Creating Strong & Sturdy Legs For A Pullout Van Bench/Bed

In this video, I'm creating strong and sturdy van bed legs, as the original ones for my 3 section pullout bench bed are falling apart and aren't strong enough.

🚐 3 section pullout bench/bed video: https://youtu.be/hAyU6K3TlF0

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0:00 - Intro
0:36 - Removing the bed legs
2:05 - Building the X support
3:26 - Attaching the support ton the bed frame
4:18 - Take 2
5:18 - Attaching the X support to the bed frame (again)
5:54 - The finished bed

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Since building my 3 section pullout bench bed, I’ve noticed that the legs at the rear of the van have become unstable and there’s quite a bit of movement when I pull the bed out, so I thought it was time to revisit them and stabilise them once and for all!

My idea is to create an interlocking x-shape support between the legs, which will be held in place by a couple of turnbuckles behind; one facing forwards and one backwards, so that the legs are properly supported when I’m pulling the bed out.

Continuing the deconstruction of the legs, I could remove the screws from them. You can see here that I’m too lazy to remove the bed from the van and give myself enough room to use the drill, so a stubby screwdriver and a bit of elbow grease is the method used.

I had put a bit of wood glue in there before whichhad failed to hold the joints together, so I’m sanding this off to get the bed frame surface nice and flat again.

I then began taking measurements and cutting out the two pieces of wood that would make up the x-support joint.

Holding the pieces up, I could work out the angles where I’d cut the ends to match the existing legs and it was very much a bit of trial and error here, or perhaps more error as you’ll see later.

Once I had cut all four ends, I could look at carving the middles out, as I would be interlocking the two pieces to create a solid support.

I cut the edges with a hand saw and then used a sharp chisel to gouge out the middle of the piece, being careful not to go too deep.

I could then put the pieces together and drive a couple of screws through the centre to hold them firmly in place.

After that, I drilled and countersunk some angled holes for the eye that will attach the bed to the van load rings via turnbuckles.

I then turned the wooden X over to sand off my pencil marks from the front and I could then look at how to attach the piece to the van.

Unfortuantely, the X doesn’t adequately fill the void between the bed legs by a good few millimetres.

I used clamps to hold the X in place and attached it using the same through-the-leg method I used originally, and it was done!

As you can see from the install, the X-support really wasn’t a great fit and it looked messy with the old screw holes, but I added the top slat back in place and called it a night.

Having thought about the job I had done overnight, I realised that I really wasn't happy with it. So I decided to take the x-support off and use some of the leftover timber to make new rear legs for the bed which would fit to the X much better.

I did this off camera, as sometimes it’s a little easier when you don’t have the pressure of filming it all and changing camera angles whilst doing it.

I wanted to make sure that the x-support was a perfect parallel fit against the bed legs and that the legs were both a perfectly equal length

With this all worked out, I glued and screwed it all together into one piece, this time using 3 pocket holes in each leg to attach the X to the new legs.

This way was so much stronger and created a really sturdy piece which I could now reinstall into the van.

But before this, I attached some leftover van carpet to the feet of the legs so they didn’t scrape the floor.

I could now glue and screw the strengthened legs back into the van, add the slat for the final time and, adding the metal eyes again off camera, add the turnbuckles; securely attaching the bed to the van load ring beneath it.

Finally, I could test the bed, by pulling it out and as you can see, it’s now really solid.

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#Vanlife #NissanNV200 #LensOfJames

DISCLAIMER: In this video, I am in no way stating that this is the proper way to undertake the conversion of a van, however after research and experience using the van, I believe this to be the way that is best suited to my van and the way I intend to use it.

Видео Creating Strong & Sturdy Legs For A Pullout Van Bench/Bed канала Lens Of James