My 2014 LWB Wagon camper conversion:
My goals were to create something that my wife and I could sleep in on trips to bike, ski, see things, etc. but not have it compromise everyday functionality (so no built in cabinets or removal of all the seats).
So my work plan:
Part 1. Rear half of platform
1. Unbolt and remove rear two seats.
2. Create an 18in high frame out of 1x3s the fits in the area behind the back seats.
3. Hinge a piece of plywood to fit on top of this
Part 2. Front half of platform
This is trickier as it has to move out of the way, so can't be fully built in, plus the folded seats aren't as flat as the rear floor, so there is that to deal with. The roof isn't high enough to just have the front half of the platform fold up from the back in one piece but it needs to be rigid.
My solution was to create a framed hinged section that hinges in on itself from the frame side, so when there is weight on top of it, it can't collapse in on itself as the track of the hinge runs the frame of each half into the other. I should have took a better picture of this, but if it's not clear, I'll do so later.
To hold the frame up, I use hooked cam straps that hook under the front of the frame and then to the head rests of the front seat. I'm going to add some small legs that will take a bit of weight off of the straps, but it's more for redundancy than any real worry.
To connect the front part of the platform to the back, I created a gap in the rear frame that's just over the width of a 1x3. I then screwed a 1x3 coming off the underside of the front section of the platform. It slides into the gap and things are locked up very tightly.
Pictures coming in the next post.