife Slider Bed With A Unique Material! 

2024 Update: I made a video all about the design and how to put it together. Check it out ---> ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VVQEba77dA4.htmlsi=U2k0EXQgSeB3mrud

I love this especially when considering the weight difference between this and wood. Great job!

Dude, that is the Best homemade bed I've ever seen in a camper van.. Inspiring my friend

Love the build! Took a tour of Maker Pipe. Moving forward I will refer to that page. Thanks!

That’s awesome! I think I would put a bar of 3/4 directly under the whole length of the middle (so where it retracts would be resting on top). Then have a couple legs going to ground. I just think having having that many breaks on one side would weaken it a bit. Overall, awesome idea!

:) WOW! Brilliant idea indeed! I can see using this with PVC for less weight, and even in a full size Van to go up the wall for shelves too! THANKS MUCH and ALL the BEST! Cheers :)!!

Thanks for this video - Im in a developing nation and they are not creative so my hunt for a welder has been futile - This is a life saver for the slider design I have in mind

Honestly this was great. I love all your other videos and weekly stuff but this is even better... even just build timelapses.

I'm not gonna lie. I just finished my bed that is simular but a 3 part bed to make the length of my van. I made mine with 500 lbs drawer slides, wood, PVC, 3/4' conduit and maker pipe T joints. Alas, I was working on mine prior to the 1" launch. I'm feeling mighty jealous of this set up you made! Great Job.

Great idea where you made the openings for the slideout. A person could mark a couple of the sliding pipes near the end at the center of the bed so can see it if you were worried about sliding it out too far. This turned out nice...it's great!👍

Oh my god! Somehow I missed the video introducing the new 1” connectors from a month ago. I’m most of the way into the video before I start to realize these aren’t just 1” t-connectors, he’s using. Holy crap! Great design btw! This really needed to be built and awesome job!

If you use the 3/4 to 1" shims on the 3/4", you'll have a more stable structure and a set stop point.

The build looks great and you did a great job explaining. The only thing I didn't see you do is sit on the bed between the verical support and test out the strength and rigidity of the connectors.

Great one 👍

Next time you do something like this, check out Steeltek fittings. They're amazing. I build my entire desk and shelving unit out of galvanized fence post and Steeltek fittings from Lowes.

That is amazing !!! Thank you for sharing!!

Great job! I love it!!! You did an awesome job presenting it to us too. Thank you for sharing.

Way to go! Can’t wait to see the progress

Nice Astro my friend. Just drove mine to the Arctic Circle from key west. I got all kinds of good comments on my maker pipe roof rack. Thanks for a great product

Excellent , lightweight , clever!

LOVE van life content! I'm considering replicating this in my ambulance build soon!

Cool weight safer and storage room for RV, Van's, and Campers

Great job, my viewers will enjoy it too!

Very clever!

Great idea!

Wow, that turned out really nice. I don’t know what conduit is I want PVC I think because I know how to work with that and it doesn’t rust. Thank you thank you. 💜🦋💕

Amazing !!

Awesome. Much cheaper than using 80/20.

Wish I could build with conduit and maker pipe all day every day…… anyhoo my two cents: Replace legs (height) to go over wheel well, add a support leg to the right and left of wheel well and remove the bottom rail between them. Curious if a wood slat top would be “lighter” though.

Cool! Thank you for sharing.

Great vid, thank you! I love astro vans!

Pretty great technically. Now you might want to consider comfort & functional use for sleeping. Depending upon what foam you will be using to make the mattress, you will feel every piece of pipe - especially if there are height differences in the pipes/connectors of the frame (it's like camping on rocky ground). The mattress may sag between the pipes if they are too far apart. A flat sleeping surface is a purposeful design of the wooden built ones. A hinged piece of plywood over the pipe frame would work. You'll need something to keep the 2 piece mattress together as well. For a one piece mattress you could use an air mattress but they are COLD & more so if they are laid atop metal pipe. For either, you'll also need to prevent the mattress from sliding out of place on the frame. Someone else mentioned rattle. A few short hours of that while driving will quickly convince you to address it but it sounds like that's already on your list.

