Cabover bed

The cabover bed area is finally (mostly) finished! In an earlier post I mentioned extending the cabover so that the east-west bed, which was originally about 46″ by 88″ could become a north-south bed that is 75″ long and 72″ wide.

To extend the bed I removed the nose of the camper and extended it forward by 17″. Then I added a platform to extend the foot of the bed into the living area of the camper by 12″. The area under the 12″ extension will contain the electrical system and storage. I added a wall with oval cutout to give some separation of the bed from the rest of the camper.

After removing and reinstalling the nose of the camper I found that the fibreglass inner end cap would no longer fit. Although it’s very flexible, it wasn’t possible to attach it on all edges at the same time. Since I wanted the cabover walls lined with wood, I recreated the inner end cap with aluminum, and then proceeded to cover the walls with 1/16″ cherry plywood. It’s the first time I’d worked with plywood that thin, but it went well. I finished the visible site with polyurethane and the back with epoxy.

The glass in the original front window was foggy and I was concerned about it leaking when driving into the rain. I decided to build a new window using two dual pane windows that I custom ordered. It’s the same size as the original, but is not operable.

There is storage for clothing on both sides of the bed. There will be a Froli system installed under the mattress for ventilation. There are reading lights and a USB charger at the front, LED strip lights on the ceiling, and an AC electrical outlet at the foot of the bed. In the ceiling there is a Maxxfan Deluxe which has a cover that allows it to be left open for ventilation even if it’s raining. In front of the fan is an escape hatch, which could be opened for stargazing or ventilation if bugs are not a problem. I build the escape hatch with aluminum and will include more photos of it in a future post.