Drop down double bed

as you mentioned 'above the cab' type beds, youre talking about an A-class MH...

there are a few great examples of the layout you seek this Frankia 640 is one of the bst of its type....terrific quild quality, lovely lounge, kitchen, across the rear washroom, double floors etc...all in 6.4m.
the bed is one of the biggest of its type and can easily be used longitudinally. although most are transverse.

when new, most of these vans will be expensive, the Frankias used are like gold dust but, SMC usually have one....

Hymer has a version of the longitudinal bed in its tiny (6m) B DL 444.

Pilote also have a 6m version with their G600L (very popular, park anywhere van) and their larger G650L.

Hymers (now discontinued) B Class B544 is their eqivalent to the Frankia at 6.5m...and is highly sought after...

we have a drop down in our van and our grown up daughter and husband have used it...they are surprisingly large at 1.60m wide, so loads of room, and they swing down low really easily and you just need to step on the side seat to get in, no steps/ladders required...no issue with weight....

the bed will be totally stable, retain your bedding and be deployed in a few seconds..and will be way more comfortable than a lounge 'make up' bed.

downsides?....if a transverse unit, the inside sleeper is 'trapped' by their partner, but the longitudinal versions dont have this issue, as in the Frankia....also as the overal design is very caravan-like (apart from the drop down) and can suffer from a lack of large storage areas (no garage or fixed bed to store large items)...

good luck.

I'm on my third A-class in 17 years because the drop down bed allows for more usable motorhome space which is important to me. To set up my drop down bed at night on my current A-class, I have to adjust the steering wheel to its lowest setting and fold down the cabs seats.

Here are some of the impracticalities of drop down cab beds:

1. Not everyone is happy sleeping close to the front panel of the van; certainly not for the claustrophobic! Good ones don't get cold 'upstairs'.
2. The one on the inside has to clamber over the one on the outside and the bed rocks a little when they do.
3. Rattles when driving are quite common but not loud or worrying.
4. Weight restriction on the bed - mine is 200kg, some are 150kg.
5. Useless for storing, you might be able to store the bedding but in some, the quilt, not the pillows, is all you can manage. Mine thinks pillows are children and the electric motor stops until I remove the 'children'. Manually operated drop down beds do not have a problem with storing pillows.
6. Access is by clambering over the furniture or up ladders, not easy for the infirm.

There are also difficulties in owning an A-class such as access to the engine bay which can increase service time/costs. My Fiat Professional dealer used to try and get another £100 of me for a service. 

Having had three, would I have a fourth? Yep - especially if I could run to a Frankia. The benefits of the shorter vehicles, the vista out of the cab windows, and the absence of damp in beautifully designed, well-made vehicles make it all worth while. The cab on a good A-class is integral to the design whilst still retaining all the Fiat/Mercedes/Iveco crash protection systems.

I had a Hymer 544 which, with its two longitudinal bench seats and drop down bed, is a fabulous layout for two. Now I have a 6m long 504 which has a single bed at the rear over the garage which my missus will use if she has back ache. Doesn't have a big lounge though.

A, good objective and informative post....

i first saw (and lusted over) the 640 SD about four years ago, but it was a lot of money, even then....having said that, we bought a Carthago a year later....smile
i think the 640, the 544 and (possibly) the Pilote 650 make for a very roomy van with terrific 'fixed' beds...

Hymer definitely in the running when we changed (dealer kn the doorstep) and looked hard at the 544 but the desire to carry and keep ebikes under cover meant we went for a garage version, still only 6.4m and dropdown bed but smaller lounge due to rear double over garage...

Aspenshaw has pretty much nailed the situation.

I've had two Rapido's with drop downs and they've been fine, from memory 200Kg weight limit, never found them cold to be honest.

He's got a point about some places charging extra to work on an A class, but that's just a con IMO, just trying to get more money because you have a more expensive model.

The drop down beds are available in all sorts of vans, here's some extra info on the pro's and cons.

see here

i think the OP was looking at those with 'above the cab type' beds which really means A class vans, rather than those where the bed drops straight down over the lounge.

the great thing about an A class bed is that it 'doesnt' come down over the lounge, the bed actually falls in a gentle fwd direction, using a cantilevered scissor action to follow the line of the windscree, ie away from the lounge.

so, only the cab seats and large dashboard area are actually covered by the bed, with all other sofas, side seats free to be used..great with kids??

Had a look at the Hymer 444 at the NEC show. Very clever use of space but we thought the drop down bed would be like sleeping in a small tent. Need to climb in and try it!

We went to the Glasgow show the other day and was pretty impressed with the Pilote P650GJ 6.4m coachbuild, 2 fixed single beds and a drop-down over the cab, clever use of the bathroom/shower.

They have another model G650GJ its an A class also 6.4m very similar layout, they didn't have one on display at the show but one is due in to the dealers in a couple of weeks so will be having a look at that one.

Its not long since I said on here that we were not that keen on continental style MH's as they were all to big, however these ones are the same size as our current van. The advantage here is that the bikes would be in a garage rather than on the back adding another half a metre to the length.

We decided against one because it didn't "drop" down far enough.

...but they arent all the same...

even with the over lounge beds, some manufacturers get them to come down to seat base height (very low)...

the restricting factors are likely to be whether the design incorporates lockers on the underside of the bed, and whether the seats below remain 'in the way'...

some makers domthis far better than others....

the current 'most innovative' drop downers are probably Chausson....

im not a huge fan of their 'ambiance' but they are damned clever at the way they have managed to get drop downs in transverse or (totally separate) single format....

their latest transvers is 1.6m wide, thats a good sized bed.