How to make wall mounted foldable beds for your cargo / camper conversion

all right guys welcome back to the garage today today i'm gonna do a video guys that you guys specifically asked me to do and it all has to do with the beds and my camper either the bunk beds or even the full-sized bed today i'm going to try to help you guys out i've been having a lot of requests on this and to hopefully help you guys make some beds of your own in your custom trailer [Applause] [Music] well today i want to actually walk you through the beds or the thought presses i had some some maybe some tips and some tricks to kind of help you because every single one of these is going to be a custom install you know it may work for my my trailer and it may not work for yours it depends where you installed it i had some um things i had to figure out like i have a wheel well down in here and also the biggest thing is the height um my trailer is actually eight foot tall sealants a lot of the cargo trailers aren't eight-foot ceilings they're like seven foot seven foot six and it's something you need to consider um i had a buddy of my trailer um out here and i had one of those golf carts and it wouldn't fit through the door because the the height requirement so that was one of the things i reached out and like hey i need one that's like eight foot tall it gives me a lot of head clearance and it really helps with these beds over here because that's one of the biggest things you got to figure out so let's jump on the beds real quick both these beds are made almost the same um even though the one's a bunk and it flips this way and the other ones are the the support on the walls and the support of the frame and the mechanisms all that's really going to be the same on both beds it's just the orientation and the bunk beds is going to be a little bit different one because there's one here and one here but this this leg that sits out there that's about really the only really difference between these two beds um so what i did for you guys today is um i have the set of bunk beds um and this comes in my first uh discussion point is you need to get the height of your yours of your trailer um because in this case i wanted them to go on the side so i can't have you know two humongous wide beds so i narrowed it down to these types of uh mattresses and that gave me enough room you know from here a little space in here a little space in here and that's something you're just gonna have to figure out it really is gonna depend on how much real estate you have on your walls so what i did i i kinda narrowed it down kind of got an idea did a lot of measurements on it and i ended up getting these mattresses as i ordered the mattresses and that was one of the biggest thing is i would highly recommend actually having the mattress in front of you because sometimes the measurements aren't the same sometimes they over calculate stuff like so i would definitely get that mattress you're actually going to use before you actually start building any of this so what i'm going to do is walk you through how i did it from the the beginning on it so what i did for you guys today is i took my bed system completely apart for you guys to try to give you all the best um the view uh when i built this so what i did is my i got my mattress and i built this frame this this this outer box on it and what i did i just got the actual measurement of my mattress and i believe i added one inch um to that measurement on this side and this side and i got this stuff right here this this is when you go to like a raw lumber or a raw metal supplier and this is called angle iron it's just two inches by two inches it's pretty much a piece of metal like this i don't know if you guys can see that but it's just pretty they call it angle iron and all i did as i got this measurement i put a 45 degree angle on it you can see the the 45 there i cut it on a chop saw a metal chop saw 45 um so once i got all this piece and the other pieces cut i put them together and then i welded them up and and then on the back side i uh made it all smooth and this is what the back side of it looks like see this is this is that 45 degree angle um some guys may say that you can actually overlap this piece on this piece and you'll have an overlap and you technically can do that um that's kind of like a i would say a cheater way of doing it but it definitely will work but i wanted it this way because you can see it is a nice clean um connection right there the corners are real nice and smooth and stuff like that so i went with that route i didn't i wanted it as smooth and as nice as i can get it but you did guys could definitely um just overlap it if you wanted to but i decided not to do that so once you have the frame fixed for either this bed or or or the two beds it's the same it's just different sizes i actually went down to my local tractor supply tractor supplies for us it's kind of like a like a farm kind of place and they have panels called cattle panels goat panels and pig panels but anyways i end up getting the panel where these squares it has the same squares throughout the entire piece they sell some pieces where it's bigger and it gets smaller but i wanted the same squares throughout the entire project on bottom side and so this one thing it does two things one when you put that metal in there and i welded every little piece on there it gives your bed a lot of support like um from the it won't they won't tweak or anything once you weld that in there it really locks those 90 degrees in and makes you a nice solid uh you know platform on it won't wiggle anything like that so you'll i had the whole platform for all my beds laid out and one of the things i did too is i did everything on the floor um i have i have a shop and i i built this entire system on the ground so that gave me a nice level surface to work on um and so as i would definitely recommend that if you're trying to actually do it build this while it's on the wall i think you're gonna have a real hard time doing it like that um i actually have some pictures of when i was making the system it was flat on the ground so i would highly recommend that i did a couple of test fits back and forth um but that's something i would definitely do but anyways um so i had the frame so then i had to figure out you know how am i going to put it on the wall and for the little bed i'm sorry the one bed i came up this is the same stuff this is angle iron and for the single bed i only did this one little leg i think that legs like maybe two foot long and and this is