More than year on from originallt starting and I'm restarting the fitting of my rusty Lee, struggling to get it to sit level. When the seat back/upright section drops down to form the bed, its dropping too far down the sloping bulkhead. Have other people fitted a timber batten across that slopey panel to support the bed, or do I just need to adjust my fixing points to move the entire bed back more? Thanks
I did one and it was like that and you couldn't move the bed further back because of an air vent on the floor. I've noticed it on other vans and you can get round it by making the seat foam slightly thicker.
No air vent on mine so not a prob to go back a bit, Wondered maybe I needed to adjust slightly the mounting holes I drilled in rear tubs, although they were drilled to measurements from the good folk on here. Just tried increasing height of front support section, that's improved it a bit Just to note this is getting the position right so I can weld on the mount plates under rear tubs, so a test set up
Mine was fine on height, although I did put a piece of baton across the back but purely for support rather than to hold it level.
No, I'm not suggesting the beds faulty or anything, more likely its my van and or my ineptitude! Eg mine is a panel van van so no factory seat mounts, so the ones I've drilled could be slightly out, or it could be to do with floor thickness. You know what floor thickness you have? Did you just self tapper the batten to the bulkhead?
the floor thickness will affect the overall position and angle of the bed frame. These beds can be made to fit flush with the cargo deck, but you'll have to use appropriate spacers on the wheel arches and front supporting frame... The key thing to watch for is the bed being both flat and level... There was a post on here a while back but in brief: plant a flat piece of timber ( eg. a piece of 3 x 2 circa 2.5m long) onto the cargo deck, running front to back, so that it overhangs the deck where the seat will be. Weigh it down if necessary, so that it doesn't see saw... This provides your reference 'level' for your bed. pull the seat out into 'bed mode'....put a batten across both bed boards and clamp it up so that it remains flush and flat with itself and can tilt and move as one... manouevre the frame (chock it up if required) so that the bed boards and your level reference timber are in relation to one another.....they may well be a gap between your refernece timber and the boards, but if the gap is even front to back, your bed will be 'in line' with the cargo deck..... mark up the fixing holes..... now there are three options: use thicker boards to flush the bed with the deck, use thicker foam relative to the cargo foam, or jack and sapce the frame to achieve the same ends. A support batten for the rear board is absolutely necessary..... when you've finished, make yourself a brew and berate yourself for not buying an original Devon bed with folding leg supports....
the PO of my van fitted a sloped piece of metal along the bulkhead presumably for the same reason as you, for it to rest on, it was a bluebird custom bed though Ill be fitting a bluebird full width bed and will be keeping it there for support for that bed too
Can't remember what thickness my flooring between 6-9mm I guess. Yes I used self tappers just becareful with your drill cos of the fuel tank Also my old seat belt mounts had rusted out and I had the arches plated, so I put it in bed mode marked and drilled it.
Timber will be fine ive only got a small piece of baton. This is the only pic that I have that you can see it.
Might wait till November 5th and drill the holes ! Not using it proper for holiday now, but thinking about driving it to Southport (following the family in car) as a test Then leave it at mother in law while we have holiday more norther (rented a caravan) then drive home at end!
Back on it today, tried the @vanorak method of clamp it in bed mode, which worked in one sense but it still wasn't quite right. So I started from scratch and got it. For anybody else doing it this is how I didded it. Only floor I've got down is the 9mm sub floor Bolt the hinges to the wheel tubs as far up as you can (within the slot on hinge) like this Clamp it up in bed mode as vanorak said, this will show your levels. Then fitted supports on slopey panel for backrest (when in bed mode) forgot to take pics, I riveted some heavy duty angle brackets in place Put packers under front frame to level it off, I've got 6mm of packers This gets it all perfectly level Also there's a bit of flex in the front support frame so the front section of bed droops down, but once you cut /insert the face board for it, it will stiffen up and support no problem. So tomorrow I can take it all out and weld in the rear tub anchors, now I'm sure they're in correct place. Then finish cutting and fitting subfloor, fit second layer of floor. Then I can do the rear panelvan seatbelts........I have a plan!
