Latest twin bed mod - Cheap, easy, no tools, and more floor space!

Photomom

I was an early twin bed modder - with supports made from PVC pipes - but those were heavy, ugly, and ate up too much floor space. Inspired by a recent mod, I went a different way. We've camped on the "new" beds two nights and they worked well. One wouldn't want to sit daintily on the edge to sip tea, but we had no problems with sliding off the bed. Sorry about the fuzzy pics, I had a lot of trouble getting the file sizes down.

Since I had already done the piano hinge mod, I really didn't want to add another piano hinge to each side as the inspiration modder had done. The extra board is 5 1/4" wide and 1/2" thick poplar. I cut it to length with my miter saw but you could just have Lowes or HD do it. It is literally just sitting there, could be removed easily.


I added three supports of 1" x 2" pine to each side. They are velcro'd down so they don't shift around and are easily removable. There is also velcro holding the shorter side of the bench board to the supports to hold it in place. I can still flip the seats up to access bench storage.


Filler for the back so the front edge of the cushion is flush with the edge of the seat. I filled it a little proud because the foam was squishier than the seat cushion.


We leave the beds made up and use a comfy 3" LLBean camp futon on top of the T@B upholstery. There is a slight difference in height front to back because the mod raises the bench 3/4" above the back. The inspiration modder had adjusted the height of the sofa cushion too but we sleep with our heads toward the front of the trailer to avoid bonking so we didn't find this to be an issue.


I completed the mod by adding a bungie net from Organized Obie to the passenger side bench for off-the-floor shoe storage at night. Ignore the dust and dog hair, I haven't vacuumed after our last trip!

dragonsdofly

@Photomom, nice. Just keep on modding!

Bill@ndRox

Dear Photomom,  Great ideas here.  Thanks for sharing.  I love the Velcro idea.  My slats move about and need to stay put.  This should do it.  Thanks for sharing.  The shoe net is also a great idea. Haven't bonked our heads enough yet to switch to pillows at the other end.  We'll see.  Our beds remain 25.5" wide and working well.  We use a pillowcase style fitted sheet over thermarest type 1.5" pads and duvet covers.  Working out well.  Thanks.

BrianZ

Well done!

ELK

So you added this mod to the piano hinged board for twice the width?

Photomom

ELK said:

So you added this mod to the piano hinged board for twice the width?

I had already done the piano hinge mod that someone had posted a while back, i.e. saw the seat board and attach a piano hinge so you can access the under seat storage more easily. All I did was all a board behind that, but I didn’t attach it to anything. The bed width is still around 25”. 

ELK

One more question!!
Where did you pace the velcro?  I'm almost done doing this!! Thank you!

Michigan_Mike

Bill@ndRox said:

Dear Photomom,  Great ideas here.  Thanks for sharing.  I love the Velcro idea.  My slats move about and need to stay put.  This should do it.  Thanks for sharing.  The shoe net is also a great idea. Haven't bonked our heads enough yet to switch to pillows at the other end.  We'll see.  Our beds remain 25.5" wide and working well.  We use a pillowcase style fitted sheet over thermarest type 1.5" pads and duvet covers.  Working out well.  Thanks.

One thing I did with my bed slats to control movement was to lay them together face down take two flat bungy cords (available at Home Depit, etc.), use some short screws and secure them on each side beneath the bedslats.  The slats stay together, don’t move and you can bundle them up accordion style, secure them with a smaller bungy cord after use and store them.  I built a storage rack in the drivers side bench of my former 320 T@B S and kept them secure and safe there.  Mine looked similar to the photo below but there was minimal gaps between the slats.

sbhtennis

If i don't need to get into that bottom compartment for storage ( where the electrical stuff is) then can I eliminate the piano  hinge  on that board and then just stick in a 5" piece  board  between the  wide board  and the wall?  I am not a carpenter wiz so trying to keep it really simple. Does it need any support under it to the floor? 

Sharon_is_SAM

You don’t need the hinge, just the 5” spacer board and the 1” x 2” pine strips held by velcro to raise the bench board and extra spacer board level with the top edge on the front of the bench.  Also, Photomom pointed out that you don’t want to put all your weight on the front edge of this or it may tip.

Photomom

Correct. My hinge was there from a previous mod.

KCode

The shoe hammock is brilliant!!

Verna

@Photomom, thank you for the shoe storage tip. I hadn’t figured out where to put the shoes and boots and now I have a place. Thanks!

Mickiemushroom

Why not just leave the seat base whole and add ONE piano hinge and ONE 5" board that can lift up and slide against the wall easy and return the bench back to original specs. Then you still have the bench hinged and a modifiable extra 5" for the bed bod

Photomom

Mickiemushroom said:

Why not just leave the seat base whole and add ONE piano hinge and ONE 5" board that can lift up and slide against the wall easy and return the bench back to original specs. Then you still have the bench hinged and a modifiable extra 5" for the bed bod

As I mentioned, I had already done the piano hinge mod.