As someone who uses the 3rd bed all the time (shared van), I was truly upset on collection as felt we'd been mis-sold on the adult usefulness of this sleeping arrangement. As we loved the van so much in every other way, we decided to explore making it more useable. In a nutshell - we abandoned the ridiculous infill cushion as all you do is fall in the 'holes' either side and it slides all over the place. Our solution: We had a custom made cushion to match the table. We now loosen the steering wheel to push fully towards engine, turn driver's seat round, slide and rotate as far back as possible. Rear cushion from back of dinette is then placed across the driver's seat. The metalwork problem is solved with purchasing a length of padded material which I've permanently wound round to make a very effective headboard! All set then to roll out a single sized mattress topper for full width comfort. We use single, coverless duvets which we store in large cushion covers during the day, add a pillow and we now have a bed that is comfortable on a regular basis for someone who is 5'8". Not perfect, but so much better than the manufacturer's set-up and we can now love our CV40 - two friends with three dogs! x

If Julie watched this and saw you drop her coasters you might get a chance to use your new 1st aid kit😜

The drivers seat should be rotated only 90° anti clockwise. The fixed seat back (against the bathroom bulkhead) should also be removed. I think there will be far more length and makes sense of the shape of the infill and topper.

Very helpful thank you.

Great video mate , brilliant idea ! 😜

Really useful many thanks. Was looking at this van particularly for the occasional use of the 3rd berth. I think at 4 ft 10 it won't be quite big enough sadly. Back to the drawing board !

From a fat guy who is 6'7" that video was very much appreciated, thank you. 👍

Great vid as usual. When I bought my CV40 the reasons I opted for the 40 over the 20 was because of the dinette layout (obvs) but more particularly the fact that it provided for two living areas, which I thought would be useful but the main thing was the additional 2 travelling seats and as I was trading in my car I thought they would be needed. The 3rd small bed was an added extra I thought I'd never use - which I didn't in the end. The 3rd bed - from memory the Elddis site says it is 5 foot 7 inches long, it looks like we have a difference in opinion here Matthew! A downside of using the 3rd bed is where do you store the packup cushions when the bed is not made up - gets a bit untidy. As an experiment I tried an alternative layout giving a full size single with no fill in cushions - and it goes a bit like this. Turn both seats 90 degrees so that they're facing towards each other, drop the table as normal, use the double seat base cushion and the seat back cushions as the bed base, remove the headrests - and you have a 'bed' of sufficient length even if it's a bit lumpy and bumpy. The trick is to lay an air bed over the whole lot, soe kind of support like a wooden board between the two front seats might be useful too. Anyway, with the airbed added it's long enough and air beds are really comfy, I'm sure I could sleep well on it, at least for a couple of nights.

Good video, if I had to sleep in that bed I would need your 450 piece first aid and fire extinguisher to get out, thanks pete

Elddis have the spec for this third bed as 5’7” x 2’0” so I think you need to remove the passenger seats rear cushion to allow the mattress topper to lie completely flat.

Very interesting and informative to watch 👍👍 At least you've started a debate about it now!! 😃. I was wondering if the back seat upright cushion should be removed to give some added inches but there would be another gap to fill ?? 🤔 Thanks for posting its really interesting to see things like this 👍

i sleep in my parents CV40 in the 3rd bed and luckily for me im 4ft 8 (im 24). we find that if the drivers seat is facing the passenger seat it makes the 3rd bed big enough to fit a duvalay on... i wouldnt be able to sleep in that 3rd bed without my duvalay.

Good information there, and well done on the intro and presentation, getting a bit too flashy for me, my subscribers demand amateur footage (not really but I cba to do anything else 😂)

Another helpful video - out of interest I assume you store the infill cushions out of the van if you’re not using the front bed? Or do they have a specific hiding place?

Love the CV range and considering what could be best for me, single person, but with 2 dogs. Need to consider securing them when travelling and life in a van. Do you have any advise?

We have been considering the cv40 and the cv80, my youngest often comes with us and that 3rd bed (I've seen the update you kindly did) is just not long enough. But my question for you or anyone with the two passenger seats is- how comfortable are they on a long journey? I wasn't sure they'd be suitable for anything other than a short trip.

Hi Ian, we are loving your work! 👍 We also own a CV40 and are thinking about starting a channel, can I please ask what editing software you use as we are newbies to this? Cheers from Mark 'n' Jules in Nottingham. 😊