Leveling Adjustable Bed For Camper Van, RV, and Trailer - How I Made a Leveling and Folding Bed Platform for Mercedes Sprinter Van
- Daniel Soulbuilt
- 7 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Since the van doesn't have leveling jacks, parking on a non-level surface results in sleeping at an angle, which can make it very difficult to sleep. Therefore, I designed the second iteration of the bed to have the ability to adjust the angle in both directions.
The bed is attached on one side to 2 vertical t-slot rails on the wall. Hinges are used as the interface between the bed frame and the wall. The hinges can slide up and down the wall. This is the first adjustment that is made to level the bed fore and aft. This direction is adjusted less often, as it is more common for the van to be tilted side to side than front to back. The hinges are attached to the rails via bolts and T-slots nuts. To adjust, the t-slot nuts are loosened, and ratchet straps are used to raise or lower each end of the bed that is attached to the wall.
Once the bed rail attached to the wall is level front to back, the bolts on the hinges are retightened and locked in place. The same ratchet strap used to adjust the level at the wall, passes under one half of the bed and up to the ceiling. Now the side to side level can be adjusted on the half side of the bed attached to the wall. Using the same ratchet straps as before, loosen or tighten them to adjust the side to side level of the bed platform.
Large (Boat trailer sized winches) worm gear winches are common and cheap, but they are a little too large and heavy for this application.
This one is about the same size as the boat winch, but very heavy at 18lbs. It won't work.
There are relatively compact winches made for volleyball nets. They are a little larger than the self-retracting ratchets that I currently use. They are not as compact as I would like, but they will work and are readily available. Most are expensive, but I found one for $125, which is cheaper than screwing around trying to make one.
The most compact, least expensive worm gear box I've found are ones designed to be used for retractable awnings.
The screw holes on this one could be used for mounting the strap material, but it limits the length of strap that can be coiled onto the shaft before it hits the screws.
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