Creating an Upper Bunk/Cot

[BlueSky]

My kids are getting too tall to sleep in the L-shaped sleeping area that I created when I built out my Cougar camper. So I am going to tackle an upper bunk cot-style bed that will fit along the camper wall. The cot material will span between two oak boards. One of them will be screwed to the wall...

The other board will span between the ledge on the top of the door and the ledge at the edge of the upper bed. Here's the top of the door ledge part, there will be two of these brackets and a hole in the board into which I'll put a spring pin so the board stays put....

At the other end of this board will be a hanger bracket like this (in primer right now)...

The hanger bracket will wrap over the existing bed board and engage with another bracket here so it will stay put...

So I will have two parallel boards with the cot material looped for the boards to slide into, and the cot will span about 30" wide and over 6 feet long. I'll need a couple of braces from the outer board angled down into the corner below so the outer board does not bow inward when there is weight on the cot. When not sleeping the whole thing will stow along the wall. I'll keep you posted as this project evolves. Note that this is for my 9 year old daughter that weighs about 50lbs. This would not be suitable for a young child or a larger, older child or adult. I'll probably add some kind of safety straps. It is a long way to the floor of the camper from up there.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Interesting idea. Post photos of the finished/setup bunk.
Frank

 

[DavidGraves]

Creative design....

You may want to consider a single support post under the front bed slide below the outboard board....

Have you asked HER what she thinks of the design ?

I tend to think some sort of guard/restraint on the cliff edge my be in order.

I was a camp counselor a hundred years ago and have seen some enormous bumped heads after a fall from the upper bunk.

David Graves

 

[BlueSky]

Creative design....

You may want to consider a single support post under the front bed slide below the outboard board....

Have you asked HER what she thinks of the design ?

I tend to think some sort of guard/restraint on the cliff edge my be in order.

I was a camp counselor a hundred years ago and have seen some enormous bumped heads after a fall from the upper bunk.

David Graves



She is actually the one who wanted it. Too much fighting with her sister downstairs on the L-shaped beds. I have some things in mind to keep her in there, and the cot material will bow down a bit too to cradle her in there.

 

[BlueSky]

Finished the project. Everything worked out great. Neatly stowed away...

Deployed....

I put the aluminum square tube in the middle (re-used from a different project, therefore the holes). It is held in place by a couple of small brackets at each end. It keeps the outer board from bowing in and it takes weight off the end that attaches to the upper bed rail board. I put my 50lb kid up there and she could not roll out. I weight 170lbs and it held me just fine, but I would not want to have adults using it because it puts a lot of stress on the camper wall with all the weight in it. I would say up to 120lbs is fine. You can see the screws going into the camper wall. There is a frame tube behind there that I drilled/screwed into. The material is duck canvas. I managed to break my wife's fancy and expensive sewing machine making it, and boy is she mad.

 

[ski3pin]

Good job with your project!

 

[DavidGraves]

I would be mad too....should have asked her to sew it.

Looks like a project well completed.....I was pondering how you would stow it and finally reached the same solution you did.

We once owned a small motorhome that had this insane pull down bunk that folded UP to almost flush with the ceiling.....kind of a verticle Murphy bed......sleeping in the clouds as it were.

Well (its) done!

David Graves

 

[Vic Harder]

Nice!

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Nice work. My MIL has a Lance with a small elevated cot along the passenger side above the dinette. We used to stow my youngest up there when he was small. It has a full length safety net to prevent accidental “roll offs”…highly recommended.

 

[BlueSky]

I was worried about a roll-off accident in the middle of the night until I put my kid in there and asked her to try and roll out of it, she couldn't do it. The canvas material stretches and bows down enough to keep her in there. Other's results may vary.

 

[DavidGraves]

Might need some turnbuckles !!

Reminds me of the bunks on shipboard ....there is a nautical term for the restraints that keep a sailor in his bunk.

DG