質問者様からの質問…ベッドリフトキットの真実！+バンライフに関するよくある質問にお答えします！

質問者様からの質問…ベッドリフトキットの真実！+バンライフに関するよくある質問にお答えします！

So, you’ve been watching us renovate our van. And while we’ve explained a lot along the way, your questions keep coming, and we love that. It means you’re paying attention. Let’s be honest, there are some quirky things about our setup. In this video, we’re answering the most common questions from our daybed to Pablo to where on earth we actually sleep. Few people have been confused about this. The reason why that didn’t work for us is where do we sleep? What about the Lena? Another real popular question we get is about our dog Pablo. Um, but I don’t like the look of it. Fantastic. [Music] Good afternoon everyone. Normally we start this in the morning, but hey, we’re going to spice things up today. I am Sandy and I live in my Sprinter van with my husband Tim and we are doing the big lap of Australia at the moment. Uh, but at the moment we’re stopped. We’re doing a few renovations. This is a quick little background for all those new people out there. But guys, we’re getting the same questions in the comments about certain things about our van that you’re curious about. So, we thought we’d use this time to also explain to you a little further about our area at the back and yeah, just go into that cuz people are getting confused about the the setup and all that. I don’t think we’ve gone into it properly. So, let’s go at the back and I’ll show you what I mean. I’ll just have my sunnies off because don’t need those for here. So guys, this back area is our kind of lounge David area. Come on, Pablo. Oh, sorry. We have a Chihuahua as well for those new people. Uh, this is our David area. Now, a few people have been confused about this because it’s got the word bed in it. This is not our bed. I mean, it’s really small. I think it’s only 900 by 1.8. I don’t think it’s that big. You could sleep here if you want diagonally. Look, I have napped down here. And that’s why we love this area because it’s so versatile. We watch movies down here. I can have a nap down here. We can cuddle down here and watch a movie and have a back doors open. Yeah, we take it to the drive-in. We’ve got the table here that swings out the back. Um, yeah, it’s quite handy. And the reason why we haven’t got a last configuration was two bench seats and a table in the middle. The reason why that didn’t work for us is if you don’t understand when you’re watching a movie or when you’re relaxing back here, you don’t sort of sit like this with your legs down. Well, I don’t. And even doing it this way like Tim’s all the way over there and Yeah. We were separated by the divide that was the walkway and we didn’t really use the walkway that much to be honest. No. And we thought, what are we doing? So, what what we do when we watch a movie is we spread it here. I slouch and see where my bum is here right in the center. We slouch, watch a movie, and um and Pablo joins us. And there’s now room for three of us. So, yeah, this is our like the dayb bed area. Where do we sleep? Well, hold on. While we’re still in the day bed area, what about the Lena? People have asked about the Lena. We have had lots of questions about this. So, where did we get this big cushion from? This I call it a Lena. Now, this is a massive big pillow. Um, it was made by uh, as you know, I’ve got a friend in the UK that I catch up with on the phone, and his mother actually made this for me, and it is a massive big pillow case, which holds five pillows. It’s got five normal sleeping pillows in there. Yeah. So, it’s super soft and super comfortable. It is amazing. And public, it’s good for two. And it molds itself to the the doors as well. So, if you wanted to lean up against the door, so instead of them sticking in your back. Sorry, Puddle. Or or in the P’s trying to get comfortable. Um, come here, mate. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So, as you’re in the corner here, it sort of molds into the shape of the van and you can sit however you like. It’s fantastic. If anyone wants measurements of this, I can I can measure it for you and and put it on the screen. Uh, cuz it’s it’s essentially a giant pillowcase, honestly. Massive pillowcase. You can’t buy them. I’ve searched for them everywhere. You can’t buy them here as far as I’m aware. If you know that you can, send me a link. It saves my friend shipping it over to me cuz I want another one. Uh yeah. So that’s that’s this. Also in these uh in these cushions here is our bed pillows. These are our bed pillows. So, not only do we have my big leaner, but we have actual pillows to lean back on. So, it’s not that hard uh foam that you can get from Clark’s rubber or anything like that. Yeah, we tried that, but it didn’t