This will be pretty much the exact opposite of the pursuit of more performance. Ive been dreaming of building a weekender camper for about 15 years now. I watched multiple minivan/van builds and almost all of them were a permanent bed platform, and they were all built like a deck on the back of a house. Definitely now what I wanted. I always liked the design of the VW Bus campers. A nice couch that opened into a bed and a great open floor. More online research lead me to the Canadian 5Mars campers. They make a absolutely amazing modern take on the old VW campers.
The stars aligned and in August '21 I found a 2015 Grand Caravan with the minimal power options I wanted, the Blacktop package so it looks sporty, and only 39K miles for a decent price. After a trial night with an air mattress it was time to put a real camper interior together.
I started with a set of Futon hinges and some scrap wood to see if my ideas were even possible. A quick mockup and things were falling into place.
the base frame idea was going to work, mostly. The front edge stuck out about 8" too far, and it looked like a deck. But it opened into a bed
with that prototype 1 was done, and more figuring needed done
