KIDS OR FRIENDS: BUNKS? FIXED? LOUNGE CONVERT? DINING DROP?

[Bushtracker]

Hello again,
Thank you for all the email messages requesting this to be on the General Members Section, and I have obviously agreed. This Category and all of the Topics will be open to comments from Owners, with respect to their feelings over the choices they have made, and what they live with...

However: Newbies, please do not engage in trying to start the coaching process here. Please read the Topic: NUMBER ONE ! READ FIRST- HOW IT COMES TOGETHER AND WHY.... And understand you get months of private coaching to go through all of the possibilities refining all the details.. OK? Otherwise, this will get huge and bog down, and the help I am trying to offer will get buried.

Best Wishes, stg

[Bushtracker]

Hello again,

Look, there is a common need and request to house either Children or Friends in another set of beds or bunks. This can be done a variety of ways.

Polar end beds: We have done it with a bed in front and in back of the van... Examples of use: quote "He bloody snores and he is not sleeping in my bedroom" and so She had a sliding door and he had another bed at the back. Now this can be done best in larger vans, with obvious compromises in smaller vans. Another example was a couple that wanted to travel with their Bridge (very skilled cards) playing Partners. In my case I have pioneered a two bedroom van, for privacy of my two Daughters that compete on Reining Horses with me. (And to close off the hurricane of their organization or lack thereof ) You can see this in the Category on Optional Equipment, with full pictures, but again it is size limited and in this case BIIIIG at 22'.

Bunks: We have a variety of Bunks, both fixed and converting. Usually it is best done in the rear of the van across the back; but we have done as many as four bunks intersecting at a corner of the van, for four Children and for things like a grain harvesting Crew. Now an interesting twist is the converting bunks: We can have the top bunk fold down to make a high backed lounge. Behind this back can be another window for the lower bunk, so from outside you see two windows, short but wide and long, one hidden by the upper bunk folding down to make a backrest for a large lounge. This works well for people that have a sporadic need for bunks, like Kids or Friends visiting or travelling occasionally, when you need bunks, and the rest of the time it is a comfortable extra lounge. In one of my designs as I raised three children with Bushtracker, I had two bunks across the back, and the side intersecting bunks folded down into a day lounge and work station. We even had a fold down table off an ensuite wall to lock them into a craft area work station.

Now we get to a difficult area, converting dining to beds and bunks in smaller vans: Of course this is easy to build. And of course is done, particularly in smaller vans where there are no other choices. But I want to make sure you understand a serious disadvantage. If you can avoid it with a larger van, to convert a Dining area to a bed is a lot of work and disruptive to the Lifestyle. For Children, they often go to bed early, to get up late, and this ruins you time and place to sit up and look at maps, have a cuppa, fix the fishing reel, that sort of life in the dining area. It wrecks the main area you use, sitting in the van in waking hours. It is also a pain to make up the bed EVERY day, and break up and store all the bedding EVERY morning. This is a serious handicap to your lifestyle and should be avoided if possible. Most people are not happy with this arrangement long term. Now you may have to do this, but dedicated bunks and beds are easier to live with. And it is nice to stay up playing cards or whatever in the dining area, after the others have gone to bed.. Or get up sitting with a cuppa in the morning before they get up.

However, we do this routinely. Even Dining converting to two bunks. Dining with a high back rest on the long side of the U Shaped Lounge, with that back rest swinging up to expose another long skinny window, to make two bunks in that area. And of course the normal way of dropping the table to make the Cafe Dining into a double bed is common.

When I get time, I will add in sample layouts to illustrate what I am talking about in each of these Topics, to better help you understand some of the possibilities. But again, do not get carried away until you are in process, as much of your effort could be wasted when we show you innovations you like better...

Kind regards, stg, it is 6 AM, and I need to get ready to go into Bushtracker. stg