work. We tried it. We’re sitting like school kids when we’re naughty, you know, like, oh, this isn’t really com how we make it comfortable. And we tried cushions and it’s a great place for us to store our pillows cuz we’re actually storing our pillows elsewhere at the time. Yeah. So, that is a fantastic if if you haven’t thought of that, guys, cuz we didn’t for ages. Um, it’s actually really comfortable and you don’t have your pillows on display because they are still covered. But, uh, we actually sleep in a lift bed. So, let me get it down for you so you can actually see how it comes down and I’ll hand you over to my husband Tim who will actually explain the setup of it, how we actually built it and where you get it from. So, yeah, Paulo, sorry, you’re going to have to move again. The way the way we actually get it down is we have one one button over here. That’s a remote. That’s a remote. That’s a wired remote. And then there’s a wire a real a proper remote at the back. So a little remote at the back. Press the button and lower the bed. The battery’s flat in there. Please hold. All right, guys. Just give me a couple of minutes while Pablo settles in. Uh, please hold. Take two. All right. The batteries now will work. Yay. Oh, now I have to move him. Otherwise, I get crushed to death. No. No. [Music] [Music] Trying to get our washing up out of the way because you know you probably see it in the You can probably see it in the mirror there. Yeah, you can see it in the mirror. Forget about the washing up. All right, so the bed itself takes 60 seconds to come down. Now, we we joke around go, “No, it’s not it’s not fast, guys. The faster one is the the belt one, but I don’t like the look of it. And I don’t think it’s as sleek as this. This one looks so This one you can hide into the paneling. We we’ve got ours like sticking out like that because that’s the way we wanted it to look, but we can actually I’ve seen them where actually built completely into the wall. Yeah. So, what what you can do is actually build a cupboard all the way across and have a little bit of storage at the back there. You can completely hide it if you want to, which we didn’t want to cuz we wanted to use as much storage. We wanted to have as much space at the back as we possibly could. Yeah. And also as the as the bed comes down, you get you gain cuz it fits snugly up in that gap at the top. Let me show you. Let me show you. So, what’s up here is a double complete normal double bed. How we get up there is we have a what do they call them? A little ottoman. Um we keep Pablo’s toys and food and stuff in there. Can you see? Sort of. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, I’ll take my shoes off cuz I don’t want to rip it. But that’s how we get up and easy to get up. Now, what what we mean we’ve got heaps of room is it’s a double bed, but you’ve actually got this little space at the side here. We’ve got a little extra room. So, really, how big is this bed? You know, there’s loads loads of room up here. Um, another question we’ve had up here is about our two. We don’t have a double uh we don’t have a double dun duvet or continental cruise as some people may call it in whatever continental wherever you are in the world. Yeah, we have two singles. Uh the reason for that is because it’s easy to get in and out so we can slip them and go out of the bed like that without disturbing the other person. And also if some person’s cold, one person’s hot, easily done. There’s no fighting over who’s got more Duna. Pablo has joined us. Yeah, sorry we had to cut cuz Papa’s crying behind you. As you see, he loves a lift bed as well. But also up here, guys, we have a Max Air fan. Now, this is really good at nighttime because we turn that one to suck out this one to come in. And it is perfect up here. Also, if you crack these windows, you get a nice breeze. You can actually control temperature from each side of the bed. Todd, are you okay? You can actually control the temperature from each side of the bed. So, that’s really good. We also have a skylight. I love having a skylight up here, guys, but I will say we don’t like the brand that we’ve gotten. The actual skylight’s not very good. The um the the actual glass itself is frosted over. It’s not. So, what I’ve done, I’ve put stained glass uh stained glass sticker on it. So, now we don’t see frost. We see nice autumn colored flowers up there which suit our style and um yeah, I’m enjoying it a lot more now. Also, that has a a bug mesh across it that you can use. Yeah, if you wish in too hot. And then also a complete blackout as well. Yeah. And a built-in light. Yeah. Which we don’t really use. We Yeah, we don’t use a light up here at all cuz we have our Look at him. Mr. Wiggly B. There