I think this is the most versatile bed system out there.

Code 7 Transit Bed System

Discover the revolutionary Code 7 Camper Van Bed System – a patented, adjustable, foldable, and removable queen-sized bed that transforms your van's interior. Customize heights independently for cargo, seating, or low sleeping options. Fold and stow effortlessly, maximizing space and offering...

code7gear.com

I have the original version in my @Paradigm_Van_Conversions build.

 

They also have a page that talks about the differences between the different directions.

The Downsides of East-West Bed Configurations: Why North-South Beds Re

East-west van bed setups with flares present challenges: space inefficiency, limited height, permanent modifications, leaks, and increased costs. The north-south layout, especially with the Code7 bed system, offers unrestricted length, enhanced accessibility, and unmatched versatility, making it...

code7gear.com

 

That’s awesome. But out of my price range unfortunately. I may try to copy that design with a DIY. It does eat up a lot of cabinet space on the passenger side though.

 

I did the homemade Murphy bed. N to S, so no issues with making the bed long enough. Works great and since the bed can be folded up fully made, takes like t seconds to make the bed.

This setup gives you full use of the van for whatever bulky stuff you may want to carry.

 

I did the homemade Murphy bed. N to S, so no issues with making the bed long enough. Works great and since the bed can be folded up fully made, takes like t seconds to make the bed.

This setup gives you full use of the van for whatever bulky stuff you may want to carry.

Can you post pictures please.

 

We used our van the first summer with an East-West bed setup. I'm 6'0" and I just fit in the inset panels in our van. I ended up hating it plus every time my wife had to get up I had to move or let her climb over me (Not an issue for you). I really like to stretch out. So we switched our bed to North-south and lost about a foot of build area but made the garage bigger.
I have seen some builds with North-south beds that slide, so when not in use you push the bed toward the rear of the van and the mattress folds upward to make a seat.
If that would not work then I would look and a lifting bed.

 

We used our van the first summer with an East-West bed setup. I'm 6'0" and I just fit in the inset panels in our van. I ended up hating it plus every time my wife had to get up I had to move or let her climb over me (Not an issue for you). I really like to stretch out. So we switched our bed to North-south and lost about a foot of build area but made the garage bigger.
I have seen some builds with North-south beds that slide, so when not in use you push the bed toward the rear of the van and the mattress folds upward to make a seat.
If that would not work then I would look and a lifting bed.

Ya I’m the same way. I like stretch out and explore the space of the bed. If you were miserable at 6’ then I’ll be super miserable. North south is looking like my only option.

 

I made murphy type bed that hangs from 4 straps attacked to wall -
bed folds up/down in seconds its 1 foot thick when folded up against wall -
height is quickly adjustable and can be adjusted for slanted parking -

I live in my van so access to storage under bed is important to be easy -
bed frame can be made in less than on day from plywood

 

I have flares on a regular length van, and they work well for me at 6'3. The link shared above "downsides of east-west" bed is pretty accurate in my experience. I have a permanent bed setup and share the bed with my wife. The biggest thing I noticed once it was built out is that you really don't get as much room at the full length (80 inches) as you would think. The mattress has to cut-out to extend all the way to the back of the van (as the article describes). It works fine for me and my wife because she sleeps on the shorter side (she's 5'6) and I get the side that has the full length (close to 80 inches). I notice that the flares for a EL van are shorter than the regular length 148 so this might even mean less usable space?

The other thing realized once I built out the van was that the flare really does dictate the bed height as well. If you put the bed too high, than you can't fit your head in the flare. This works for me because I have a medium roof, and wouldn't want to set the bed much higher anyway because of head room. I also don't carry bikes in the garage, which is one of the reasons I see a lot of folks set the bed higher.

The one thing I have not experienced with the flare that the article mentions is that it does not interfere with my 270 degree rear doors. It does create an issue for my slider where my finished slider window panel (plywood, foam, fabric) rubs slightly when the slider is all the way open.

I do like the way the flares look on the exterior and that it sets my van apart just a little bit from all the delivery transits on the road (not really compelling reason, I know!).

