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Salutations,
I more than likely won't have a ton of time to swing by the forum, but I did something pretty nice for my Bronco and felt like this was the best place to share in hopes that it helped people with their builds. I'm going to be doing a lot of traveling this fall and winter and don't want to have to stop at a hotel every time I need some rest. Also, I love camping and wanted something that would be good for long trips and potentially a little overlanding.
I give you my finished cargo drawer and sleeper build. I hired a carpenter to build the drawers because I knew that was the piece that would remain in the vehicle after my journey and wanted it to come out clean with drawers that rolled well. It cost me a little over $300 for parts and labor, I think that was a great price considering the finished product and current cost of lumber.
Afterward, I hit it with some stain that I thought would match the leather well. I also bought some black indoor/outdoor rubber-bottomed carpet for something like $6 for 6 square feet. Next was the creation of the sleeping platform. My primary objective was to make something that could keep full usage of all my seats and would fold up nicely in the back. What I ended up with were two pieces of wood that folded on two hinges. A supporting 2x6 is kept behind my cargo drawers and is easily attached to the platform with two dropper bolts.
For the end closest to my front seat, I didn't need to support a lot of weight since my head is towards the back and the front section would only hold my feet. For this end, I drilled two holes and ran some paracord to a carabiner that I clip to my headrest stalk, víola. Just had to trim the corners off the top section in order to clear the roof when folding out.
With that, all I needed was a folding 3" memory foam mattress, some sheets, an auxiliary battery that would charge in the back while I drove, a battery-powered fan, some magnetic drawer catches, sunshades for every window, and some other fixin's. I also ended up drilling one more hole where the platform meets the drawer after sleeping on it a couple of nights since it kept sliding back towards the driver's seat.
Now that it's all together, it's feeling super solid and comfy. Lots of headroom in the back as well. I'm 6'2" and can comfortably sleep in this car. I'm pretty narrow and it's just me so I only made the platform for 1, but you could easily adapt this design for two people, or a little more width.
Anyways, that's it. I've done a couple of demo camping nights but I'm getting ready to set out into the mountains in a couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll end up making some further tweaks down the road (pun intended) but I'll probably stick with this for now. Let me know if you have any questions, just know that I may or may not reply. You're gonna have to figure it out like I did
I more than likely won't have a ton of time to swing by the forum, but I did something pretty nice for my Bronco and felt like this was the best place to share in hopes that it helped people with their builds. I'm going to be doing a lot of traveling this fall and winter and don't want to have to stop at a hotel every time I need some rest. Also, I love camping and wanted something that would be good for long trips and potentially a little overlanding.
I give you my finished cargo drawer and sleeper build. I hired a carpenter to build the drawers because I knew that was the piece that would remain in the vehicle after my journey and wanted it to come out clean with drawers that rolled well. It cost me a little over $300 for parts and labor, I think that was a great price considering the finished product and current cost of lumber.
Afterward, I hit it with some stain that I thought would match the leather well. I also bought some black indoor/outdoor rubber-bottomed carpet for something like $6 for 6 square feet. Next was the creation of the sleeping platform. My primary objective was to make something that could keep full usage of all my seats and would fold up nicely in the back. What I ended up with were two pieces of wood that folded on two hinges. A supporting 2x6 is kept behind my cargo drawers and is easily attached to the platform with two dropper bolts.
For the end closest to my front seat, I didn't need to support a lot of weight since my head is towards the back and the front section would only hold my feet. For this end, I drilled two holes and ran some paracord to a carabiner that I clip to my headrest stalk, víola. Just had to trim the corners off the top section in order to clear the roof when folding out.
With that, all I needed was a folding 3" memory foam mattress, some sheets, an auxiliary battery that would charge in the back while I drove, a battery-powered fan, some magnetic drawer catches, sunshades for every window, and some other fixin's. I also ended up drilling one more hole where the platform meets the drawer after sleeping on it a couple of nights since it kept sliding back towards the driver's seat.
Now that it's all together, it's feeling super solid and comfy. Lots of headroom in the back as well. I'm 6'2" and can comfortably sleep in this car. I'm pretty narrow and it's just me so I only made the platform for 1, but you could easily adapt this design for two people, or a little more width.
Anyways, that's it. I've done a couple of demo camping nights but I'm getting ready to set out into the mountains in a couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll end up making some further tweaks down the road (pun intended) but I'll probably stick with this for now. Let me know if you have any questions, just know that I may or may not reply. You're gonna have to figure it out like I did
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