you go. Okay. Are you enjoying it up here, buddy? But uh guys, if you are going with the lift bed, um we we do have a discount with if you use our link. It’s a $100 discount. Uh but on the bed lift kit. Yeah. Before you decide if you want a lift bed or not, let me just say that I do not regret it one bit. We’ve had it for over 2 years. It’s been going up and down that whole entire time, every single day, and not missed a beat. We um had issues with it right at the start, but that was an installation issue. I I crushed I crushed one of the cables with a cabinet and every sort of like 10 ups and downs, it threw a fault code and then reset it. So, when you’re installing it, just be really careful. But I’ll hand you over to Tim cuz he will explain the technicalities of it and how what we how we built the base, uh what mattress we use, and yeah, how we went about doing that. So, I’ll pass you over to him. He will go on the technical side. Really not helping the situation here, mister. He just wants to roll around and fight and play. He thinks it’s play time. Look at it. Not playtime, mate. So, what’s the bed? Right. So, the mattress we’ve got, we’ve actually got a memory foam topper. This is just a generic one that we got from Kmart. Um, just a double one. That’s just to protect the mattress itself. You can see they actually fade. It was white event once, but it’s gone to a yellowy color. They always stand. E, but that covers our This is 100 mil thick memory. Is it 100 mil? Is it? It’s 100 mil thick um foam mattress from Clark Rubber. And can I just say this is the most comfortable mattress I’ve had. It’s lasted for 2 years, hasn’t it? We’re going to we’re going to replace it now, I think. Yeah. It’s super light as well. Can you stop dying, please? You okay, buddy? Yeah, we’re going to replace it very soon. I think it’s Well, do you think it’s due for a change? I do. I think it’s due for a change. We It’s It’s had us sleeping and farting in it for the last two years. So, it’s probably needs to It needs to be freshened up as well. And we do rotate it and it does do okay, but like Yeah, it it probably could do with being redone now. Yeah. And you spill coffee on it as well, which is under here. We don’t tell anyone about that. Um Yeah. So, it’s it’s actually really quite lightweight and it’s easy to manage as well when we switch it around. We went with 100 mil thick because that was our limited space because um when you buy the bed kit, you set the spacing that you want really um on the height of your van and how much your roof comes down and everything. So, we went with 100 mil thick mattress and along with the mattress topper, the covers and all the Duna covers that sits up nicely and finishes in a perfect position and presses your clothes if you leave clothes there. Um, with the kit, they don’t supply the actual bed base. We had to make that ourselves. So, I’m just going to take this mattress off and I’ll tell you how I made my bed base. Right, I’m I’m way up high now, but that’s because I took the mattress out and put it underneath cuz it’s raining today and I don’t want to get a wet mattress. It actually sits as you can see before on on the bench there, but we just had to lift it up slightly. Yes. Go ahead. So, the bed base was really simple to make. It was just a frame work. I built the framework first and then I reinforced it with um structural timber uh across the things. And I I recessed that and then put the the boards underneath so that it was a real solid base. And then I put this on top with the holes drilled in it. And we’ve never had problems with damp mattresses or any other troubles like that at all. Yeah. A lot of people ask how is our mattress with moisture and stuff like that, but this is what these holes are for. If you can see um all the holes around here, that’s to stop mold and let the mattress breathe. It does breathe really well. And like there’s little vents down the side there. That’s that’s for Sy’s little lip balm at night. Yeah. Goes down by the side. Um I did wire the lights in. And that comes down from a little cord on the side there. And these little side lights, these mood lights, they uh are controlled remotely and they they’re wired into it as well. So that’s it. That’s all we did for the bed. And it’s really big. It’s really strong. It doesn’t actually rest on the benches at all. Although people think it does. It actually sits about 5 mil above the benches. We can actually leave a jigsaw puzzle and it doesn’t hit it. And we have done that before. We have done that before. Yes. So yeah, it was enough room for a jigsaw puzzle on a mat. Oh, Pablo, he just gets it everywhere. Yeah. Timothy and Pablo will now instruct you on how to install a bed. No. Um, the