7'*18' V-Nose Cargo Trailer Toy Hauler Conversion

[flboy]

Preparing the pulley mounts now. Still have three more for the cross side up top.

Made the floor mount with two hinges. Hope it works. I have some hardware (pulley's that attached to bed in 4 corners) coming via Amazon I need to complete. Already have the eyelets and turnbuckles, cable and etc.. I will start screwing it all together tomorrow.






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[BigDave_185]

Green one cable, blew a second cable

Run pipe or pvc along the bed to cover your cable and instead of going back up to the ceiling with the cable at each corner run it along the bed frame in the pipe.


That make sense? Check inbox for another option of running a multiple cable to one cable into drum idea


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[flboy]

Thanks. Almost looks more complex. In anycase, I am half way there. Will try it out, if it does not work well, I can modify. The pulleys for the bed are really easy. Hopefully can send pics tomorrow with it done.

[BigDave_185]

You have four total extra pulleys you don’t necessarily need. If you took your drawing and instead of going back to the ceiling and followed the front of the bed and back of bed in the tube. You would be less pulley, less cable, less to go work or bind.

This is all assuming the bed lifts even,

The bike lifts they have that are of same design don’t lift level, the one side of the bike lifts and the other follows. Where you store things in the underside it will cause weight/balance to be off also which can cause it to lift one or the other side not even.

Are you going to use resting blocks to hold bed or rely on the cable tension?


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[hankaye]

flboy, Howdy;

What size wire rope ya got there? Looks to be fairly stout.
Here's a simple guide for wire rope and aircraft cable to study.
https://usrigging.com/blog/wire-rope-buyers-guide/

hank

[flboy]

You have four total extra pulleys you don’t necessarily need. If you took your drawing and instead of going back to the ceiling and followed the front of the bed and back of bed in the tube. You would be less pulley, less cable, less to go work or bind.

This is all assuming the bed lifts even,

The bike lifts they have that are of same design don’t lift level, the one side of the bike lifts and the other follows. Where you store things in the underside it will cause weight/balance to be off also which can cause it to lift one or the other side not even.

Are you going to use resting blocks to hold bed or rely on the cable tension?


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This looks like it would pull one side up first and in my case, cause binding. The additional pulleys allow both sides to lift at same time. It does have to pull more cable as you previously mentioned; however. A trade off I suppose. Thanks for taking time to share.

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[flboy]

flboy, Howdy;

What size wire rope ya got there? Looks to be fairly stout.
Here's a simple guide for wire rope and aircraft cable to study.
https://usrigging.com/blog/wire-rope-buyers-guide/

hank

Hank, it is 4mm cable with 1250 lb load strength. I probably could get by with 3mm, but the winch came with 4mm so I stayed with that. Thanks for the guide. The cable will definitely not be the weakest link.

The cable's only job is to lift . I will pin the bed in the rails when in position. The bed probably weighs close to 250lbs and maybe slightly more with all the bedding and drawer filled.



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[hankaye]

flboy, Howdy;

You da man. Doing the "run what ya brung" philosophy is good. Looking forward to the video
of it working Mr. C.B. deMille.

hank

[flboy]

Well, after working most of the day and installing everything, I can tell you it does not work.


I removed the trolley wheels to prevent any binding and it still lifts one side first. I need direct pull in all four corners. I am done for the day , but will make a quick mod tomorrow to pulley configuration and see how it goes. I am in this to get it done now...

[pchast]

I understand you are mounting the winch on the trailer floor. If you use a center pulled bar at the ceiling to gather the 4 corner cables you should have even pull at all corners. Uneven weight might still cause uneven movement?????????

Perhaps long trolleys in tracks at the corners to hold right angles and force even movement?

[BigDave_185]

https://youtu.be/ZEurdaURavw

I still think a method where each corner of the bed is attached to a cable is the answer.

Single cable will fight the level unless it has a track.


This isn’t a bad idea and honestly looks fairly dependable

https://youtu.be/t6V8nzRNBfo


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[flboy]

The gas shocks method would not suit me. I want to be able to adjust the bed in multiple positions depending on if bikes are in the back or not or which bike. I will be able to set the bed at the lowest possible depending on which bike is in the back or all the way down if the bike is out.


I am going to reconfigure pulleys to lift each corner. That is easy to do from where I am at. I did remove the wheels from the trolleys last night They serve no purpose except to cause binding in my case The Tracks and trolley wheel mounts are still useful to allow pinning the bed in several positions so they still extend into the tracks.

Next try this afternoon.

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[flboy]

Ok.. got it working now. The new pulley configuration works well. No binding without trolley wheels. I still have to make a few tweeks and put the CTC back together and clean up. I even got the remote control to work.

So next weekend, I will paint and put valences in to cover the cables along with some LED backlighting. I also need to make some longer curtains now, but the hard part is done and I made it work. Very happy about that. I'll take some pictures and do another short demonstration when it is all cleaned up. For today, just happy I got it to work as I want. Going to be an nice upgrade. I can walk under the bed without ducking at all when up. Going to make the living area much nicer and then the bed will only be 4ft. off the floor when the bikes are out. With the step ladder I have, just three steps into bed. Can now sit up in bed and etc.. Going to enjoy this more in bed and when it is up during the day. Persistence!

Video demonstration.... proof! :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h7ukJJNp5o


PS. I will draw a diagram of the cables for anyone else interested. Actually much more simple and less pulleys (5 total instead of 11) that I started out with. Will try to post that later this week.


BTW.. lift is a Harbor Freight 2500 lb ATV winch I got on sale with remote for $59.00. The rest of the cable, pulley and misc. hardware was close to $100, so about a $159.00 cost to do this. Knowing what I know now, I'd still use the track as a guide and a place to pin the bed at various heights, but trolly wheels are not needed and as I recall, those were were expensive. Hindsight is 20/20... and this whole build has been an experiment for me. This bed was the hardest part for me to get it right.


Here is a close up of how I joined the 2 direct lines on each corner to the main cable going to the capstan ( duplicated on each side of bed). Also installed turnbuckle on each side for minor adjustment to keep it level going up and down.

[brianjonesphoto]

Looking forward to the drawing. You might have just saved me $100! Do you try to run the cables inside the existing track?


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[flboy]

Ok, this is the diagram of how I made the bed lift work if anyone is interested. It is simple and it works. I can also see this working with winch mounted under the bed at roughly same point with no cross cable on floor in back. I am going to make a threshold to conceal it . It is far very back at opening, so not in way. The bike will roll over it.


https://youtu.be/4h7ukJJNp5o






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