Making a bed base in the back of my van. So which is strongest for a given thickness?

Decent plywood – and much lighter for a given thickness too.

mdf gives off formaldehyde fumes,best to avoid in a van

ply!

I used MDF for a show shelf in my hoos. It warped within minutes under light load. #OMGAVOID

MDF has no structural stiffness at all.

Plyboard a the way, and marine ply is best for finish if you’re not covering it up.

Good tricoya mdf could be ok, but at £150/sheet I’d avoid. For a bed base I’d be using 18mm ply, something decent and not from homebase as it’s mind buggeringly expensive from there!

Or veneered birch core ply, marginally cheaper than marine ply and voids in the laminates are rare.

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Fwiw, marine ply and straight faced are exactly the same with the exception of marine having one outer laminate that’s thicker. Just avoid the stuff with knots in it and you’ll be fine.

Ply for sure. Resists water and warping better.
Vohringer ply if you want to save weight and have the cash.

1/3 lighter than normal ply, but only really worth it if you are using lots of it, or if you want the veneer showing. It is very nice stuff though.

Cheers guys, & sorry for putting it in the wrong section!

Ply it is then 🙂

Whereabouts are you mugboo?

Yeah vohringer ply is the shizzle for van furniture. Masses lighter than mdf or plywood.

Imagine an MDF Mosquito!

Oops. Double post. Sorry.

Can’t believe nobody has said it;
There’s only one way to settle this… Fiiiiight!
IGMC

And yeah, ply.

Brighouse Chief

Can also get quite reasonable water resistant OSB – much cheaper than ply, and strong enough. Not as nice looking though, but that’s not important if you’re going to carpet/cover/paint what you’re making.

Flooring grade chipboard is something else to consider.

Biggest thing I need to consider is the depth of the material, I’ve built the wheel arch boxes to the same height as the bench seat when it’s folded flat. In use our bodies will be on the boarded area and our feet on the bench seat. I want to leave as much room as possible so we can sit upright against the tailgate.

It’s a SWB T4 by the way.

Use 18mm ply for anything you’re sitting / lying on, 12 will bend quite a bit!

tbh if you look at most comfy beds they don’t have flat base but a slatted one – have you considered combining both a using a thinner ply with vertical edge supports attached to horizontal slats?

Have a look at this page on the Mike_D van thread;

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/family-friendly-bike-carrying-camper-build/page/4

some good ideas on bed arrangements.

See if you can find any caravan/yacht builders near you – they will have the ply you need! 18mm makes sense for the wide weight bearing parts but other parts can be done with thinner ply.

Have you ever left standard wbp ply in a warm environment for long? Gives off eye watering fumes. When we make bolt boxes for steel columns and leave them in a site container it genuinely is nasty on a warm day. I’d be wary in the back of a van for the same reason.

Plywood definitely. As @chiefgrooveguru says marine ply is excellent, very strong for a give thickness, it is more expensive though.

Read Mike_D’s thread, very impressive indeed. And I agree about the slats but times tight at the moment so I’m thinking of this as Mk1. See how it works in use then maybe build Mk2 over winter.

Thanks again peeps.