Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

to possibly not having to reinvent the wheel, haas anyone successfully built a mechanism that will lift bed to the ceiling? Ihave looked at the happijac system but it is way out of my price range. I want to raise it to allow forloading my v strom nd then let it down to use while traveling.

I did not try it but was thinking a wench and cable pulley might work a small wench mounted under the trailer and pulleys 1 for each corner and a cable to bed frame can use track or wood so it don't move around on you. This is the system i'm going with if I ever get my ranger.

I was about to re-invent the wheel for mine, had a simple system of pulleys and cables all laid out on paper. Then when I went to get hard measurements, I realized my bed would cover my AC... DOH! So I went to the wall. One of the advantages of an 8'6" wide trailer, I can go to the wall with a 12" deep sleeping platform, load my Rhino, and still have walking and tie down room.

As for the system I was working toward. I was going to use cables and pulleys. I figured I'd go to the large rectangle tubing in the corners of my ceiling. That way most of the weight should go down the walls. So 2 eye bolts on both sides in the upper corners. Pulleys on one side and just open eyes on the other. Then rollers on the underside of my bed frame just inside the legs at the head and foot of the frame. Both cables would terminate to one hook, and go through a low pulley to change the direction of the needed force. The driver, which was to be a combo winch (hand/12v power), would be set far about 8' away from the lower pulley to have enough room to pull the bed to the roof. It's less elaborate than it sounds... I think

thanks, Im leaning to h use of the drums and straps from boat trailer winches. with four drums on the left side, and 2 pulleys on the right side the straps should be a cleaner method to lift the bed Im considering leaving one winch with the gear reduction on it and converting the handle mount to a 3/8 ratchet extender to allow the winch and drums to be turned with a ratchet handle. as im only going to have 1/4 of a turn on the handle. it seems that the ratchet will be more convenient. Im also considering mounting the straight section of garage door track on each corner of the bed, to the wall and then using garage door rollers on each side of the ber to guide the bed straight up and down.
Im looking for creative input as to whether this will work and possibly less expensive methods. Curt

Ah, mine had the added complication of being open on both sides, a requirement from she-who-can-make-life-hell-or-not.

Mine goes to the roof, but is manual right now - 1/2 at a time

Super handy!
Pulleys and etc aren't hard to do & it'll be automagic next year

I have been putting some thought into this same issue. I was thinking back to the canoe storage lift system my dad cobbled together with ropes and pullys.

I like the system shown here, it is much cleaner and neater.

http://www.autoanything.com/roof-racks/69A6035A0A0.aspx?kc=MERCSHOP&mr:referralID=f9ae1313-0934-11e2-b779-001b2166c62d



george

no need to reinvent the wheel with this item.i is exactly what I had in mind

I did not try it but was thinking a wench and cable pulley might work a small wench

I've found that small 'wenches' are generally not as strong as larger ' wenches' when they're turning the crank on a winch

thanks for linking that hoist idea. i've not yet finalized our floorplan (ha! is anything ever final in these types of projects!). While doing a google search i found the Harken Hoister which might be another possible solution.

I did it using garage door track , rollers and pulleys . i have a winch mounted underneath that pulls all 4 cables at once . kinda hard to describe but it works similar to how a popup trailer roof is lifted .

nmwagschal wrote:I did it using garage door track , rollers and pulleys . i have a winch mounted underneath that pulls all 4 cables at once . kinda hard to describe but it works similar to how a popup trailer roof is lifted .

Good idea! I went with unistrut

NM,

I think that I can visualize the setup.

Would you please post pics of your lift?

Tom