Turning the Bed

We've been making plans about what to restore and what we might modify with the Avion. In general we are thinking that we will restore the outside to preserve it's vintage appearance, but for the interior we are considering some changes to improve its function specific to how we think will use it. One major element we have been working on is turning the bed 90 degrees so either one us can get in and out without climbing over the other. The cab-over area on Avion C-10's & C-11's is pretty short which makes turning the bed fairly complicated. The folks over at RoamLab did an amazing job extending the cab-over of their C-11, but we are looking at a way to do this without modifying the structure.

I drew up a bunch concepts, then built a simple full-size cardboard mock-up of an approach that I think will work. The bed basically overhangs the dinette by about 24" and likely will need to be supported by two legs that can attach to the dinette seat base.  If I keep the bed length to around 75" (same as a Full size mattress) there is just enough room for two to sit at the un-covered portion of the dinette. When we want to use the full dinette, the 24" section of mattress lifts up and slides over the main mattress into the cab-over area, and the 24" support panel slides-in under the main section of mattress. Our thought is that when traveling and just stopping for one night we'd likely leave the bed "out", but when camping in one place for a while we would put the bed in if we wanted to hang-out inside the camper due to weather or whatever. This design also lets us keep the existing cab-over storage cabinet for clothes) and we can add another storage area of similar size on the opposite side while still having ample room around the bed. To ease getting in & out of the bed I'm thinking about a plank-style step thats supported by the dinette base. I've got a couple of ideas for how this plank step can stow away when not in use, and also some ideas for tricks with the dinette table that will help with all this come together. I'll have to get into actually building it to work out a bunch of details, but I am feeling good that this approach.