New Bed Frame in the Van!

One bed... Two halves "re-united"... Not as planned but works great!

Hello and welcome to the blog today!  Things are progressing well with the van although I made a blunder - but one from which it was possible to come up with a terrific solution... and the fix was cheap!

Once the old bed frame (front to back style) was removed and shortened, I couldn't get the darned thing back in the van sidewise!  I had to cut the bed in half, put the halves in, and rejoin the pieces - sort of like attaching two boxes.  It works great and is very strong.  It was a blast working on the bed but one of the things that made it so fun was a great customer service experience.

Four 15" pieces of 4x4 were needed for legs.  Home Depot had a scrap 4x4 in their junk box.  A customer had purchased it, had four small pieces sliced off (for raising a couch), and then discarded the rest of the wood.  One of the Home Depot guys gave me the board - at no charge!  I asked if it was possible to cut off four 15 inch pieces and pay for the cuts.  Nope - once again that was free, too!  Thank you Home Depot Dan!  I had some 2x3s laying around home so two 15" pieces became supports for the middle, further strengtening the bed.  Accounting for the microwave, this new bed will have around 16 cubic feet of usable storage space underneath.

The white cord will be re-routed.  It runs an LED rope light near the ceiling.

The bed frame was painted on Monday night and has become a work table while laboring on the front of the sleeping space.  Today I reconnected the shore power and Samlex inverter (bottom).  The inverter is located so it's fairly easy to reach the switch (but an annoying place for the cords to go!) and is close to the house batteries.  Immediately above it is the shore power strip for the heater and battery charger.  I'm going to shorten an existing outdoor extension cord and add a new plug to run shore power under the bed for the microwave oven.  Why not do fancy wiring?  I want the van to be easy to "undo" if it becomes necessary some day.

There is a lot of minor painting to do as well as tidying up.  The mattress and new bedding will go in the van over the weekend.  Over time, little shelves / cabinets will be constructed.  For now at least, it is possible to drive the thing and sleep in it...  Trout stocking season will be here in four weeks and the spring season before that!

Thanks for visiting... More pictures will be coming soon.

Happy and safe travels always!

Brad