16 - A King Sized Bed? Really?

Originally Winnefred came with a sleeping space above the truck cab that was just about the same size as a full sized bed. This is a little smaller than the king we are used to sleeping in. I'm a firm believer in a comfortable place to sleep. Everything seems better when you have had a good night's sleep, right? We started trying to figure out a way to extend the sleeping space and make it king sized. I found some sturdy brackets on Ebay, each with a 550 lb capacity. They fold down neatly and take up very little space. Two of these mounted vertically and a 3/4" piece of ply, cut to fit along with a couple of hinges and we were in business.

the original "full" sized space

Adam cut a couple of support legs

we added the sturdy stainless brackets vertically on the new support legs

these brackets are easy to fold out

two big piano-type hinges on the extension and a handle for ease of use

Adam also added an extra fold-down leg to further distribute the weight

And there you go, a king sized sleeping space. Well, once we get rid of all the junk up there. 

We realize it would be very difficult to get in or out of the RV with the bed folded down, but that's ok.

and here it is folded back up again

I found a tri-fold king mattress on Ebay. Yep, it folds into thirds. We haven't opened the package yet because it was vacuum packed and once we open it, it'll take up a lot of room. A traditional king will be too long for our space. That's ok with us though. We will have to cut it down a bit. That'll be in another post. (edit: See post 18 for king mattress)