What a 100 trips to Home Depot looks like (THEFORT)

[RandallDee]

Pretty sure I saw some dirt somewhere.

Downright posh.

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

Say, they make those lights in black! I like black.

me too! ...about to pull the trigger on a couple and mount them where the seat belts used to hang on the passenger side.

[pmcypress]

One thing to add on the lights. When you install them test the polarity before making all your connections . My hot wires were the black wires and the red were the ground wires.

[bemerritt]

Awesome build! Funnily enough i have almost identical plans for my build. A couple questions if you dont mind:

- How do you like the Duchess sofa bed? What width did you get? Any comments on how comfortable it is? Any pictures of it in the down position?
- How did you do your floor to end up with it flush with the step? I take it floating floor with no insulation, 0.5" thick plywood?
- Anything you would do differently in the future?

Thanks for any answers, I can only hope mine comes out half as good!

- Brian

[pmcypress]

When I first started the planing I knew the most important thing to me was to be able to sleep in the van as good as I sleep in my bed at home. (Yes, i am very picky when it comes to comfort). The penthouse bed is where my wife and I sleep. We use a 3" memory foam mattress on top of the penthouse padded platform with sheets and a down comforter. I also have a 10" penthouse bed extension that I purchased from Sportsmobile West, not sure if I really need it.
I also wanted to make the sleeping versatile so when my son and I went out one of us could sleep up top and one could sleep down below. The pictures show the lower bed folded out to 59", then we drop in the Engel cooler to give us a 76" bed. By designing it this way it enabled me to push the rear seat back for a little more living space. The Engle cooler stores behind the rear seat. The width of the lower bed / sofa is 52".

[pmcypress]

As far as the floor: We started out by laying Dynamat Sound Deadener. We then installed ¼” Dynamat Dynaliner cut into strips to fill the grooves in the van floor. We then covered it all with another round of ¼”Dynamat Dynaliner. We then bolted down ¾” maple plywood using the OEM seat bolt holes and some bolts I bought from McMaster. We did add some ¼” bolts with large washers along the plywood seams and finished up with the G-floor on top. I did not want the tan carpet in the van so I had the top layer of carpet removed from the OEM carpet backing and had black carpet cemented back onto the OEM carpet backing (I know it sounds crazy). I also had to build the wife a foot rest because her feet could not reach the floor.

[bemerritt]

Thanks for all of the info. Going to request a quote for the sofa today. Two more quick questions, does the 52 inch seat accommodate 3 or 2 people when sitting? My guess is two comfortably, but seatbelts for 3.

Also, did you do the electric option or manual? If manual, is it easy to fold down?

Thanks!

[pmcypress]

I have a manual seat / sofa. I would say it seats two very comfortably. If you would like to drive up to cypress I would be glad to show it to you.

[Nrobert10]

You are heading to Washington State? I live in Seattle and would love to see the van in person if you are in the area. Nice Work!

[pmcypress]

We just missed each other I was in Seattle last week. Next trip up.