Finally, after many iterations, ideas and attempts I’ve come up with a front bed solution that actually works, is comfortable and was cost effective. Of course, I could have went and spent literally up to $5000 on a setup but that was not feasible and I knew I could create something just as good for a lot less money.
I wanted the bed to use the Ford OEM passenger seat rails and legs in order to provide the greatest amount of safety to passengers and make removing the seat as easy as possible. You can see a picture of the seat rails and OEM passenger seats below
So, I started by purchasing some OEM seat legs from Ebay.
These are super sturdy and “click-in” to the rails that are bolted to the floor of the van from the factory.
I then started my search for a double seat that could fold into bed. It had to conform to the dimensions of the space right behind the driver’s seat and forward of the we bath/shower wall. I found the perfect seat on AliExpress so I kind of took a chance and ordered it. I knew it would take months to get to me so ordering in January wasn’t a problem because I wasn’t going to work on it in the Winter anyway. The seat is 36″ wide, comes with built in seat belts and has an integrated sliding track system.
It arrived in May’24 and I got to work on mocking up a “base” or “platform” to mate the legs to the seat. I made it out of wood so I could easily line the seat up and take crude measurements.
I decided a “test-run” of sorts of necessary to really see if the bed in this configuration was going to work so we took a camping trip and used it over the weekend. Well, it was amazing (just ask my family 🙂 ) so I knew it was time to create the “base” or “platform” out of a proper metal structure to make the entire thing more permanent.
I found a local certified welder/fabricator and he was great to work with me on a sturdy structure using 1.5″ square tubing and steel plates. The result turned out great and the seat looks and functions just like an OEM option. The seat unfolds to a surface of 36″ by about 58″ using the driver’s seat in swivel mode (180° facing the rear of the van). Adding a self-inflating camping mattress provides ample cushion making the entire thing so comfortable!
