Day 5
Installing the RIB Bed and strengthening beam.
The Rib bed is a fabulous bit of kit. Even though it has a steep price tag, you will defiantly see a difference in quality compared to a cheaper alternative. The bed has a very comfy laid back seating position, where as some make you feel like you fitting to stay in your seat. There is no moving parts or springs rattling around when you are driving.
The only negative that I find with the rib bed is that the sleeping side of it is very hard. I have brought a purpose built mattress topper for the rib bed. This is made of 2" memory foam and comes from eBay at circa £120.
The first thing I do when fitting the rib bed is get it into position internally and then mark the holes at the rear for drilling into the strengthening cross member. I brought the cross member/fitting kit from Vankraft for £49. For the fixing at the front of the bed I used 8mm thick alloy plates as spreader plates. Roughly 80mm square. Remeber to paint all holes drilled through the floor.
To enable the rib bed to fit hard over to the passenger side you may have to manipulate the wheel arch with a rubber mallet. (slightly). This will not be visible externally or internally once fitted, nut just gives you an extra 40-50mm of space for fitting you units.
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I missed taking a photo of just the bed fitting, so I have only got photos of the next step which was fitting of the units.
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