I have to say, this was probably the best video I have seen on a DIY sleep shelf for a Jeep.. and I have watched many. Well done!! I think I now have a plan to copy. Thanks!
Hey.. that made my day. Thanks for the kind words. I hope to get my website put together and when I do, will post some dimensions for this if it helps others. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for watching. Since we filmed this, we have been using it frequently as we set resurrect a cabin and camp in general. I wouldn't change much about it (but would love to change the gearing in our Jeep!).
Heath, thanks for the comment and glad you liked the video. The setup has worked well for several of our "Trans Oregon" adventures and beyond. Happy Trails!
nice setup . i have a kia Sorento i build a narrower bed of 27 "1/2 wide x about 5' 10' long x 8" hight with a back drawer of 36" long . a 24" in the front of the bed is cut completely an i out an hinge to be able to fold it flush with the bed or i can take the hinges pins of , to clear my car seat to be able to put my rear car seat up when i am not using the bed the kitchen part is usable at all time. i can sen you a picture if you want to know more .
Denis, thanks for the comment, for watching, and the great ideas. For us, it is pretty important that we can both sleep in the Jeep so your setup would be pretty narrow for us. It sounds like you have a really great setup for solo trips and continuous adventures. We have a good friend who did a similar setup (professionally) and then used it to drive across the country for 4 months. Perhaps a big trip in your future?
Great question. I should probably do a short follow-up video for that. Essentially I rough-cut some cardboard sheets to get somewhat close. I positioned those at the height of the deck-to-be and then used a 4" stick taped to a pencil. The stick is perpendicular to the pencil and I scribed the end of the stick along the contour of the interior body panel to keep the pencil line a constant distance from that and drew the line on the cardboard. Then I cut again on that pencil line and it fit nearly perfectly. A couple of small adjustments and then I traced that edge onto the plywood before cutting it with a jigsaw. Same process for both sides.
Thanks for the reply. I have a 2023 2 door. I would enjoy watching a video on how you created the contours. I have a bass speaker where your lower storage hole is.. If I may ask what is the deep of your drawer?
The drawer including the bottom is 6-1/2" tall. There is a tradeoff between height for moving around when sleeping above and storage space. This seemed the right balance for us and with that depth, we can readily fit our simple camping kitchen in it.
Thanks for asking and watching! At this point, the plywood is a mix from the old and new designs. The sides were some scrap CDX which I wouldn't recommend. The decks were birch plywood which is great stuff. The new drawer is Okoume/Aquatek marine plywood left over from a sailboat project which isn't cheap but is very nice plywood and it holds up well under weather. If I could do it all again from scratch and I wanted to use the best materials. I'd recommend baltic birch plywood deck material and the same Aquatek marine plywood for the drawer. Hope this helps.
Yes.. almost. I think this was actually 12mm marine plywood (Meranti) that I had sitting around. Really nice, consistent stuff and the marine grade will be nice if (when) I spill something in it when camping.
I have to say, this was probably the best video I have seen on a DIY sleep shelf for a Jeep.. and I have watched many. Well done!! I think I now have a plan to copy. Thanks!
Hey.. that made my day. Thanks for the kind words. I hope to get my website put together and when I do, will post some dimensions for this if it helps others.
Thanks for watching!
Very cool set up. Great video. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching. Since we filmed this, we have been using it frequently as we set resurrect a cabin and camp in general. I wouldn't change much about it (but would love to change the gearing in our Jeep!).
Thanks for sharing this video! This setup would be perfect for my upcoming Trans American Trail trip.
Heath, thanks for the comment and glad you liked the video. The setup has worked well for several of our "Trans Oregon" adventures and beyond.
Happy Trails!
nice setup . i have a kia Sorento i build a narrower bed of 27 "1/2 wide x about 5' 10' long x 8" hight with a back drawer of 36" long . a 24" in the front of the bed is cut completely an i out an hinge to be able to fold it flush with the bed or i can take the hinges pins of , to clear my car seat to be able to put my rear car seat up when i am not using the bed the kitchen part is usable at all time. i can sen you a picture if you want to know more .
Denis, thanks for the comment, for watching, and the great ideas. For us, it is pretty important that we can both sleep in the Jeep so your setup would be pretty narrow for us. It sounds like you have a really great setup for solo trips and continuous adventures. We have a good friend who did a similar setup (professionally) and then used it to drive across the country for 4 months. Perhaps a big trip in your future?
Great Video!!
I would like to see how you created all the contours around the deck.
Great question. I should probably do a short follow-up video for that. Essentially I rough-cut some cardboard sheets to get somewhat close. I positioned those at the height of the deck-to-be and then used a 4" stick taped to a pencil. The stick is perpendicular to the pencil and I scribed the end of the stick along the contour of the interior body panel to keep the pencil line a constant distance from that and drew the line on the cardboard. Then I cut again on that pencil line and it fit nearly perfectly. A couple of small adjustments and then I traced that edge onto the plywood before cutting it with a jigsaw. Same process for both sides.
Thanks for the reply.
I have a 2023 2 door. I would enjoy watching a video on how you created the contours.
I have a bass speaker where your lower storage hole is..
If I may ask what is the deep of your drawer?
The drawer including the bottom is 6-1/2" tall. There is a tradeoff between height for moving around when sleeping above and storage space. This seemed the right balance for us and with that depth, we can readily fit our simple camping kitchen in it.
Thanks for your video; I liked both the style and subject. Can you tell me what type of plywood you used for this project?
Thanks for asking and watching! At this point, the plywood is a mix from the old and new designs. The sides were some scrap CDX which I wouldn't recommend. The decks were birch plywood which is great stuff. The new drawer is Okoume/Aquatek marine plywood left over from a sailboat project which isn't cheap but is very nice plywood and it holds up well under weather.
If I could do it all again from scratch and I wanted to use the best materials. I'd recommend baltic birch plywood deck material and the same Aquatek marine plywood for the drawer.
Hope this helps.
Did you construct all drawer pieces out of 1/2"?
Yes.. almost. I think this was actually 12mm marine plywood (Meranti) that I had sitting around. Really nice, consistent stuff and the marine grade will be nice if (when) I spill something in it when camping.