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I've got a sort of bunk in the van but it's too high.
Its made from a sheet of wood which is sitting on some extendable girder type things from IKEA and these are sitting on brackets bolted to the van structure, it sits on 6 of these brackets.
Apparently the van wall brackets had to be that high as it was the only place strong enough on the van side to support them.
So, my idea to lower the bunk is to have a long bolt going down through the wall bracket, then through a piece of wood and through the extendable girder, all bolted up nice and tight. The bunks will then be hanging from the wall brackets rather than sitting on them.
Is this a bad idea, it's just for the kids. In my head it doesn't seem quite as secure but if it's on 6 M6 bolts it should be ok? I'm only dropping it a few inches. All the weight should still be taken by the existing wall brackets which have held up ok so far
Girder things would bolt underneath the wood I'm holding in last photo with the bolt going through the wood and the wall bracket
So all the force is on the bolt, transferred into the same bracket. Can't see why it's any less secure than originally #I'mnoengineer. I'd certainly not want those brackets poking out of the wall waiting for a child's head, but the wood solves that. Saves messing about with your van lining.
Yeah there'll be a wood strip above and below the bolt brackets, might even stick a bit of foam over top if I'm feeling extra caring!
Will be fine. Canoe seats hang on 4 long bolts just like this and take my 100kg
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113728710932
You could also screw the timber through to the ply lining.
Yup will be fine, have done similar with various vans.
Apparently the van wall brackets had to be that high as it was the only place strong enough on the van side to support them.
Seems quite high up for 'the only place' - what van is it?
It's a sprinter, I did cut a bit of lining away and it's there is a thicker sort of reinforced rail in the side of the van there.
Not sure why they didn't use brackets with a longer drop though. I can't unbolt the existing brackets as I can't get to the nut on the back of the bolt unless I removed the fabric and a ply lining panel. That's a bit annoying as there's plenty of 5mm thick brackets on Amazon with a longer drop
There’s a much lower rib further down that you could also use, it’ll be in-line with the bar across the middle of the rear doors / underneath where windows would be.
You do need to make sure the extendy girder things are capable of resisting the nut pulling through.
If you hooked up a couple of motors and a ball screw thing you could raise and lower the bed.
i gave up trying to sort this conundrum when i realised the steel on a transit is like tinfoil.
"ply lined" from the floor up the window levels in 18mm ply, stood on the floor. Massively overkill
As boxelder says above, the weight of bed and kids will be entirely on the head of the bolt through that hole (or the nut if you do it that way up).
Can you find any kind of a z-shape bracket which will sit on top of the existing bracket and drop down below? Or a rectangular shape which would sit over the existing bracket and you can put the bed supports inside bottom of?
(Hope thats explained sufficiently)
A sprinter you say?
Some proper brackets
All done now, thanks for the replies!
Ive supported it on M8 rods using wide and fat washers, and also fitted some heavy duty brackets underneath to offer a bit more support and reduce any lateral movement in the threaded rods. Seems pretty solid, if it doesn't work then I'll look at those proper brackets but that'd mean removing some of the fabric lining and the ply side panels which is way too much hassle at the moment.