 

If your bed is queen or narrower it will fit between the D pillars going N-S. That gives an additional 5-6" of length vs going E-W. You could still cut the corners out of the mattress when going E-W but that doesn't work for everyone.

 

This guy is like 6'5" and has a pretty cool bed setup, in my opinion.

I'm 6 feet even and ended up with an east/west full size bed using Ikea Skorva rails. The full size mem foam mattress just squeezes in there, and I only have thinsulate on the recessed portion of the walls....no wall panels at all. If I end up installing wall panels some day, I'll probably have to move to a north/south bed.

So I think that, unless you're okay with sleeping diagonally, you may not be happy with an east/west configuration.

 

Other then the slightly pulse-raising experience of cutting a section of the side of your van out, I'd say the flares are kind of a no-brainer in the campervan decision-making department, particularly if you are at or above 6 feet in height.



It's clean looking, opens up an area of the van you likely need it in the most when performing a conversion of this type and leaves the rest of the space in front underneath and beside it available for everything else, which you're going to find is crucial.



Even if your doing a North - South Bed arrangement It's still nice to have a bit more elbow room side to side, either way.

 

 

We were able to get two full-size beds in place (three if you're counting the front conversation bed) in our build when incorporating the flares with the Vimy Interior kit from Moxie. That plus storage, a galley kitchen, frig, stove sink etc, and seating for 4 adults. Oh, and a toilet box I've been using currently for firewood.

Ford Transit Camper Van Floor Plans | Moxie Van Co — Moxie Van Co. | Campervan Conversions | Add-ons & Upgrades

Moxie also has the trim rings available for the transit if you need them and will likely sell them to you below retail or even below what FlareSpace normally charges for them.

 

You can make the bed as wide as you want. You only need your feet and head in the flares leaving lots of room for stretching and shoulder space.

I highly recommend a permanent bed or at least something you do not need to make every night. Also, make sure there is a lip so the bed does not slid off when driving. Here is a pic of the bed setup in my last van. It was a 148 standard with flares.

If it was just me I would do flares. If it was me and a partner I would do a north/south. If I were to do it again i would do a 148 ext with a north/south bed and maybe flares for extra space.

 

Did you make those cabinets? They look awesome!

 

@timreg2 makes the key point that is usually missed: a queen-sized mattress fits inside the rear doors, moving the front of it back much more than 5-6" - it's more like 10". Or even slightly more.

I'd rather not have less than a queen-sized mattress - accustomed to the big king at home with lots of room to sprawl. Taking that 60"x80" queen-size mattress as our baseline, it /appears/ that we'd be wasting 20" with North-South. But reality is it's no more than 10" actual difference. And can be a couple more inches because the mattress will actually push all the way against the center posts of the rear doors with the corners into the window-opening areas. Taking that limit, you're down to an 8" forward-pushed difference. AFTER that consideration, then it's worth looking at the other gains/losses.

In a flare, there is less than two feet of height to accommodate the mattress and the people-space. Meaning really the best mattress height is the exact bottom of the flares - with the mattress extending into the flares. (As mentioned in the linked article above). IOW, really not a lot of options for moving things around UNLESS one does the Revel setup where the bed is segmented and a portion of it pulls up into the ceiling to present a dining area (instead of a garage). If you haven't seen that setup in person, seek it out... it's pretty cool use of the space (with flares).

So you basically end up with one option that can be as much as 76" or so in length to the flares - seems like plenty. Except that the shape of the space is weird, which means more compromises - taller folks usually say they sleep diagonally when solo. My brother has E-W with no flares and doesn't mind it: squished a bit when the missus is there, diagonal when not.

But N-S makes many other options possible - mostly oriented around height options.

Here's our old Sprinter. Believe it or not, that mattress didn't even press hard against the doors. Just fit inside the windows and barely touched the center of the doors. And the Transit is actually deeper because the D-pillars are larger.

In our Transit, we made the bed raise/lower plus "couch mode" so we needed to add rails head and foot to hold the mattress in place in couch mode. We made the rear rail all the way across, which make the sides of the doors the real limit (still about 8" inset or more). When we build our next Transit, the rear rail will be a different shape to gain the additional 2-4" of inside space. If it were easier to re-mount the legs of our bed, I'd probably do it on this one.

