van conversion fitting a bed that raises and lowers

Technically quite hard to achieve, can you split it down the middle so each half folds up against opposite sides of the van?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5TIva4yePzs

Stitches and steel did one that lifts up to the ceiling on pulleys. 

Pull out bench bed. Or bench either side with a table/centre slat. Both easy ply projects.

But the problem is you won't want to put mucky bikes in your nice camping van

Mount the mattress on springs fromt he ceiling. Your weight will lower it but in the morning it will spring out the way.

Just don't take any fat chicks home or you may crush the stuff below.

Came here to mention this;

https://stitchesandsteel.com/products/drop-down-carbon-bunk?variant=42318077231343

but beaten to it.

I’ve just put a Beso bed in the back of my Trafic. Sounds like what you need as it folds flat and you can store it up against the side out the way.

dbFull Member
Came here to mention this;

Drop-Down Carbon Bunk

£750

I'm looking to do the same thing, have a look at folding fishing seat beds.

4 eye/hook plates securely mounted (that's the hardest bit) to the ceiling. Strong cord/ropes to secure. Additional lateral points to stabilise as necessary. Job jobbed?

Hammock. The word you are looking for is Hammock.

We looked at a set of sailing pulleys to pull the bed up and down. We planned side 'beams' with cross beams in place under the bed, which would locate and so it was then 'solid'. There was nothing to be gained from this - combination of mattress and bed base depth meant you lost headroom, to sleep you had to move bikes/take a front wheel off etc.

We ended up with a higher bed - yes it mean you could not sit up fully, but we could fit 3x bikes with front wheels off underneath it, and due to the slightly triangular shape of the bed we could fit a large 29er enduro bike both wheels on but on it's side underneath. This was in SWB transit.

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52216010456_aad580cf88_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52216010456_aad580cf88_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ny9GJm ]Transit SWB camper conversion[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_outandabout/ ]Matt[/url], on Flickr

^ That's the way to do it.

There's a bloke on youtube who made a lifting one:

https://www.flatoutcamperbeds.co.uk/

Had a double and now a single. Works well and doesn't take up much room. Think they are called "Folding slide" or similar.

I've just fitted a Thule MultiLift hoist in our garage to store the roofbox. I see potential in that for raising/lowering a bed in a van. 100kg limit. Yes, could build your own from parts but this works very well and I took the easy option.

Can't you just keep a piece of 6mm ply to put over the bed? Maybe just slide it under or clip that to the roof when not in use? Mountain to Mohammed and all that.

Google sailing pipe cot.

Pretty simple, light and folds away.

That drop-down bed looks awesome but does it assume you'll either be using the van for sleeping or biking, but not sleeping with your bike in the van?

Anyway, I'd probably just go with a fold up bed that could be put out of the way - as others have mentioned.