going to depend how do you mount that piece to the wall um i have plywood behind here and then i have this bead board so i you know i probably got a good three quarter inch of wood maybe half inch that i actually got something to screw to so i i got these little lag bolts um they're of course you want to get the the the link that you need for your application and i screwed it on there so this this mounts to my trailer permanently it will never come out um anything like that so i did one for this side and then i did one for that side and the bunk beds are the same way it's just the only difference is because there's two beds the the the the leg itself it goes up the entire length let me see let me pull that bed down and i'll show you guys you guys get but this is the um this is that same piece on angle iron uh as i did down there it's just i ran this one all the way down so it's one continuous piece and i did the same little bolts i bolted it to to the to the to the wall itself and then so then i had a way of secure properly securing something to my walls but then i had the the mattress or the the frame here the mattress frame well then i had to figure out well you know the mattress the mattresses i got i believe are six inches thick you know so i got this much thickness on it so when they're up against the wall they they got to be six inches away the platform that holds underneath it has to be six inches away so how do i get this on the wall and be you know six inches away when it gets folded up um so my solution was is i ended up building this little um i don't know what you want to call it bracket whatever and it's the same for the bunk beds the bump meds are longer because they're oriented the other way but this this little bracket here it is made out of two by two um so there's a two by two piece right here it's like a i did like a little like a little l right here and then i got two long pieces that go all the way to their end and it's just another one of these all right so this is that piece and it actually sits up like this and this will go on the wall and i'm going to show you guys how to put in the wall but the thickness of it is the the thickness of that mattress so i built this little platform and i'm going to i'm going to mount on the wall and i'm going to show you how this goes on it and my whole theory was this is those brackets on the wall i want them to be permanently part of the camper and never be taken out but my thought was well what if i'm hauling something and the beds are taking up too much space you know i try to make them as compact as possible but i wanted this trailer to really be a universal really try to be anything and everything i needed to be so i wanted the potential of being able to remove the beds and with this system right here i can unbolt this from the mounts on the wall and i can take the whole beds off it's a little bit of work but i could technically do it so that was one big uh concern i wanted to do it's not that big of a service you know obviously this is just my personal preference if you didn't want to you would have did like this but i just think it gives you a lot of flexibility on it so let me throw this on the wall and i'll show you how um it gets mounted on there all right so here is the the bracket that i built like so this is the actual thickness of a mattress and you can see these are the hinges that i used and the corresponding hinge is holded on this frame so this is the the frame to this bed and then there's the little it's a little hole and it slides on that that silver part there and it goes down but anyways i have the the system mount on the walls on both sides and all i got to do is i got to slide this in place you'll see the two holes and this unit will then bolt to that and then the bed itself will slide on both these hinges and that will attach the bed to this and it secures the whole unit so let me slide this back on the platform and i'll show you that view okay so here we are so i got this one little piece and it needs to go between these two rails you can see the little two little holes so i i you just you put it on here in between the two channels um and you all you gotta do is just bolt it together it goes like that the fun part is going to be finding the holes again so we put that bolt right there there and i used a washer a flat washer then i put a locking washer and then the bolt all right so here we are i got that side bolted in and this side bolted in and this is what it kind of looks like um it says there's the hinge and there's the long piece right here and like i said it's it's bolted in right there maybe give a different point of view of how it is so it's just this system right here minus the cat um so now that that is securely mounted to these then all i had to do is because when i made this on the ground you know i had i had this lined up perfectly with this so and then i put the hinges on and then i welded them so then all i got to do is get this portion of the hinge what crazy cat get this part of the hinge line up on here and then it'll just slide over that and then that will actually connect my bed to that system and that'll give it the hinge functionality so i'm going to try to put that on there it could be a little tricky to do mainly just with one person but i should be able to get it done hi guys so i got the bed back on there it was kind of a chore i had to get my wife to help me because i had to have this one perfectly aligned and that one perfectly lined at the same time and then they slide into the position but you can see like they're perfectly lined up there's the um the the hinge and a lot of people ask me where do i get these hinges at and um where the place where i got this this is two by two square and this is the angle iron for the bed um they also sell hinges these are actually made for like like a gate like a metal gate and they're weldable hinges so i literally just welded them on there and one of the things i did too is this is the piece that holds the silver part and this is the loop that goes on it i intentionally face the uh i guess the rod towards the front of it so my theory was is if i'm driving because this is the back of the back of the trailers here as i'm driving that they would naturally stay in place if we did the other way it probably may potentially have the opportunity to um with just driving and stuff they would slide and come out um so i intentionally faced them that direction but then i also wanted extra step two is on um the front of these like this is the front one um you may not