Need info for platform bed with pull out below.

[Jay Jolliffe]

I have to design & make a double size platform bed with a pull out platform below instead of drawers. They want to be able to have another bed below. Any ideas where I could get such heavy duty slides for the pull out.

[Jim Matthews]

I would build the lower platform as a 1/2 torsion box, with inline skate wheels in contact with the floor.

It's not so much the load that will be your problem (Blum makes some beefy slides) as it is the distance you need to move the platform.

[Carl Beckett]

There is standard hardware for the pull out. Look for a 'daybed' type hardware. My mother had one for years - you just make the upper frame/structure with an opening at the bottom. The bottom mattress is on a set of springs that rides close to the floor on rolling casters. When you want to use it, you pull it out and it pops up to the same height as the upper mattress.

Very useful for guests, but compact when not in use (and she had hers set up as a sort of 'couch' arrangement when not using as a bed)

[Trent Shirley]

Another option is casters for the outside edge of the mattress frame and some wooden guides on the inside. You could then put stops at the back so the bed would stop at a fixed position. I would suggest making the stops easy to disconnect so that you can pull the bed apart for moving without a lot of hassle.

We have a platform bed with two rows of drawers rather than a pullout bed but the idea is the same.
Since it is drawers only though the platform is made into a left and right section with a gap in the middle with a door on the end to allow access for storage. The design would obviously have to be different for a bed and you will want bracing enough to make certain the frame cannot push out of square causing the lower bed to bind.

Let us see it when you are done. I have thought about doing the same for the kids beds. Even considered making the whole bed underneath with the top being a platform for the kid to put his drums on but the floor is never clean enough to pull the bed out so....