BlueSkyCamper
Member
When I did my truck camper build from an ATC Cougar shell, I made it so it slept my wife and I and our two kids. Since then the kids grew, a lot. They no longer slept comfortably in the L-shaped sleeping area I created with the bench seats. So I took on the project of building an upper bunk/cot.
The Duck Canvas cot material spans between two oak boards. One board will be screwed to the side wall of the camper. There is an aluminum beam along the camper wall behind the paneling, you can see it when you remove all the screws at the top of the panel. Got to be sure to hit that beam with the screws...
The other board spans between the ledge on the top of the door and the edge of the upper bed rail. Here's the top of the door ledge part. Three L- brackets with a spring pin so the board stays put....
At the other end of this redwood board I made a hook (in primer in photo)...
Finished with a slide latch at the bottom to keep the board from rising up...
The hook engages with a bracket screwed to the existing bed rail...
Here it is in the stowed position...
And deployed...
Note the square aluminum brace under it. That is necessary to keep the outer board from bowing in when someone is in the cot. There is a bracket on the inside of the board that holds the aluminum brace in place...
And another down at the corner below (the aluminum brace has holes it in because it was re-purposed from another project)...
Perfect for a kid that weighs up to about 120lbs. I took a nap in it and I weigh 170lbs no problem, but that put a lot of pressure on the outer side wall of the camper, so not something I want to do regularly. My kid loves it, and it cradles her so she won't roll out like she did in the bench seats below. So now my rig sleep 4 of us comfortably again with one kid in the upper bunk/cot and one down below on the bench seat. No need to buy that new Airstream
The Duck Canvas cot material spans between two oak boards. One board will be screwed to the side wall of the camper. There is an aluminum beam along the camper wall behind the paneling, you can see it when you remove all the screws at the top of the panel. Got to be sure to hit that beam with the screws...
The other board spans between the ledge on the top of the door and the edge of the upper bed rail. Here's the top of the door ledge part. Three L- brackets with a spring pin so the board stays put....
At the other end of this redwood board I made a hook (in primer in photo)...
Finished with a slide latch at the bottom to keep the board from rising up...
The hook engages with a bracket screwed to the existing bed rail...
Here it is in the stowed position...
And deployed...
Note the square aluminum brace under it. That is necessary to keep the outer board from bowing in when someone is in the cot. There is a bracket on the inside of the board that holds the aluminum brace in place...
And another down at the corner below (the aluminum brace has holes it in because it was re-purposed from another project)...
Perfect for a kid that weighs up to about 120lbs. I took a nap in it and I weigh 170lbs no problem, but that put a lot of pressure on the outer side wall of the camper, so not something I want to do regularly. My kid loves it, and it cradles her so she won't roll out like she did in the bench seats below. So now my rig sleep 4 of us comfortably again with one kid in the upper bunk/cot and one down below on the bench seat. No need to buy that new Airstream
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