Home Forums General Discussion getting in and out of the folding bed !! Reply To: getting in and out of the folding bed !!

#835
Fred & Gill
Participant

    Ah Tom, if only a backflip from the upper step was possible – especially at our age!

    A sleeping bag is not really practical in a roof bed – something we learned early on in our elevating roof camper days.

    We use two separate single 4.5 tog duvets, each in their own cover – in winter, as this weekends trip, we put a second duvet in each cover = 9.0 togs each. Separate duvets allows plenty of overlap.

    Having separate duvets for us is useful, because in the cooler months Gill prefers downstairs to enjoy her morning cup of tea sat up cosy in bed. In the real winter, I do the same. When we are wild camping, as this weekend, we often both sleep upstairs which leaves the living area intact.

    There are probably many variations of maneuvering in/out of bed. The Hymer manouvre was demonstrated at one Exsistravaganza, which is swivelling on your bottom and can be useful if you come down the ladder facing the back of the van. I go up facing the front of the van, move forward and then swivel on my knees so that my head is towards the back of the van and then climb under the duvet.

    Its a big wonderful bed and well worth the effort.

    Fresh water tank  emptying is easy from the side for me because of my simple mods.

    I pushed some 20mm blue water pipe up into the base of the out let under the van (tight fit), used a washing machine hose connection, which is a loose fit over the blue pipe and connected black water hose to that which runs around the spare wheel carrier to the side skirt of the van. I pushed some 22mm

    plumbing pipe into the black hose and have an end cap to seal it off (not really necessary).  I screwed a Terry tool clip into something (can’t remember) which holds the pipe safely in place at the side.

    For waste emptying I have no need of a hose because if on a CL I drain waste into my empty toilet cassette and trudge off to the waste point which is not usually accessible to the motorhome. I made a fitting from 45mm bend (not 90deg) and a sleeve from waste pipe as an insert to fit over the odd size German outlet fitting and sanded down for a easy push fit. This fitment allows me to easily direct water into my cassette or into a drive over waste point as demonstrated in the photo at my house today.