Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2002 15:27:49 -0700
Reply-To: TinkerMan <tinkerman007@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: TinkerMan <tinkerman007@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Z-bed installation instructions
In-Reply-To: <200209092140.g89LeMRH065584@mail.aros.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
--- jbrush@aros.net wrote:
> I would often go to the zproducts.com site and dream
> about having copius
> amounts of money to spend on kewl stuff, but I
> always turn away. That is
> just way too much money for what it is. Way too
> much.
I quite agree with you. Too much for too little...
But I'm still trying to figure out whether it will
really be worth it for me.
> Mine is just a plain-jane vanagon,
So is mine. Do you also have the partition between the
cab and the passenger compartment?
>and at first I
> didn't realize that I
> would have to remove the middle seat in order to use
> the Z bed.
Not necessarily. Did you consider flipping the middle
seat (backrest forward)? It's really easy with those
slideout rails. Then you gain huge space, although
your passengers will be facing backwords.
>Once I
> noticed that detail, the Z bed is no longer a
> consideration since I use
> the van for more than just camping in it, and I
> didn't want to give up the
> middle seat to use it. (heavy little sob!)
Neither did I. See above.
> How frustrating to find that a queen size mattress
> is about 8 inches too
> long to use with any setup when the middle seat is
> installed.... :(
Again, turn it around. Now, the mattress can rest on
the middle seat.
> I never thought about the bed-in-the-box concept. It
> sounds like a nice
> idea, but I would be surprised to learn that the top
> could fold out far
> enough without hitting the roof on the way.
Dunno, but this concept is used in some conversions.
>In
> addition, my back seat
> doesn't fold down flat, and would push up on the
> bed. Might not matter
> with weight on it tho.
If the box is of proper height, then the folding lid
would rest on the (not so horizontal) folded backrest
and be horizontal.
> Then I tinkered with just building a frame on the
> engine compartment that
> would raise it up level with the seat back folded
> down. Not only won't
> this work for me because the back doesn't lay flat,
> but its a really short
> bed :-)
It's about 6 foot till the middle seat backrest, and
much more if you flip it around. Not too bad...
BTDT.
> I just remove the rear seat back to make the area
> level. At first I tried
BTDT. A pain in the &^$%%^...
And you still have to find a place where to leave it.
Not so good.
Still, if you remove it and flip the middle seat, you
get a HUGE space.
The main drawback to this is that you lose lots of
potential storage space, and if you don't have a seat
back in the rear hard breaking tends to make things in
the storage area fly in your direction...
> I was going to just use an air mattress, but I have
> not found one that is
> short enough. They are all "standard" queen size.
I have cut 3 smaller mattresses that sit on top of
each other and rest against the middle seat backrest.
They can be spread out to cover the whole back area
when needed. Much more convenient.
> Of course it
> would be nice to have a weekender, or a westy, or
> heck, even a few window
> screens, but life doesn't always work out the way it
> should, right? :)
Actually, it's not too difficult installing some
homemade curtains.
> When I think its a
> hassle, I just look at the neighbor's minivan, and I
> know they couldn't do
> that, so I feel better. <g>
Like the song says, "try to look at the bright side of
life <whistle>"...
You're just doing that...:-)
=====
Cheers, T-man.
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