Sleep which way on lower bed?

[dubbified]

[Timwhy]

[J Charlton]

When we camp as a family, the 2 little guys - well they used to be little, now at 9 and 7 they're not so little - sleep downstairs and my wife and I up top heads to the middle of the van. The not so little guys, with blankets, stuffies, pillows etc etc always begin with heads towards the front but often wind up in a variety of configurations.
"Comments" not criticisms mind you, but "comments" led me to the necessity of a hightop. Comments such as "there isn't much room for our feet", "this matress isn't very comfortable", "there's too much 'stuff' around here" all prompted me, in the interests of domestic harmony, to explore the world of hightops.
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NAHT hightop availability May 18 2023 -
Bend Oregon - for Oregon, California- (7 tot , 3 available), Kennewick Wa (6 tot, 1 available), Small Car Performance Fife Wa. (7 tot 4 avail ), Fairbanks Alaska (1 tot 0 avail)
Future availability TBD : Springfield Mass. Staunton Va, Florida, Colorado, Grand Junction Co., SLC probably late 2024

[hiram6]

If sleeping up top (above 60 degrees, and camping solo) - feet towards back, and small 6 inch wide extender I made keeps my pillow up there with me.

If sleeping below decks (with wife, or if I have my black lab Chelsea) - head towards the hatch, cause I like propping up the pillows against the hatch. Wife does not like climbing up top, and Chelsea (the lab) freaks out if I leave her downstairs alone. She has a little separation anxiety. (the dog, not the wife!!)
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1985 Westy, 1.9L automatic (Daisy)
1996 Mazda Miata
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited

You can't lie around on the beach and drink rum all day.................unless you start first thing in the morning.

[climberjohn]

[msinabottle]

I sleep with my head to the hatch on the lower berth, thanks to the jalousies, I get plenty of air back there, even more if I crack the hatch and use the net.

The main reason I sleep with my head to the hatch is because it's impossible for one's pillow to fall on the floor in that position--and it also does put your head further from trouble if someone comes in through a door.

I TRIED that in the upper berth, but you can't breathe at all in Westfalia tent back there and there's not a lot of clearance over your head there, anyway. I have managed to sleep in the upper berth comfortably, with my air pad, but if I were to do it routinely I'd rig an extender or a net to prevent pillow fall out.

Best!
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'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence."

[ithinkso]

Heads toward the front of the van in either bed. The top bed (poptop) has no room towards the back and I get claustrophobic. The bottom bed has the cabinet hanging down and I smack my head on it. I actually learned this the first time I ever slept in the van. We parked and I didn't notice but there was a very slight angle that tilted the van so the front was higher than the back. Tried to sleep with our heads toward the back and the blood rushing to my head from the angle literally made me go crazy. I would wake up and sit up really fast, smacking my head into the cabinet every time. After doing this 4 or 5 times I finally flipped around and slept great the rest of the night.
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“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”
- Edward Abbey

1985 Westy, Zetec powered

[John Of the north]

At 4'2" I'm the tallest one in a family of 4. We all sleep across the lower bed when we camp in the forest...where we make cookies, in a tree.

[crowinghen]

[J Charlton]

[IdahoDoug]

Great info so far. Yes, we'll all be sleeping in it. I'm fabricating mounts for cots elevated above the Z bed. So it will be like bunk beds. I'm trying to fit it out so that when it is just my wife and I camping, we can leave one cot in place elevated from its sleeping position to use as a huge overhead shelf for gear and easily compressed items like duffel bags. I'm pretty excited about the latest design.

The mounts will consist of a pair of arches tight against the headliner from which the cots will be suspended. They'll also be anchored to the sidewalls a few inches above the window sill level for added load bearing and stability. That's why I'm wondering about head direction because I can either shove the overhead cots rearward, or forward in mounting them.

DougM
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1987 2WD Wolfsburg Vanagon Weekender "Mango", two fully locked 80 Series LandCruisers. 2017 Subaru Outback boxer. 1990 Audi 90 Quattro 20V with rear locking differential, 1990 burgundy parts Vanagon. 1984 Porsche 944, 1988 Toyota Supra 5 speed targa, 2002 BMW 325iX, 1982 Toyota Sunrader

[randywebb]

if some of the 4 are children, then stick the shortest kid crosswise in the front seat area - people have posted pics of these beds
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1986 2.1L Westy 2wd Auto Trans.

[supersooner]

Head to the front. Don't know why, it just feels better that way to me.

