WideCharlie

Hi all. Well, the deed is done. Bed boards made and installed and we are very pleased. Sylph-like wife is able to spring into the upstairs bedroom once the poptop is raised, for which I am most grateful and I gave her a round of applause, for which she was most grateful. She doesn’t need a ladder or step-stool, she simply hops up via the second row of seats that we have facing backwards. The boards fit neatly and do not impede the poptop handles. To raise and to lower we simply shuffle the for’ard most board backward to overlap the one immediately behind to create space to raise that pesky poptop. Also, we have found there is sufficient space between the upper surfaces of said boards and lower surface of the poptop to store the sleeping mats and a blanket and some other (flattish) stuff to save stowage ‘down below.’ All told, it all seems most satisfactory. We will try it in anger in not too long, after which we will either become campervanning maniacs or sell the damned thing (just joshing!). Thanks for all the help Charlie

Arthur - thanks for the tip. Duncan - yes, awnings generally are contentious but even more so with Alphards it seems. For that reason alone I’ll leave it until next year and see how we get along without one this summer. Paul - thank you for the response and it seems that the seat arrangement in ours is the same as yours, along with the rear conversion. At this stage we can’t see a massive problem with accessing the pop top area via the second row of seats configured one way or another. We’ll see once we get those pesky boards made up. Thank you all.

Interesting stuff, Duncan. It’s good to hear another’s solutions to basically the same problems and I’m impressed with that awning. Went to look at some fancy versions at Go Outdoors recently and wondered what advantage an awning would have over a tent pitched alongside. It seemed a lot of trouble and quite some money simply to create a ‘hallway’ between tent and van. We’ll hold off on the awning decision until maybe next year. And, yes, I can see the attraction of a side conversion but we’ve been and gone and done the rear variety now so that’s that, I’m afraid. I’ll certainly give you a shout if we get up thataways again but, oh, getting past Birmingham on that M42 is enough to bring me out in hives 😉 Thanks again Charlie

Hi Duncan. Our van has a rear conversion so the option of an r&r bed was lost, I’m afraid. We gambled a little on herself sleeping upstairs but if that didn’t/doesn’t prove feasible we’ll still have the width to sleep two downstairs in relative comfort(?). Not sure we made the right choice but I suppose we’ll find out the first night we try it out in anger. And it will be in anger if we can’t sleep! As for best skirts and blouses, neither of us has them. T shirts and jeans and joggers and something warm - that’s about the lot for us. We don’t intend to go far or for many nights at a time or to wild camp. We’re softies, I’m afraid, but I would like more storage space such as you are making. We’ll try it all out and look at options in due course. BTW, we have friends in York. We visited them last year and took the chance to look at the Bangers and Cash place - Mathewsons - where I nearly parted with money for a heap of old rust in the form of an Austin J2. I was saved from heartache by The Sensible One and now realise that issues with Alphard bed boards aren’t even flea bites. Good luck with the drawers.

Hi Duncan, thank you for your comments. As one old git to another I can appreciate only too well the difficulties of ingress and egress you outline. I’m reasonably fit but also reasonably hefty and simply can’t see me sleeping ‘upstairs.’ However, my wife is not an old git and is almost sylphlike so it remains to be seen if she can manage with a degree of ease. We are both used to sleeping on bouncy yachts so an element of discomfort in a camper is acceptable. If it all proves too much, and that’s my expectation to be honest, we’ll have to bite the snoring bullet and both sleep (or attempt to sleep) together downstairs. In which case the mezzanine can simply serve to store all manner of unnecessary stuff. It might even be fun finding all these things out. But, yes, I take your point about trying to get out of the upstairs platform when actually lying on it. A bit like pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps! She’s a clever girl, though, and I wouldn’t yet put it past her to manage. I’ll report back as and when we get those damn boards done 😉 Thank you again.

Paul, thank you ever so much. That looks to us the ideal setup. I’ll get it done as soon as possible to take advantage of a little bit of decent weather. You’re a star! Charlie

Thank you Paul. That would be very kind of you 👍

Thank you Duncan and Paul for your responses. A van conversion business here in Plymouth is suggesting 4 carpeted boards fitted onto a set of covered angle iron type supports which are fixed into the steel frame surround. Said boards can then be moved, partially or wholly, to allow access/storage to the ‘upstairs’ area. Now, as for having the ability to access said upstairs, that’s a different matter altogether and I’ll only be able to judge that once the boards are in situ. My wife, who goes by the soubriquet Narrow Nicki to counter my Wide Charlie, is a likely candidate for upstairs sleeping in a probably vain attempt to minimise the joint snoring issues. I’m hopeful that the joys of a wide but lumpy downstairs bed can be mine and mine alone. Fingers crossed!

Afternoon everyone. After much faffing, my 2007 2.4 Alphard (hereinafter called Luna because of the similarity of the Japanese female’s voice on the console to that of the fey Irish girl in the Harry Potter movies - blame the wife for that) now has a pop top. I have subsequently decided that we need bed boards to create an ‘upstairs room’ when peace and quiet is needed. So, the question is, how have others gone about fitting bed boards? It can’t be a single board mounted on struts because that would hide the lighting in the roof. So it woukd have to be, I suppose, sections of board, suitably carpeted, mounted on what/where? Can those who’ve trodden this path before please pass on the benefit of their experience!preferably with images before I set off diy-ing like a madman? Thank you in anticipation 🙂

Thank you Paul. That’s interesting information but I can’t imagine any heat build-up in my Alphard in this wetter than wet Godforsaken climate we have here in the South West. It feels like it’s been monsoon-like since September. Depressing.

