Time to address the important topic of the storage and sleeping solutions.

The concept

One of the interesting things about the Valp, is that it's a perfect small utility vehicle: It's about the same size as normal car, but you can fit an impressive amount of thing inside.

Losing this just for the sake of a camper conversion used a couple of weeks each year does not sound very optimal.

Our solution was to try to make it easy to switch between different modes, trying to make it as practical as possible no matter what.

The primary storage

We solved the main issue by devising a system allowing us to pack the storage units vertically against the side wall of the car when not in camper mode.

We achieved this by creating two long boxes of roughly similar dimensions, one stationary and the second that can either be installed side by side or on top of each other.

The bed frame

Then we covered these storage units with two long boards joined by hinges, acting as both a lid to close the boxes and as the bed frame.

Opening the lid

As you can see there, there is quite some room to store things¹.

Storage access

When fully folded on top of each other it is then possible to unhook the second box and then install it over the permanently fixed one.

Storage mode

The last board, on which we install the second mattress, can safely be stored in vertical position along the two stacked storage units, this way no room is lost at all and we even can use the top storage unit to put whatever stuff we need to transport.

The secondary storage

On the back of the Valp we have three jump seats² that can easily be folded to provide an easier access to the cabin.

Under the two last ones we found out there would be enough room to store things like soda cans, gas canisters for the cooker, etc... all we had to do was to build an enclosure and the seats would act as a lid to access the content.

Rounding the corners

We kept using the same method we used so far: Some plywood boards reinforced by a wooden frame.

Sound dampening

We covered the inside with sound dampening material to avoid creating a resonating enclosure.

With the carpet

And finally the whole was covered in carpet.

The final result

And there it is.

We definitely rushed to be ready on time for the holidays, which means we had no time to build drawers or handles or partitioning: It's as raw as it can be, but that should give you a good idea of how it looks³.

Desk mode

We call Desk Mode the setup where the two mattresses are piled on top of each other, with the board on top: When sitting in the back it's at the perfect height to use a laptop.

Bed mode

When the board is installed on top of the seats and the top mattress slided on top of it, we are in Bed Mode...

Testing the couch

...which provided us with a pretty comfortable 190x150 cm bed.

That's pretty much all we had the time to build before testing the car.

If you want to read about the trip, then take a look at the Scandinavian road trip article on my blog.

Thanks for reading :)

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