The key feature for us in a van is garage space, so a static bed (like our Sprinter) really limits our garage space. And the compromise of height - low is spacious, high is coffin-like inside - led us to raise/lower. Can't do that very well with E-W unless doing the Revel style, which has issues for a garage setup.

Same bed at upper limit (just before the door narrows) and with the garage slider slid out the back of the doors. Huge garage that isn't as easy to do with E-W with flares.

Our next van (soon) will be the medium-length and we intend to still do north-south while also including a front seat (and full galley, fridge, etc). So our experience and theories will be tested!

 

Thanks for sharing. How did you create the elevator bed ?

 

When I’m living in my van, how important will it be to stand up in the back and walk in and out the back doors?

If I have a Murphy or fold up bed, this can be achieved, but then I’m losing valuable upper cabinet space. My main concern is storage because I’m moving my whole life into the van, and I have a lot of hobbies and gear.

 

I have a Murphy bed in a medium roof and have upper cabinets on both sides. The bed is a fold down for a twin, slide out for full width. So if it's pushed and then folded up, it fits easily under cabinets.

And nearly the full width is available for cargo or for standing up and stretching or getting dressed.

 

Thanks for sharing. How did you create the elevator bed ?

Lots of details here, including parts list. The "couch mode" has been upgraded recently, but works the same - just swapped out for better-suited / sized actuators. The setup in that link for the bed platform and up/down is the byproduct of 2-3 variations for mounting and such... and remains solid to this day. We'll be repeating it in the next van.

When I’m living in my van, how important will it be to stand up in the back and walk in and out the back doors?

If I have a Murphy or fold up bed, this can be achieved, but then I’m losing valuable upper cabinet space. My main concern is storage because I’m moving my whole life into the van, and I have a lot of hobbies and gear.

Use-case based. Garage is our focus - might have bought some pre-built RV otherwise - for gear for our adventures, as well as using the van like a "truck" and carrying long stuff like surfboards and building materials. And a lot of our adventures are in winter and/or during a storm, so not /having/ to leave the van to get our gear ready is a nice bonus.

This was a multi-sport adventure for two this summer: mountain-bikes, snowboards, SUPs, climbing gear and all the usual accoutrements. Bed-height pretty high - not as spacious inside.

This is single-person winter storm last year. Absolutely dumping out. All the gear inside. Walk out through the slider all geared up ready to go. And lower the bed all the way down at night.

Or an in-between case. Bringing a bunch of gear up to the condo in Mammoth - including a big TV - but with 4-5 people's gear just thrown in there with the "truck" side of things.

Recently refinished the side storage of the garage so things have their "place" based on usage patterns of the last three years. And it looks better. The garage tray is also where we put the additional bed if we have 3-4 people and they want to sleep inside.

 

Lots of details here, including parts list. The "couch mode" has been upgraded recently, but works the same - just swapped out for better-suited / sized actuators. The setup in that link for the bed platform and up/down is the byproduct of 2-3 variations for mounting and such... and remains solid to this day. We'll be repeating it in the next van.



Use-case based. Garage is our focus - might have bought some pre-built RV otherwise - for gear for our adventures, as well as using the van like a "truck" and carrying long stuff like surfboards and building materials. And a lot of our adventures are in winter and/or during a storm, so not /having/ to leave the van to get our gear ready is a nice bonus.

This was a multi-sport adventure for two this summer: mountain-bikes, snowboards, SUPs, climbing gear and all the usual accoutrements. Bed-height pretty high - not as spacious inside.
View attachment 200947

This is single-person winter storm last year. Absolutely dumping out. All the gear inside. Walk out through the slider all geared up ready to go. And lower the bed all the way down at night.
View attachment 200948

Or an in-between case. Bringing a bunch of gear up to the condo in Mammoth - including a big TV - but with 4-5 people's gear just thrown in there with the "truck" side of things.
View attachment 200949

Recently refinished the side storage of the garage so things have their "place" based on usage patterns of the last three years. And it looks better. The garage tray is also where we put the additional bed if we have 3-4 people and they want to sleep inside.
View attachment 200950

I love the huge garage space. Where did you put all your electrical/storage components and water tank ?

