Building a Bed in a Routan

I did a lot of research and scribbling on paper before building a bed for my VW Routan. This post will hopefully shed some light on that decision-making process. 

This is the bed I built for the Routan,
topped with a self-inflating camping mattress.
It looks kind of barren in there!

I'm 6'2" tall. I never envied shorter people until I started thinking about sleeping in a van, but now I'm jealous of anyone who can build their van bed side-to-side instead of front-to-back. Short people who camp in or live in vans have so many more options than their taller counterparts. No use crying over it, though.

Obviously I needed my Volkswagen Routan's bed to be positioned front-to-back. I had to consider other questions, however:

How wide did I want my minivan's bed to be?

I knew that I wanted the bed to take up half the width of the van or less. I waffled back and forth for awhile between 24, 25, and 26 inches as the magic number. Last year I had splurged on this Therm-a-Rest insulated camping mattress from Amazon. It's 25 inches wide, so I added an inch so my bed and mattress wouldn't be the exact same width; my bed is 26 inches wide. 

I stacked foam insulation blocks underneath the
bed platform and used a level and tape measure to see
how long the legs needed to be.

Would I rather be able to sit up in bed or have more storage underneath?

Boy, this was a tough decision. I really wanted to have lots of storage space underneath the bed, but I also really wanted to be able to sit up. I saw a YouTuber with a hinged bed; her name is Kelly Doyle and this is her bed build video.

However, I decided that I wanted my first bed build (I'll assume there will be more) to be as simple as possible. I also decided that I can deal with being extra minimalist at first. So I chose to be able to sit up in bed.

I used 8"x10" shelf brackets to help steady the back two legs
and smaller brackets under the other four legs. Before adding 
brackets, the bed wasn't that sturdy; after adding them, it felt solid.

Did I take out the third-row Routan seats or leave them in?

I took them out. My bed's back two legs are significantly longer than the forward four legs.

Why not a camping cot?

I thought long and hard about using a cot. It's called a "no build build," and there's a video that shows you how. 

However, I wanted to be able to sit up in bed, and I also thought the cot looked kind of depressing. (I don't mean to disparage anyone using a cot for their minivan bed. It just wasn't the look I was going for.) 

Another reason I chose to build a bed instead of buy a cot: For the time being, I'm living somewhere with access to plenty of space in the driveway, garage, and yard to build stuff. Why not pick up the Ryobi drill/saw set at Home Depot and try to make something out of wood?

Smaller brackets for the shorter bed legs.

Why not just sleep on the floor?

Several people suggested this. "Just put a mattress on the floor of the van and be done with it." I rejected this idea because:

• I wanted at least some storage space underneath the bed.
• With the third-row seats removed, my mattress would have dangled over the edge of that storage well (although I guess I could have propped it on something.)
• The floor of a Routan without the seats is extremely uneven. I don't think a mattress could have compensated on its own.

What tools did I use?

I used the RyobiOne 18V 2-piece starter kit from Home Depot. It cost about $130 and included a drill, a circular saw, two batteries, and a charger. The kit is small enough that I can stash it in my van, and I was thinking that I might want to build a new bed down the road.

I borrowed my brother-in-law's driver for some of the more stubborn screws, although I think the problem was that I just hadn't turned the torque setting on the drill up high enough.

My brother-in-law scribed the
molding to build a shelf.

Shout out to family members

My brother-in-law, who works for a stair lift company in San Antonio, helped me come up with the idea of how to balance the bed on top of some broken-up pieces of foam insulation to determine how long the legs needed to be. I also borrowed his driver, saw horses, and driveway.

My sister came up with the idea for the shelf/table to go above the bed. My brother-in-law scribed the molding of the van and used a borrowed jigsaw to cut that piece. It was a project that was above and beyond my skill level.

I can't wait for the Texas summer to die down enough for me to try out the bed. 

Finished bed and shelf/desk setup.
Not quite sure how it will work with me
in the van, but excited to try it out!