can see it but i actually drilled a hole through here i don't know if you could see yeah there's a little bit hole right there and i put a a cotter pin one of these cotter pins um in that little hole i don't know if i can put it in there but but see i put a cotter pin in there i can't do it i can't do now i can't do it right now uh i actually hurt my thumb the other day but um anyways um i put a cotter pin on there right there and then it won't allow it to go out that way anyway so it's just like an additional safety thing but that was just one of the things i did um to help that portion so so now we have the permanently mounted um angle iron and that little contraption i built and this little contraption is built the same depth of my um mattress plus the thickness of the angle iron which is like that much and that's what that is so this makes it so when the bed goes up that is the same that is the thickness of a mattress for the most part um so now we have that and it goes up so now i have to figure out a way is how do i mount it up to the wall and stay so what i did is on the big bed i built these these little metal things here um maybe exceed on the other side better but i built this little contraption it's the same angle iron the same concept as that permanent mount this will stay permanent on my trailer at all times but i bolted it to the system and then i just got a piece of angle iron again and brought it out um and i just kind of clean this up i smooth this all out so it's not sharp you can't cut your hands or anything like that on it and then i put these little holes on both sides and those little holes come into play when i put the locking mechanism on so let me um throw the locking mechanism on there and i'll show you how i lock the beds in position i have this little it's like a spring thing right here i'll show you guys what it is so this is that bracket i did right and what i did is the same place that had the weldable hinges it's this little bracket and see it's got like a little lock pin so you can pull this pin back it'll stay open that way and so what i did is i push it in there and i line that up so then all i gotta do is i get it past that point i release the uh the spring and then all i do is push my bed back and it goes through and now that locks it in so the other side is the same way i got the same little clip all i gotta do is pull it back so it clears that little portion push the bed back and it's a little it's a little tight but that's good and then the same thing so now it clicks it clicks in the spot so now it's mounted on there i had the mattress on there a little a little cricket i didn't put it on there fully correct but that's what you get and then for this bed i got these little legs i'll link the um where i got these on amazon it's these little foldable legs and you just push them down and it folds both them down and got one on the side but i will let you guys know is this leg is actually shorter than that leg and you're like why is that on my trailer from this point on there's a little crack right there whatever the back of my trailer actually dovetail it it actually goes down so this trailer this portion is lower than this person and that's just a simple fix i just literally made that leg a little bit longer and then this one and no no big deal same thing just click it so with all that now i have the mattress that's folded completely up on there like that um the bunk bed was the exact same way is i had that you know i had the long permanent thing strapped to the thing and then over here i only had one of those little little um brackets that mounted to it over here i just have another one see i have it right here and it's stuck in there and see it's got the little angle iron it's bolted in there here here and there's the uh the the weld or the uh i'm turning out the weld the weldable hinge and see this one's got the cotter pin on it so there's no way that this cotter is going to slide out because of that pin itself um but this is that little this is that two by two you can kind of see it in there there's two options i got one here one here and the only difference is i mounted one here and i mined one up there and the biggest difference between the big bed and the double bed is is these the legs the outside legs those are easy to make because you know it's it's not in sync with something else it's by itself and no big deal but this one what i had to do is i folded the bed down and i i folded them both down because at this point they were independent of each other so this one would actually swing all the way down and hit that one and this one would swing and just hit the floor so what i did is i put them in the camper i actually this is actually the last step everything else i built on the floor i had everything mounted on the floor of my shop i had it all mocked up and stuff like that of course i did a bunch of measurements in my camper while i was making it but the legs i had to actually build them in the camper so i mounted everything into it it was all painted black and it was his final match up and i had all in there but i still had to make these legs so what i did is i opened up the the bed so let me open the bed real quick all right guys so what i did is when i got when i got it all in the trailer is i actually all i did was i got a piece of lumber and i i i supported this bed i put a level on it where my trailer was level two but i leveled my trailer out but anyways i leveled this completely out and then i i got another more pieces just like scrap wood or i think i had a jack a floor jack on there at one time so i can fine tune it but anyways i got these beds perfectly level and perpendicular to each other and then when i did that then i actually could get this measurement and see how tall i needed this piece to be so all i did is once i got that i cut me off a piece that i needed um and then i measured from here the the very edge to the actual bolt hole and i made that the same on both of them but it's very very important that these beds are absolutely like perpendicular to each other and then it's also very important that from here to that center of that bolt hole is identical it has to be the same if it isn't the same once they start going up they'll get kind of jammed up and kind of like they'll kind of go a little bit and mine does it just ever so slightly and it's just like literally not even a 16th off but so there is a little play but if you can get on perfectly that's where it is i actually um messed up on one of the holes and had to move it over