[gregoryx]

Totally doing your Glideaway on our new van, @Irontent. Looks like there's still some on discount. Any observations / advice on mounting? 4.5x1.5 rails seem like more than necessary; is that accurate? Or is the bed frame pretty flimsy and really needs bulking up? Anything else I should be thinking about?

 

[gregoryx]

@Irontent, thank you for the details. I hadn't even thought about the full as an option to keep the frame smaller than a queen-sized mattress. I was trying to find clear measurements and didn't see any. You're on the same track we are: our current bed sticks into the rear door frame; but the new van, we're hoping to get an additional 5-6" stuffing it ALL the way against the rear door (since this is a medium-length). I had assumed I'd just build a different version of our current platform to assure it pushes all the way back. Now, I'm wondering about the Glideaway option... 🤔

@Ranger Robin, thank you for the offer. If you bring the van up to OC, let me know; I'd love to come see. Based on your photo, I assume that's the queen-sized Glideaway - with the two actuators versus one? Super glad to see it doesn't require the cross-members; that is part of what's making me consider this direction versus recreating what we have in our current van. Wait... is your East-West? The photo looks like it is... 🤔

Between the two of you... if I were going to need to cut down the width to fit inside the rear door frame and perhaps the length as well... go with the dual-actuator queen and do some cutting? Or go full and extend the sides if necessary? 🤔

Or do I just go with what I KNOW I can do well and build my own again? 🤷‍♀️

 

[gregoryx]

Our frame is only an inch or two from the back door when closed. We utilized ALL the length available by protruding as far back as possible. I left the inch or so space between the back door and the rear of the frame so the up/down could be done with the rear doors closed -- just barely. You can see in the first picture in post 4 above how far back into the trim / door frame the bed protrudes.

The full size Glideaway we used has a total of four actuators -- two for the head incline and two for the foot/knee incline. With the frame width we added, a queen size mattress (shortened to 74 inches long) fits nicely on TOP of the frame and, since the Glideaway top is the same height as the "surround" frame, the mattress is fully supported when the bed is flat.

With the full Glideaway in the head and/or foot/knee incline position, the sides of the mattress are unsupported on each side about 3.5 inches. In actuality, this makes no difference in our use.

And, using the full-size with a shortened queen mattress (60 wide & 74 long) means you only need to cut the square tubing on each side/end flush with the Glideaway cross members at the head/foot -- doing so took a few seconds for each cut with a 120v grinder/cut-off wheel -- easy/peazy.

And, attaching the 1545 to the top plates of the Figrelli lifts is also easy -- I just used 1515 inside corners (2 or 3 per lift leg) with the vertical leg bolted to the 1545 in the north two legs (bolted to two of the 1530 slats for the south two legs), and the horizontal leg bolted through the top plate (portion that is not obscured by the leg itself). Only required enlarging a couple of the existing Figrelli holes, and in a couple of cases a new hole due to the exact location of each specific Figrelli leg in my case since the legs don't form a perfect rectangle.

I dreaded build the bed, but it turned out to be very straight forward once once i took precise measurements of the actual Glideaway base I used. I thought about building the frame on the outside, then lifting it in, but I assembled a portion of it sitting on the legs in the van, and just kept going. Took all of 2 hours to assemble the entire 8020 portion of the base.

My wife and I found lifting the Glideaway into the frame through the back doors was also not a big deal. With your young, fit son, it would be a 10 minute job. It took my wife and I about 1/2 hour since we are old and slow.

To secure the Glideaway to the frame, I simply drilled two 5/16 inch holes in each of the head / foot 1x2 steel tube east/west members, through the 1.5 inch 8020 "slat", and secured with 8mm class 10 bolts, washers, and locks. Again, a piece of cake.

I am attaching some additional pictures showing some more details:
...

Awesome. I really appreciate your insight and clever solution on the length / width issue. In our case, we'd like to keep the full length of the queen mattress as well - which will likely just overlap into the rear door window areas, as it did in our Sprinter. This should work out great.

I'm glad to hear the full-size has the same number of actuators; it looked like it only had two instead of four in the diagrams.

Thanks so much for the guidance!


EDIT: ordered! Committed now. 🤣

 

[gregoryx]

... I will be using the Firgelli table legs on the lower bed, but I haven't yet nailed down what I'll do with the upper bed. (if anything).
...

I ordered these legs this time. A bit more throw and seems to be more solid mounting. We'll see... 🤞

 

[gregoryx]

Nice. I like that they published Arduino code. That should be easy to put into esphome too.

Not sure if that's a good idea.

I'm currently using the Upsy Desky with our existing bed and it certainly has the risk of hitting a button when I shouldn't... but it's kinda cool to have the function there. I'm considering adding a small, wide-angle camera looking into the garage area to give a remote view of the risk. In theory, could do some processing of the video stream to on/off the functions... 🤔

It'll be a while before I'm at the point of considering that for the new van... 🤷‍♀️

 

[gregoryx]

Thanks for all the detailed information and discussion here! My wife and I are on the verge of pulling the trigger on the Progressive Automation legs and the Rize Home Freestyle full-size bed. After reading the user manual for the Freestyle bed, I noticed two things:

1. The bed frame requires support around its perimeter only. Cross supports do not seem necessary for residential use. Maybe we don't need them in van use, either.
2. There might be a chance that the bed can be powered directly from a DC source, eliminating the need to have an inverter turned on.
   View attachment 203672

Both of those are in my plans. I have the gear - including the new lifters - but everything is still in the boxes. 😏

 

[gregoryx]

@gregoryx @Irontent and anyone else experienced with lifting columns--
Did you ever feel you needed guide rails to limit the bed's movement in the raised position? I ask because my bed will be raised most of the time, including on rough roads, and I would like to learn from your experience.
Thank you,
jkd

No need for guide rails. But we try not to drive rugged fire roads with it up. Generally, I try to keep it lowered below the galley and fridge while driving in hopes that they'd all work together to keep from the bed dismounting and heading toward our heads in a worst-case scenario.

That said, after the first rugged fireroad years back, we dismounted the bed and strengthened the plates holding it down. I don't hesitate or worry about it on rugged roads... just don't like the movement, which is really not noticeable even a foot below the top point.

I think it's really about the columns getting some overlap between them, hence it works pretty well even a few inches lower than the top.

 

[gregoryx]

No worries — we all want the same thing — to help the next guy up.

Love it. Yer a good man, Charlie Brown. 😁

 

[gregoryx]

@gregoryx @Irontent Thank you for your replies regarding guide rails. Very helpful and exactly what I needed.
@gregoryx I intend to order the same LG-07 lifting columns. Assuming you have received yours, what do you think of them?
Thank you,
jkd

I think they're in the boxes. I haven't actually checked. 🤣

I've got too many projects in the hopper right now... I hope to eyeball them and start working on the new design in a week or so. Gotta finish our Moonboard climbing wall first - just to get it out of the patio it's taking up space in right now. Then get the 28kWh of batteries 😱 moved out of our garage into the closet they're destined for then I can take up the bed design.