Hi Michael, and yes I can empathise with the camping experience. Every time I’ve ever been tempted to spend time under canvas it’s turned into a mini disaster one way or another. I can well remember me and the very patient wife, two kids and clouds of midges, all under canvas in an ill-fated weekend in Scotland. Never again, I vowed. So, a camper van (in progress) it is. And not in Scotland. I’m waiting not so much for warmer weather as drier weather to experiment. Some hope!

Thank you Roger. Yes, I will do that.

Michael, thank you. I’m currently wading through the literature and websites about awnings. Like everything else, there are pros and cons. I confess I’m not a natural under-canvas camper but I can see that awnings provide a great deal of extra space for storage and dining and so on. Research continues. Paul, thank you. Your line of reasoning reflects our own. We opted for the rear conversion to preserve the second row of seats and to ensure that should we we be obliged to sleep in more or less the same space we would have sufficient room to avoid vicious elbows and knees during the night 😱 We’re fortunate in a way that I’m the only driver so won’t be forced to use the camper for things like shopping. We have a perfectly good car for such boring things. We have only ever intended to use the Alphard as an overnight campervan on established sites, and as a day van in areas like Dartmoor. So a pop top should suit us fine and my wife is more than nimble enough to scale the heights in pursuit of a decent night’s sleep. Standing headroom is a real bonus, I think. Thanks again for the responses.

Please ignore my post above. I have now bought from elsewhere.

Hi there. Brendan is it? I might well be interested in those screen covers. We’re currently trying to set up our 2007 Alphard for spring having bought it in December. Is there any reason your covers won’t fit our Alphard? They seem fairly standard to me, but what do I know? How much are you looking for them? We’re in Plymouth but, proving it’s a small world, used to live in your neck of the woods for quite a few years and am Lancastrian by birth - Fulwood and Penwortham in the 80s.

Once again, thank you for your useful comments. I shall think twice or maybe more about all these things, but I don’t expect that getting into public car parks with height restrictions, or otherwise, will be a deal breaker. I shall probably favour campsites with the facilities necessary for a gentleman of advancing years measured in bladder pressures. I’ll explore the awnings option, I think.

Good suggestion Arthur. Thank you.

She bitterly regrets not being able to drive. So do I. 😭

Thank you for those comments, Arthur. Interesting. Ours is a rear conversion so there would be different pros and cons, no doubt. And whilst I am anything but small and lightweight, my wife certainly fits that particular bill. But we are both used to bouncing around the high seas in yachts so I suspect a little discomfort and a great deal of squirming in a campervan won’t go amiss for either of us. Not keen on caving, though, nor entombment. There’s plenty of time for the latter in not too many years, I suspect 😱. Oh, and we’ll be looking at a pop topped Alphard in a couple of weeks when SC Conversions get their next one to sort. Standing room is important so I suspect we will go for the pop top. Maybe an awning as well in due course is a reasonable suggestion. It’s all a question, in truth, of how best to avoid night-time torture by snoring! There are compromises and then there are compromises. Thanks once again for your observations.

Thank you Roger. I’ll let my wife know. She has a good head for heights 😉

Hi again. Another quick query. I’m thinking of having a pop top installed by SC Conversions of Plymouth. I understand the floor of the pop top to be a number of boards (rather than a single base unit) which can slide a little to permit access to the top space. The question is, before I get it done, how does one get in and out of said roof space? Scrambling up and down off the seats? Carrying a mini ladder or similar? Or is it dead easy for anyone with even a modicum of rock climbing ability (that excludes me, of course)?

Thank you Paul. Yes, I’m sure there’s room for a second battery under the bonnet. Waiting for the auto electrician to get back to me (zzzzzz) to discuss further. Meantime enjoying the dry weather and contemplating a pop top or not. We’ll see how we get along in spring before making a decision on that.

Good morning Roger and Chris and thank you once again for the information. I think I’m fairly well sorted now as regards those sensors and the alarm. The triangular one now blinks away like a good ‘un and I’m happy with the A/C: Climate Control operation although it doesn’t seem to help much where this dreadful winter weather is concerned🤕. I haven’t yet tried the ‘panic button’ but might give that a go later today. Toys indeed, Roger!

Good morning Chris and thank you for the comments. 1 Yes I have the sensor for the auto lights, although I suspect its sensitivity need adjusting somehow because the lights won’t come on in the Dartmoor gloom, just when nightfall makes it sufficiently dark. 2 I clearly have the other sensor which you identify as ‘climate control’ but which then begs the question: what is climate control when I have fans aplenty and air conditioning, no other switch that is marked climate control and I can find no reference to it in the manual? 3 OK yes, I can see that the little triangle thing is a sensor for an after market alarm system but, like so much else, I’m not immediately clear how it operates. In fact, I have inadvertently set the alarm off a couple of times and switched it off by simply putting the key into the ignition. 4 There is no bonnet sensor. 5 An extra horn? 6 I don’t have an extra fob although last week I obtained an expensive second key which has on it a red button with a diagram of what appears to be a blaring speaker but I’m reluctant to try that out on a Sunday morning so as not to make all the neighbours jump out of their skins. It might be alarm related! I’ll try it some time away from civilised society. I apologise to all and sundry for appearing dumb. I’m beginning to feel I need to attend an Alphard 101 course. When I was young (a long time ago 👴) we only had basic car controls, and plugs and points to contend with, not computers which, we were promised, would make our lives easier. Ha! You can probably guess that I have other questions but I’ll save those for now so as not to exhaust the forum’s good will 😚

Nah, they can stay where they are. They are quite decorative and might even impress the occasional passenger when I mention ejector seats.