My guide on how to build a convertible bed

[djeffrey]

Hello, This Forum has helped me a lot so I wanted to post my own how to on how I built a bed in the back of my WD21. This bed is always in the back of my pathfinder, it seconds as a shelf where I store my recovery stuff under it and misc items on top. I have had it in the back for about a year and have slept on it quite a bit, usually with 2 people.

 

I know you can removed the rear seats and go that route but I wanted to leave my vehicle entirely functional when not being slept in. If i needed to fit people in the back while out on a trip I can. This is entirely removable with no dis assembly by one person. It takes about 3 min to assemble. Can be done drunk (Not that I know). Fits two people comfortably combined weight of 340lbs. The bed does not move or shake, stays nicely stable. I go 4x4ing quite frequently, This shelf is usually supporting probably 50lbs of stuff on these trips. It has not shown any sign of coming loose or not handling the load. It does not make noise in the back, and it has left a nice pine smell in the vehicle, which i actually like.

 

http://imgur.com/a/kKAZf

 

 

Some additional notes.

 

1 The fold out pieces can be made longer, doing this will cause the front seats to need to be further forward. I designed mine to long enough to sleep on and short enough so I could drive the car if needed.

 

2. The Main shelf can be made longer also. This is at the expense of having the rear seats leaned further forward during normal daily use. I left it so the rear seats were comfortable and still had good length.

 

3. The dimensions of the sleeping area is 4'3 1/2' wide, 6'1 1/2' long, and about two feet of room between the board and the headliner.

 

The head room is perfect as is and allows a pretty spacious sleeping area. I have used a 2 person air mattress on top of this and the head room is doable, but a bit of a struggle to get in and out.

 

Let me know if anyone has any questions!

 

 

 

[Nefarious]

Very cool. I've done the removable seat hinge thing for my rig for years now and it works great and only takes 1 minute to convert but you have to sleep between the wheel well humps. I like how your design moves the sleeping position above the wheel well humps to get maximum width. I was thinking of building some shelving like thst in the new truck to accommodate the full width of the rear while adding storage underneath. Like it man!

[jamba]

Looks good to me

[vagabond]

what we did was pull the seat bottoms cut the rivets out and replaced them with removable pins, takes a couple of minutes to pull or replace them. gives extra room for storage. Should be a how to on here somewhere

[ebayfish]

Its somewhere on the forum, I did the same. I want to find some metric studs & wing nuts & replace the bolt that attached to the bottom of the hinge & floor. It would be soooo much quicker & easier to reassemble.

[Nefarious]

I just used 5/16 D locking clips. It literally takes me seconds to convert the seats back and forth.

[vagabond]

I just used 5/16 D locking clips. It literally takes me seconds to convert the seats back and forth.

couldn't think of the name of the clips

 

 

[djeffrey]

Glad you like it, it works well for sleeping two people and is a nice organization option.