[IdahoDoug]

Thanks for the thought on the front seat space. My kiddos are 10 and 12, and I want them to have their own dedicated space and my wife and I to have the whole Z bed. I also plan to do some colder camping and I like what some have done in terms of a curtain blocking off the front seats forward for heat retention. We'll also be doing a certain amount of stealth camping, so all of us in the back works well there, too. Each of the kids will have a little shelf for their stuff (a book, flashlight, water bottle) and I want them to be able to put their own bunks up so that if we're all sitting around a campfire they can go nod off whenever they feel like it vs waiting for one of us to set their bed up. I have a list of requirements like these and am pleased with how it will work out so far.

I also wanted them to have a privacy curtain so one can read without bothering the other and what they're going to end up with is essentially a mini-Pullman style bed like a train has. Still haven't figured out a way they can get up and down in the night without stepping on Mom and Dad, but nothing is perfect.

The front seat space is going to be nighttime luggage storage. I'm modifying the passenger seat so it will be turned around backwards once we're parked for the night and that seat can be used for sitting to access luggage or the like while the driver's seat will be piled with our duffel bags. I'm an avid reader and somewhat laughably, if I put a blackout curtain at the front of the sleeping area for stealth camping, it creates a reading chair where I won't bother anyone. Who knew a Vanagon could actually provide a separate reading room complete with armchair??! Now where's my pipe and slippers?.....heh.

DougM
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1987 2WD Wolfsburg Vanagon Weekender "Mango", two fully locked 80 Series LandCruisers. 2017 Subaru Outback boxer. 1990 Audi 90 Quattro 20V with rear locking differential, 1990 burgundy parts Vanagon. 1984 Porsche 944, 1988 Toyota Supra 5 speed targa, 2002 BMW 325iX, 1982 Toyota Sunrader

[DAIZEE]

Well you know you'll have to post pics once its done or it ain't so!
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'09 2.5L Jetta 5 cylinder, 5 spd, super turbo, see thread in H2O Cooled Jetta, etc...
83.5 Vanagon L Riviera Model with 98 1.9L TD AAZ 4 speed Daily Driver 3 out of 4 seasons (sold)
84 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg Westy WBX 4 speed (sold)

[Timwhy]

[IdahoDoug]

Yes, looking forward to pics myself because that will mean it's ready to take my family out camping in.

DougM
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1987 2WD Wolfsburg Vanagon Weekender "Mango", two fully locked 80 Series LandCruisers. 2017 Subaru Outback boxer. 1990 Audi 90 Quattro 20V with rear locking differential, 1990 burgundy parts Vanagon. 1984 Porsche 944, 1988 Toyota Supra 5 speed targa, 2002 BMW 325iX, 1982 Toyota Sunrader

[Love My Westy]

Being as there are only two of us we can sleep upstairs or downstairs depending on how cold it is, whether we want to unload the boats or not (not such a big deal now with my jackbombay pt shocks), or how noisy it is (wind, other campers generators, etc).

When we sleep down below, we usually sleep with our heads toward the back because with the z-bed in our Weekender we usually cuddle close anyway and have all that room to spread out our legs. Sure I have bumped my head a few times on the cabinet, but no big deal. We also put the porta-pottie between the jumpseat and the refrigerator so that whoever is using it is not right next to the other persons head.

When we sleep in the upper bunk, we use a 2" double Thermarest mattress that is about 8" longer than the bunk. It keeps the pillows from falling down as much, but is easier to get up into the bunk than a wooden extension would be, not to mention being much more comfortable than the foam mattress is by itself. When it's warm out, I like to sleep above with all three window screens open around our heads for plenty of fresh air.

[campism]

After our first night in the Westy I was banished to the attic. Now that we've both lost significant poundage over the winter we might try it together downstairs again. For the time being I sleep up with head forward and she sleeps down with head back. Using the latch extender in warm weather sometimes lets her pillows slip out or jam in the opening. The rear jalousie window sounds like a great idea for warm weather camping.

She's a seamstress and is making me a down baffle to fit at the rear of the upper mattress so my feet stay warm during cold weather camping when pressed against the canvas at the rear (6'1"). See the "sketch" below. At about 10"x50" it will jam into the space at the back and take up less fore-and-aft space than a 10" round one would.

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[DAIZEE]

You know of course, that people are donating their brains after they pass so that all those knocks on your heads can be identified/documented/turned into statistics mmm wonder when the statistics will be released? Will Vanagons with interiors still be around? YES
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'09 2.5L Jetta 5 cylinder, 5 spd, super turbo, see thread in H2O Cooled Jetta, etc...
83.5 Vanagon L Riviera Model with 98 1.9L TD AAZ 4 speed Daily Driver 3 out of 4 seasons (sold)
84 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg Westy WBX 4 speed (sold)