completely and weld it up and finish it and look at but what the lesson i learned is beds perfectly perpendicular from here to center that bolt on here and here on the bottom one are absolutely the same um and that makes it so when you push them up because everything has to be in sync when you're doing this leg and this leg and these two beds everything goes up and it has to be the same or like i said it'll just kind of jam up um in person like that um because what you want is you go over here and you'll see when i lift this up both beds and both legs this leg and this leg are doing everything the same so then you lift them up everything stays it stays flat like that so now that the bed is up i don't have it locked in it actually stays there myself of course you won't want to drive the road is on the big bed i had this this system right here i had i had this which is all fine and dandy when it's a single bed when you got two beds i had to come up with a solution of how to mount two beds the two legs and put them all together and what i came up with is i ended up putting the leg this is that leg on the outside like i said the distance from here to here and the distance between here and that bolt those are the same but anyways what i did is once you put them in there it's flush with the bottom of the bed and what i did i made this custom little bracket it's just a flat piece of metal i think this is actually a piece of angle iron and i just cut off the flat portion of it and um did that so then i just got this on the on the one bed i the same springs that the bed is and i actually you can see they're perfectly lined up for each other so i they're the same on there so i got this one this one piece of metal i took this back and you can see it's in there like that and then when i push back on it it locks the bed and when you did on both sides one over here it kind of catches you push back on the bed and now it locks in the bed and now these beds are not going anywhere they're they're completely locked in and that locks it out just like that all right guys that's it i hope i hope i explained everything um everything that it did uh to make these beds um obviously like i said before is i made everything on the floor of my shop and that kept everything in square and looking okay and then i actually came out here and installed those first l brackets on the wall then i came installed those um those two by two brack on on the l brackets and then i slid the bed on the hinges so it's like a three piece type thing um for the beds and then i came in and made the the legs last for the the bunk beds um that that's that's both of the beds all right guys that's going to be it i hope this video actually helped you guys a lot of you guys were requesting this video and i really wanted to push out you guys this is actually like my fifth attempt to actually make this video it has been so hot in texas that my camera has actually been locking up just staying too hot and just closes down so today was a semi cool day i think it was only like 98 degrees a day and ridiculously humidity but anyways i had to get out for you guys because i know you guys want it um i think a recap on this video is you need to know the height i would try to get you the highest camper you possibly can uh like i said mine's eight foot it gave me a little bit more space for these beds they gave me the figure that allowed me to figure out what kind of mattresses i needed and then it just built from there i believe you could probably put these in anywhere any situation you need you can put them on the back wall this wall i mean you can i think they're pretty universal um but if you guys have any questions or anything like that please let me know i try to answer every comment i can um because i really do like helping people out and this is one of the major reasons why i started my youtube channel not to make a dollar i honestly could care less than like a dollar if i can help some guys out um help some people out and um i think it's the main thing a lot of the stuff some of you guys are asking me where i got the materials a lot of materials is that a metal yard the square tubing the angle iron um this this what is this called uh the paneling it's like this this wire square stuff that some of you might i got all that there i got the weldable hinge and i got the spring portion all at my uh thing but i'll actually leave like little um some links at the bottom to actually give you a better look at what that is i think the only thing i actually ordered on amazon was the um the foldable hinge for the big bed and the mattress themselves so everything else was just a local uh thing um one of the main tools i use you absolutely gotta have it there ain't no questions about it you've gotta have a welder if you don't have welder your buddy's got a welder you're going to have to have a welder if you're going to do it out of metal i don't know if you could do this out of wood wood is just a lot more flexible and i think it would break honestly just because of the weight so i would definitely stick with metal i went with the thicker gauge stuff as well too so a woman it's super strong i don't see it going anywhere uh but you're 100 gonna have to have a welder i also have a plasma cutter and i also have a chop saw um you probably could do without the plasmas cutter the chop saw makes it real nice you can do real nice 45 degree cuts and straight you know straight 90s you probably could do it with an angled iron with a blade on it um it just might be a little trickier like that um but overall i think anybody can do this um i've had a lot of people like hey man i don't know how you do this and i think the biggest thing is just do it in baby steps you know everybody thinks this is a big project and it may be a big project for some of you guys but just break up in sections you know make the bed and just make that section up and just slowly piece it together and i think it'll be one of those things once you're done with it you're like you know what it really wasn't that big a deal i think anybody can do it um but it's just something i just take your time and you can do it but always only guys i do appreciate you guys watching the channel um if you like what i got please like subscribe and um until next time guys i do appreciate it [Applause] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: The Watson Garage

Views: 194,103

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Id: WcmWZzWTDI0

Length: 29min 17sec (1757 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 02 2021