Queen bed install idea--cool, but problematic?

[Branden]

I want a queen bed in the back of the bus, but I hate giving up all that storage space. I'm not keen on the under-bed storage and having to lift (manually or otherwise) the mattress or access it from the emergency door. The bed is just so small, volumewise, for that space, it seems like a waste.

So here's the idea: the bed goes in with the head at the back emergency door. This leaves space all the way around it and a nice bedroom feel. BUT to get half a dozen bikes in would now be impossible (hang them, maybe). However, if you place the bed in a standard bed frame that also has a plywood sheet for mattress support (no box spring), you have a firm bed with a metal frame. At the corners you install garage door tracks from floor to ceiling, and attach the wheels that run in the tracks to the bed frame. You can now raise the bed to the ceiling, and still have storage space underneath. In fact, by putting pins in the track to support the bed at any level (the tracks have holes in them) you could get the bed above whatever you are carrying and still be able to sleep on it, without removing the cargo. If you want to get fancy, run an air line from the brakes to the bed and have it go up by air pressure. If not, some type of winch or passenger help would be required to raise and lower it.

I also thought of doing this on a cable and pulley system, but the rails would provide much more stability. Yes, they would be in the space of the bedroom, but it would be like a four-poster bed, and if you painted them they wouldn't look too bad.

I'm not looking for live-aboard perfection, but rather flexibility and function while still looking good. What do all y'all think?

[Steve]

If when you say bike you don't mean motorbike, why don't you build a deck and put them up there. Thats what most of the RAGBRAI crews do.

[Branden]

Style, man, style!

It's true, it could be done, and I'll probably end up building a deck up there anyhow, which would further lend weight to the idea.

But not only am I afraid of scraping them off somehow (Whoops! Did you just hear something?!), but I also want her to look like a clean machine, and half a dozen bikes tied down on the roof kind of defeats that. Plus, think about the mileage drop

I'm also thinking about other gear that I might not want to put on the roof, but who knows, I've never loaded it up, I might not know what to do with 30 feet of bus (not counting the 5' in front for driver/nav).

So I'm kind of thinking bikes on roof as last resort, but an additional bennie to the liftable bed is that the rear door is still a viable loading/unloading point for large items. Not so with a bed mounted there.

So goes my (convoluted) thinking.

[Steve]

I think your best option if you want it to look and BE clean is to build a wall a ways back from the rear door and put your bed there, leaving the very rear for storage.

[Les Lampman]

Yeah, what Steve said!

I was just getting ready to write the same thing. In our 35' dognose Bluebird I've left the last 5' of the bus (two windows worth plus the extra wide rear side panel) open as a workshop/artist studio/storage/whatever space. There's a nice full bullkhead at the front of that space; for all intent and purposes since that space is the designated "trunk" the interior of the bus really starts at the bulkhead with the queen bed just ahead of the that. Our bed is sideways with storage at each end; I did it that direction to take up less lengthwise space. The 100 gallon freshwater tank and plumbing is under the queen bed (on centerline and very close to the rear axle) with easy access; there's still considerable storage area under there too. There is an access door above the bed matress to the back of the bus which acts as an emergency exit and a way to get into the back of the bus when the weather is the pitts or you're not dressed appropriately for the trip outside.