 

no flares on my van - walls are stock thickness -

im 5;8
tried having bed cross van and I could not stretch out -
was not comfortable at all -
changed bed back to long way - much better

Ive never had flares but my guess is flares not likely to add amount of room expected -

a design where Flares actually Opened Up like a door - Pop out -
could see that being very useful and worth cutting hole in van -

 

Haven't looked into these too much but Vanspeed does make a Capsule flare extending the length EW to 83"

Install video

 

Most people I know that have flares are really disappointed that they spent as much as they did to sleep the way that they sleep within the space that the flares create.

The cost of the flares + trim ring + shipping + tax + getting them painted and hoping that the paint is a perfect match + the flarespace mattress (or cutting your own mattress) etc. adds up and before you know it you've spent $4,000 to cram your head into a small opening and block the slider window with your pillows lol.

I think relative to the cost of most DIY builds, the flares are a huge expense with minimal return on investment.

Take that with a grain of salt as I think that having a fixed full size bed in place 100% turns a van from an adventure wagon into a mobile bedroom.

Spend some time on the Sprinter forum as well reading about people's experiences with flares. I've found that they're more common in the Sprinter community since so many RV's (Revels and all the other ones) have flares from the factory.

 

Most people I know that have flares are really disappointed that they spent as much as they did to sleep the way that they sleep within the space that the flares create.

The cost of the flares + trim ring + shipping + tax + getting them painted and hoping that the paint is a perfect match + the flarespace mattress (or cutting your own mattress) etc. adds up and before you know it you've spent $4,000 to cram your head into a small opening and block the slider window with your pillows lol.

I think relative to the cost of most DIY builds, the flares are a huge expense with minimal return on investment.

Take that with a grain of salt as I think that having a fixed full size bed in place 100% turns a van from an adventure wagon into a mobile bedroom.

Spend some time on the Sprinter forum as well reading about people's experiences with flares. I've found that they're more common in the Sprinter community since so many RV's (Revels and all the other ones) have flares from the factory.

I looked @ that video that Kamloops couple made with the Vanspeed Flares ,,, Then read your post & you wrote exactly what I was thinking.

Lots of expense & labour. No way would I do that.

 

are you designing for 1 or 2 people?

 

For one

 

The flares look good tho. I’m lucky at 5’9” I didn’t need to spend that money to be comfortable lol

 

I agree that they look good and give you additional interior-living space in an area most helpful and you get all this without increasing the footprint or mobility of the vehicle itself which is also a pretty big deal itself

So it's not such a big debate for me really.

There's some money/ time and or expertise involved and I guess it can ultimately depend on your given floor plan, in how much a benefit it will be to you ultimately but it's unlikely to be anything else but a benefit for any campervan

PK

 

I'm 5'11 and sleep east / west, no flares in a regular 148 full height. When my wife and kids are not with me I like to sleep diagonal in the bed. My counter top and the top of my fridge are at the same height as the base of the mattress, I could see figuring out a way to have a bed with an extra segment that stretches from the fridge to the counter top and possibly have a convertible N/S bed. I'd probably use a E/W mattress and then just have a portion of mattress for your feet that would complete the N/S, this might work for you and wouldn't take much effort to put in place. I've considered this as a way to easily fit me and the 2 kids in the main bed and may still work on that later.

The mattress I use is: 78"x56"x6" (queen) and I cut roughly 2-3" from it as well as more in the corners to fit the contours of the rear AC routing and the rear pillars. It leaves roughly 75" east to west. I still have the passenger ceiling in it which makes the space between the top of the mattress and where the ceiling meets above the windows a bit tight, which is why I prefer to sleep diagonal when alone. It's a bit tighter because I prioritized storage space in the garage.

 

What about the Vanspeed Capsules? That is what I am considering.

 

Considering the same especially since if you order the windows, they come installed.

 

What flares did you purchase?