🛠️ Member Build Andy's Meteor 1958 - DIY sleeping platform and more

theregoesmybus · Monday at 4:37 PM

So far...

Method 703 17" +35 offset wheels
Toyo Open Country AT3 285/70/17 (C load) tires
OEM First Edition mud flaps
Mace Mfg volume nob
center cargo bin organizing tray
removed iForceMax badge
OEM roof rails (swapped out the First Edition rack that came with it)
Thule Aeroblade EVO cross bars (53")
Thule Vector M cargo box
DIY sleeping platform & storage

theregoesmybus · Monday at 4:39 PM

Designed and built our own sleeping platform for our 1958 last week and took it out for a test run this past weekend along the Trask River in western Oregon. I will try to write up and share more details about how I did this in another post someday soon. It was about as simple a design from an engineering perspective as I could imagine. I was most concerned with ease of use and it being robust, but more importantly, my wife (the target audience for comfort) was duly impressed with the size and quality of the sleeping situation.

The platform itself sits just under 10" tall, which allows for ample storage underneath and the 4 inch mattress sits just about the same height as the side armrests/cup holders for the non-existent third row seats, so we get more space for our legs to stretch out. We managed to reasonably and comfortably fit my wife and I, our 2 year old daughter, and our 60 lb dog. For setup and sleeping, the dog sleeps in front passenger seat and our daughter's car seat moves to the driver seat. The platform allows for the back to be secured in place while maintaining access to all original storage cubbies, and the front part to be split and flattened separately as needed.

Dimensions are 76 inches long, by 44 inches wide in back and 54 inches wide in the front. The mattress we found at REI and was an indulgent purchase to make sure my wife was as comfortable as possible, while still having a mattress that could be minimized and stored away. It is a bit smaller than it could be, but it was close enough and solved a big part of the problem. Here's the mattress: https://www.rei.com/product/246601/exped-megamat-auto-sleeping-pad

I consider it a prototype and someday I hope to refine and rebuild. Keeping the same general design approach, I could probably use about 30% less material without sacrificing strength.

PixelMagic · Monday at 4:52 PM

Excellent buildout! I'm looking forward to seeing your final modifications.

EOD Guy · Monday at 5:07 PM

Looks like quality work!

Did you use pins in the head rest mounts to secure the forward platform base?

theregoesmybus · Monday at 5:19 PM

EOD Guy said:
Looks like quality work!

Did you use pins in the head rest mounts to secure the forward platform base?

No. There's really no connectors at all for the front part as it doesn't need them. The only connection is some velcro on the bottom of the cross member resting on the back of the seats. I'll add a picture of that. The forward cross member just rests at the top edge of the seat with a small lip just keeping it from sliding backwards. A little friction does the rest.

NOTE: In this current setup, I didn't cut the cross support members so you could split the platform, but that would be easy enough to do. Seeing as we probably won't ever have the need to split the seats, I just did the simpler thing which was to keep the cross support members extending across all the seats as one piece.

EOD Guy · Monday at 5:27 PM

That set up is one of the better ones I've seen posted. Did you consider flipping the seats forward to see if you would gain additional storage underneath the forward section?

theregoesmybus · Monday at 5:30 PM

EOD Guy said:
That set up is one of the better ones I've seen posted. Did you consider flipping the seats forward to see if you would gain additional storage underneath the forward section?

Thanks! Not really, as flipping the seats up takes up far more length and I really wanted to have at least 6 feet flat. As it is now, we have it at 76 inches (6' 4"), and the front seats still have room in front to accommodate car seat and dog in passenger seat.

EOD Guy · Monday at 5:39 PM

theregoesmybus said:
Thanks! Not really, as flipping the seats up takes up far more length and I really wanted to have at least 6 feet flat. As it is now, we have it at 76 inches (6' 4"), and the front seats still have room in front to accommodate car seat and dog in passenger seat.

I noticed right after I posted that your mattress went all the way to the Frt seats.

You seem to have skills, on my build page are several mods/additions you might want to check out.