Making the Bed

 

Day 24: Bed frame installed!  One step closer to camping.

Bed frame is a 2x4 matrix.  It looks like half lap joinery but if you look closer you can see the pocket holes that are holding the cross members fast to the main beams.  The connection to the window box does include a  half lap in an effort to preserve the height of the window box.  Spoiler alert: I needed more window box height.   

We designed the bed frame to be removable to allow future maintenance and improvements.  Removing the frame also creates room for hauling cargo that otherwise would not fit.  

Covered the frame with a half inch sheet of plyboard.  

After our first trip and a bit of head banging on the window box I decided to take the bed frame down.  First I cut the frame so that it fits between the window boxes and does not rest on top of them.  That bought us an extra 1.5 inches or 38 mm of window box height.  Next we ripped each 2x4 support in half resulting in 2x2 supports.  The design incorporates garage cabinets made with 2x4 construction which integrate into the bed frame support system.  The math said it would work and after installation we can not detect any deflection what so ever.

Top view of the bed frame.  The plyboard gets several coats of sanding sealer to prevent snagging the mattress or other bed linen.  We counter sink all the screws and just be be safe we tape over each screw again to prevent snags

Finally we poke ventilation holes in the plyboard and the bottom of the frame gets a coat of white paint. Also installed these little LED lights under the frame to supply light for the garage.

Testing the lights. Not bad for $10 ...

the resulting alterations reduced the weight of the bed frame which makes removing it much easier.  The added available height in the window box should help reduce that early morning head banging.  

This is what it looked like for our first trip and before we lowered the bed.  Even with the height problem the bed worked out really well.

..... And then we drove to Nevada!