actual kit itself is really pretty straightforward. It’s plug and play. Um, the only thing you have to do is connect it up to a power supply. It doesn’t really pull many amps at all. I only about 4 amps when it’s in operation. It can lift 200 kilos, I believe, and hold 400 kilos in the down position. I believe that’s what the specs are. I might be wrong. It might be 100 and 200, but it is enough. Um, you’re not supposed to you’re not supposed to be on it while it’s moving, I would say. No, but we have we have done by lifted you up through the skylight with it just to show you. It’s an actuator system. So, you have the four actuators. You attach them at the bottom with brackets. You line them up. the the that was the most difficult part was actually getting it lined up correctly. So they all were vertically that way and vertically this way and yeah so that you didn’t conflict and they were an equal measurement. The thing is and they had the brackets otherwise it clicks and clunks and what I noticed was if you were even half a millimeter out they all don’t go up the same and you get an error code and that’s what you got really got to be ex really exact. But once you get that right, once you get that right, and and if you use squares and and you measure twice and everything, you should get it right. Cuz if you’re a millimeter out at the bottom, you’re going to be like 10 cm out at the top. Yeah. Not exactly, but you know, it’s like when you shoot it shoot a gun, if you’re a couple of mil out here, you’re going to be loads out up that way. That’s right. So that’s the sort of thing. It does have a good throw. Um our ceiling, I think, is a 182 all the way to the top and it stops just short of that. So yeah, um yeah, it’s really in easy to install and if you’re not if you do buy the kit, you get um exclusive access to their website and you get the full instructional videos of what to do. I actually thought they were really good as well. I very well done. Very well done. And it’s it’s not hard. I will say that um Coral, the lovely lady who um is selling these bedlift kits, is lovely. If you have any issues, she’s happy to help and she good customer service and the issue even though it was our fault that we damaged it. She gave us a new actuator and didn’t ask and she even helped us do it. Yeah, she’s lovely. U as we said before, we do have a discount uh for the bed lift kit. It’s $100 if you use our link below, but we’re just really doing this video just to show you how it works cuz we always get we always get a lot of questions about it. Do you regret it? What’s it like? And I actually I absolutely love it because you don’t actually have to make your bed every day. You just have to make sure the uh the bed spreads are flat. That’s it. And then you just pull it up. We we can’t leave pillows up there, but if you had a higher van, a newer these these vans don’t go as high as the newer higher top ones, you would have the space. Exactly. I think um Coral actually leaves her pillows on hers. Hers is a bit different than ours. She has a different bed. Hers is a flat one. It doesn’t have the end panels on it. Yeah. You can make the bed base however you like and whatever style it’s suits you which is fantastic. But I think that’s all we had. That’s all we had questionwise in regards question about the bed and just our living area and what we do to sleep. We don’t really show us sleeping much, do we? No, we don’t. We should Well, well, that would be boring. Well, one of the question we had was our coffee um coffee boxes where we get them from. They’re just from Amazon, but I’ll show you. I’ll get you one and I’ll show you what I mean. Please hold. All right. I have a prop. So, these these are our coffee bag. Single use coffee bag. We’re not affiliated with the these or anything, but we just um came across them. I don’t know where we found these. I think it was from I think we saw them on another video. We thought they would be great. Yeah. So, all it is is a one use only bag. You just split it apart. Put on top of your cup. Put your grinded ground your ground beans. Oh my gosh. It’s late in the day. This is why we film in the morning. Uh yes, we put our ground beans in the top there. Pour it in. You pour your kettle. Pour it in the top. As you’ve seen in all of our videos, we’re probably putting a B-roll over there right now of our coffee scenes. But yes, that’s how you do it. And it is perfect. I remember where we found these bags. Go 4×4. They’re Oh, yeah. Go 4×4. If you haven’t seen him, he is He’s very He’s camping camping ASMR. ASMR. Wow. He’s got some He’s got cozy vibe right down to the wire, isn’t he? This is so so good. Rainy cozy rainy camping videos and just everything’s done perfectly. Everything