B190 Enthusiasts

My 1997 is missing the upper matress and I believe the frame that moves towards the back when it is pulled out for sleeping. I found the following photo of a 1998 and it appears to have an oak beam that moves to support the extended plywood. Is this the case? Can anyone help with additional photos of that so I can get one built to replace my mising piece? Does anyone have dimensions?

Thanks, Julie

You're in luck, sort of. I thought I had this figured out yesterday, but your picture is now making me scratch my head again. Maybe a mid-year change is confusing the issue.

1997, as we know, is the first year of the new, shorter top. The Airstream literature for that year omits the size of the bed, but recently, Michael Farrington on the FB group measured and he came up with 5'3"x4'6" (63"x40") with the bed slid out.

The 1998 literature specifies 55"x64" for the bed (I think those numbers are reversed compared to the others). The 1999 literature specifies 65.5"x80".

I'm willing to ignore the slight differences in widths and just say they're all about 64" wide. Since the fiberglass top is angled, it would vary depending on where it's measured.

The length is another story, though. '97 is 40". '98 literature says 55". '99 says 80".

I found this picture of a '98 from an ad on RV Trader a few months ago. Note the space beneath the cabinets to allow the bed to slide back. That's how Airstream solved the short-bed problem. Yesterday, I concluded they had solved it for the '98 model year, but your picture (also being a '98) makes it look like they might have changed it mid-year. (It's also possible the ad with the picture below is somehow wrong, but the VIN given in the ad is for a '98 Ford van.)
I can't explain the discrepancy between the 40" and 55" in the '98 literature. It's possible there's a more subtle change that's hard to distinguish in pictures for that 15", or perhaps the literature is wrong.

Doing my further research I found that my van is a 98' model year even on the DMV registration but the Airstream is a '99 model year. I have the 80" bed. It comes out completely and goes under the cabinets as with the second picture. The upper mattresses are in three pieces. The first is the largest and takes up the whole footprint of the closed bed. The other is wide enough to span the space in front of the cabinets. The last is just wide enough to fit in between the cabinets with the bed extended. We have a queen size mattress topper that we cut down to fit over all of it. The cover rolls up nicely once we are ready to move again.

The end bumpers to stop the sliding portion of the bed from damaging the wood at the end of the cutout are broken. If anyone has a picture or knows the part number to get replacements, I would appreciate the information.

To skaters conundrum, the 40" measurement is of the 72" X 40" couch. I want to convert my 97 to the late 98 up specs. If someone could give me the measurement from the slide out to the spot under the cabinets where it stops so I know how deep I have to go. Also the sizes of the two small mattresses and how the slider boards work and sizes of the expanders and setup. With pics would be super nice.

Is the third section of the mattress, the part that fits over the extendable portion of the bed thinner than the rest of the mattress? I'm trying to figure out how to build our bed frame and it seems like the pull-out part doesn't drop down to the same level as the rest of the bed plywood. That would mean the mattress would have to be thinner...can anyone verify that this is correct and if not can you post pics of the wood construction? Thanks so much!

nessab190 wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 02, 2019 5:12 pm

Is the third section of the mattress, the part that fits over the extendable portion of the bed thinner than the rest of the mattress? I'm trying to figure out how to build our bed frame and it seems like the pull-out part doesn't drop down to the same level as the rest of the bed plywood. That would mean the mattress would have to be thinner...can anyone verify that this is correct and if not can you post pics of the wood construction? Thanks so much!

Did anyone ever figure out how to get a '97 to extend out so 2 people can sleep with heads facing the front window and feet at the ladder side? I think I may have a solution that would involve removing the wide and skinny cabinet door on the left, (making it an open cubby), and raising the french doors on the right cabinet by cutting them up a bit higher. Then one would re-router the bottom edge of those doors to the same radius, and refinish the two lower edges of the (french) cabinet doors. Then you can add 2x2 supports at the bottom of the left and right cabinets to support a removeable or slide in piece of 3/4 or 1-1/4 plywood with a small oak riser added on the ladder facing edge of the new ply to hold in a new mattress section. It might need a strip of 1-1/2' steel under the connection to the existing oak riser section for support as well to hold the new mattress even under weight. I will sketch up my solution once I physically see the van to be sure this will work. (I've not yet seen the van as I'm thinking of buying it, and going to see it tomorrow.) Finding a solution to this issue is critical for me for the van suiting my needs.

I modified my cabinets to increase the upper bunk size. It will sleep two easily. Feet or head at the glass front window.

PM me your phone number, and I will text you some pictures.

All of my mods involved removing parts of the existing cabinets. I also removed the plywood base over the cab. I built a new one that was exactly one half the length of my new bed. Then had new cushions made that were also halves.