I recommend a solid beam in the middle, for example a 2x8 wood. Drill holes for the large emt.

I had this Idea. I was told it wouldn't work. Yet here you are and it works. I think ill steel your design( bad pun warning from the punny one)

Brilliant! 👏🏾

I love this idea!

Nice video!!! Easy to follow you .. when you make the adjustment, please make video too !

I like it. I'm certain there are teflon sleeves that will make it smooth titer and reduce the inevitable rattle as you go down the road. I'm going t build one that fits my double inflatable mattress.

This is genius! I was looking around for a materials list; can you please tell me exactly what I would need to build this? In other words, what are the part names? Thank you so much for this really great post.

Genius! Wondering what would be the material cost of this contraption

Good job must better than wood.

Ok but I wanna see u lay on it. The middle looks weak. Maybe it’s just me.

This is fantastic. I'm looking at making my extendable van bed function as a chaise lounge as well, to allow for side door access in my minivan. My thought is to create two separate frames, one for the larger, fixed bed portion and another for the upper, mobile portion. It needs to sit up at an angle and I need a way to keep it locked in that position. I love the idea of using metal as opposed to wood. Do you have recommendations on the type of coupler I would use to join the two portions, how it would lock in the vertical position, etc? I would love so much to pick your brain, I have such a fun challenge!

Can you build a bed or a camper van that slides in and out from the back of the van so that a handicapped person could be put in and that it would be pushed back up into the camper van with me on it. Do you think that that’s a possibility? I need to find somebody that can do.

So how much did this cost to build?

This is great! Does anyone know what limitations emt has as far as condensation or rust or how it could be protected? Also, I would be extremely interested to know what kind of weight something like this could hold? Great job!

Take a test drive with it. Might be a bit of a rattle going down the road?

Neat project and it looks cool but it's over-engineered. The spacers are too far apart so you wind up having to put something on top to bridge the gap or sleep on an uneven surface, one rail has a bunch of breaks in it and because there's the same dimension material everywhere you have slats that are overkill. The bottom rails along the floor are overkill too and too much of an obstruction for sliding things out from under the bed. Seems to me that the issues stemmed from the question: -how can i use this piping for everything? vs -what's the most suitable material to make each part of the bed? Tim's design made more sense in that regard. I'm sure it can function and it's a nice interesting thing but it could be simpler, quicker to build, more convenient and lighter. Not to rain on your parade of course and kudos as it's still a cool thing.

I couldn't find your remarks for the sleeping results in the community site, so I'll ask here. How did you find the 8" spacing for support for sleeping? Im building a slide bed for my camper and found these products. Love the end results! I'll have more questions later, on your site tho. Btw, would replacing 1" conduit with 3/4", and the 3/4" with 1/2" still function as well? Would there be a weight restriction related to length? Thanks for the video!

Do you have a cut list, I like to make one for my boat.

Hey thanks for the video! Any updates?

Great idea. How much it weights though? Thanks

roughly how many feet of 1" and 3/4" did you use?

Hey guys I just found this video. I was wondering if you have a parts list and also dimensions. I have an Astro myself and may look into doing something like this. Has anyone created a rock and roll bed out of Maker Pipe and Conduit?

I've been thinking pvc pipes , wood is to heavy .

Hi Jake, can I ask how long is your platform and what is the spacing between your 180 connectors? This is exactly what I want for my Element, but I do need to make a modification.

what if you have an accident and the conduit punch through the driver seat?

Build cost?

Did you happen to weight it? Curious how much it weighs?

Where to buy this material?

Where do you buy the clamps ?

I haven't seen pipes in the website, only connectors

So how'd the bed feel over the weekend?

so you've created metal spears to impale yourself with in an accident. Good luck with that.

Way too heavy!

Waste of gas money using heavy metal….

way over thinking a bed