has its spot. Ah, it’s actually quite relaxing to watch him do all that, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. Well, he is popular. He’s got over a million subscribers. Yeah. Another real popular question we get is about our dog Pablo. How he travels in here and how old he is. What breed is he? All that sort of stuff. He is a full bred. Full bred. Pure bread. He’s full. He is a purebred Chihuahua. Lots of people think he’s a Jack Russell or a what’s the other one? Foxy. Fox terrier. He’s not. He’s just a big Chihuahua and he’s not an apple head. He’s a deerhead Chihuahua. A lot of people haven’t seen those before. He is 6 years old. He loves traveling. He sleeps a lot, which is why which is which is why you don’t see him in a lot of videos. People sometimes say, “Oh, no Po B.” Well, he’s just sleeping. But I suppose I can You got plenty today. I got Yeah, those people got heaps of him today. How he travels in here. We have a um box for him to travel in. He usually Well, in our last um sort of setup at the front, he used to sit in the middle of us too. Uh now his bed fits in that office chair, which is absolutely perfect. It’s strapped to the office chair. It’s strapped to the office chair and also the table just as a safety measure comes to the front and locks him in place. And he’s quite happy in there. He’s quite used to traveling in there. And uh gets to look out the window, I think. We’ve got a window there now. The best. So, that’s the download on Pablo. He What else can I tell you about him? He eats raw dog food with a bit of seaweed morning and night and he will fight you for cat biscuits. Don’t leave any food out. That’s all I can say. He eats. Everyone wants, “Oh, do you feed him?” He eats a lot. He just looks He just scavenges for food. Yeah, honestly. And he’s good at it. And he doesn’t like to walk. Every walking scene that you’ve seen on this channel is a struggle behind the scenes. is like, “Come on, Pablo. Let’s go. What’s that over there?” And quickly, get the camera out. He loves people. He has a problem with big dogs. No big dogs, but if if you want to come say hello, uh if you’ve got a larger dog, probably not the best. So, just come over on your own. Ask us, ask us first and maybe he might be okay. But yeah, he’s not a not a big dog fan. But if you’ve got a little dog, bring them over. You’d love to play. I quite enjoyed doing a Q&A video. Q&A. We were just going to explain about the bed. We were supposed to just explain about the bed, but I thought, hang on a minute. We’ve got a lot of questions about the same things all the time. So, we thought, oh, why don’t just do a video and just explain it be easier. And we’ll leave you a link for the coffee bags as well. Yeah, there’ll be a link below for the coffee bags. I will leave a link for the bed. It is from Compact Innovations. And our our our link will give you $100 off if you are interested. And you won’t regret it, guys. It’s amazing. Great. Yeah. Yeah. So, thank you so much for watching and for making it this far. A big thank you to all of our members. We appreciate every single one of you. And for the rest, please subscribe if you haven’t already. Do that now. Pause. Do that now. All right, guys. We will see you next time. See you. [Music] [Music]

We’re Sandy, Tim, and Pablo—travelling Australia in our self-built Sprinter van. Join us for vanlife, travel, and Big Lap adventures around the country.

You asked… and we’re finally answering!
This episode is all about the questions we get asked all the time — especially about our bed lift kit, how it works, why we chose it, and whether it was actually worth it.

We’re also answering a few other vanlife curiosities — like where we sleep (spoiler: not always where you think!), and some of the quirks in our van setup that tend to raise eyebrows in the comments 😂

Whether you’re building your own van or just curious about life on the road, we hope this gives you a deeper look into how we live and why we’ve made the choices we have.

We’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts, ask questions, or tell us about your own Big Lap adventures in the comments below.

🔔 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more travel adventures! Hit the bell icon to stay updated with our journey around Australia.

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Compact Innovations (Bed lift kit) $100 discount:

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Postal Address:
Sandy and Tim
P.O. Box 1173
North Lakes QLD 4509
Brisbane, Australia

Our Fleet:
Vinnie: 2004 Mercedes Sprinter CDI LWB. Self-built – Lift bed, Full ensuite – full kitchen and lounge.
Pablo: 2019 Chihuahua – Tan in colour.

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