Bed conversion for a mini van

[mandy]

I found this online, it looks pretty intresting. I can't understand what it says, but it has lots of pics at. What do you all think?

Mandyhttp://www.hoofs.de/pictures.htm

[SteveH]

Not a lot to it, but it looks better than sleeping on the ground to me.

[lopazopy]

Here is Google's translation.

Pretty cool.

[raprap]

I’ve considered a late model double sliding door minivan as a prime candidate for a self propelled teardrop. The front of the back could become the galley with a mattress, shelving, storage, TV entertainment center etc. The rear area under the hatch could become a full service galley.

Granted, the traditional teardrop shape would not be included, but the utility would—after all IMO a teardrop is effectively a double bed on wheels with an attached kitchen—in this case those features would be incorporated into an established vehicle, one that then could be used to tow another tear---or maybe not.

Rap

[pieface]

These guys do a nice Eco friendly modular conversion on small vans here in the UK.
http://www.amdro.co.uk/
All very simple stuff, but very effective.

Check out the Oztent video on this page
http://www.amdro.co.uk/vans/kangooberlingo.html
It would be ideal on the back of a tear.

Pieface

[Mark & Andrea Jones]

I found this online, it looks pretty intresting. I can't understand what it says, but it has lots of pics at. What do you all think?

Mandyhttp://www.hoofs.de/pictures.htm

Been there. Done that. Won't do it again.

We have a 1991 Chevy conversion van that has a bench seat that folds down in the back. All we did was to build a platform in the back and add a foam pad on the platform only. Sorry, no pics. It is almost as big as a queen sized mattress and was used extensively for 11 years to go on paddling and camping trips - until it left us in a campground on a Sunday AM with computer trouble when it had 170k miles on it. THAT's when we switched to the teardrop.

Our options were to fix up the van and wait for something else to go wrong and STILL have to put the bed up every AM if you wanted to go anywhere outside of the campground (NOT!!) AND get 12 mpg OR to take our Subaru Forester as our travel vehicle, get 23+ mpg with a newer vehicle, and pull a small trailer. So, we settled on the TD.

We still have the van (if anyone is interested in it), but we don't trust it to go long distances anymore.

Andrea.

[JohnnyG]

Thanks for posting that. I've been thinking along those lines. Two of my family could sleep in the teardrop and two in the van, supplimented with the occasional hotel for long road trips. We love road trips. My Honda van gets 26 mpg easily, shouldn't be too much worse pulling my teardrop- (under construction). We sold our 31 foot class C last year. It was cheaper to "hotel-it" than to drive the RV.

[caseydog]

I used to have a Chevy Astro van for business. I took the back seats out on day one, and they were rarely in the van.

I came really close to building something like this for that van.

BTW, the nice advantage to an Astro over most "minivans" is that a 4X8 sheet of plywood fits flat in the back. That was going to be the "base" for my camper-bed/storage box.

CD