Slide out galley?

[Socal Tom]

I'm happy to help with the brainstorming of ideas. If you toss them all out that is fine too.
There is an excel tool available here to help calculate your trailer balance
http://www.angib.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/t ... tear81.htm

Look in the design gallery and there are also some other tools that might interest you.

For my part, I'm not very skilled in the world of wood working, but I've been around the block a few times, and there is a reason the KISS method is popular. Have you considered what you want in your galley? Will you be staying at developed campsites or boondocking? Do you expect to be a weekend warrior, or on longer adventures? What's more exciting for you, camping in the trailer, or building it?
Tom

[daveesl77]

We like to go for extended runs, never less than a week, usually a month or more. I carry a lot of stuff, mostly in the truck, as I do video and photography (documentaries and stock footage) now that I'm retired. We never stay in private camp areas and try to stick with National Forests/BLM/COE and very seldom NP and sometimes SP. We are set to where we try to be able to go completely off the grid for at least a 5 day stretch, but we do use plug-in places to recharge, reclaim and relax. Right now I have everything set to where if the mood strikes we can pack up and leave in one day. The idea behind the teardrop is to make it even easier and to allow for easy overnights when we do our long trips. At the same time, it fits the desire to have a permanent site setup that I don't have to spend 2 hours getting right.

Our next semi-planned trip will be this fall back out west for 4-6 weeks, but probably sooner up to NY as grandson is graduating HS.

My favorite locations in the U.S. are Chaco Canyon, the Moab area, Muley Point, the Yellowstone area and northern Idaho/Glacier area, Cape Hatteras is great. We like trying to get a beach location every now and then, but in Florida it is almost impossible especially in the winter. We do have a favorite Corps of Engineers location in Georgia, called Ridge Road just north of Augusta. I've been going there for decades. All sites waterfront and they are huge, like over an acre each huge. Full hookups and easy access to stuff. The lake is gigantic. We always called the lake "Clark Hill", but they changed the name to Lake Strom Thurmond, which I refuse to call it.

Having the bedroom/galley set up at all times is a biggie for me, as they comprise a lot of what we set up when camping.

dave

[KCStudly]

While reading your post, weight on the tongue was my first concern as well. I was about to recommend a flat back barn door set up, because you can get a lot of galley in a shallow space that way due to the extra height; but then I saw that you prefer a curved profile.

Tony is right, you can find a design that works for you and your needs, either by following what someone else has done (there are so many fine examples), adapting something to your needs, or by taking your time to work something out for yourself from scratch.

Then it struck me, that's exactly what I am doing. I liked the idea of the curved profiles but wanted extra depth in the galley so that I could slide my cooler under lengthwise and still have plenty of under counter space. Also, I didn't want to have to reach, bend, or hit my shins on the rear of the floor like can sometimes be the case on a long sloping TD profile. So I started looking at the Benroy profile. I liked the fact that they have lots of interior volume, and the galley counter can be very close to the rear, but they still can have some flat "slabs" in the profile that weren't quite as appealing to me.

So I adapted. I arched the roof slightly to give it some curve; and added a "bustle" to the rear of the hatch so that the hatch ribs aren't competing with the rear edge of the counter, giving it a nice pleasing curvy look. Not a tapering TD profile, but curvy and practical.

So why am I telling you all this about my camper? Because TPCE profile might just work for you. You could leave the top of the bulkhead where I have it and extend the cabin floor back under the galley counter to make room for your dog (that would preserve the galley hatch hinge point and maintain hatch height and coverage when raised), or you could push the bulkhead back, shorten the hatch and still have plenty of galley space. My floor length is 9 ft 8-5/16 inches. Call it 9ft-8. If you like it you might want to shorten the walls a little; since I am building using a hybrid method with vertical grain interior panels, I made the side walls a little taller than usual and stacked them on top of the floor, so the profile is around 51 inches as designed, but that can be easily altered.

Just saying, you've got options.

[daveesl77]

The Benroy design (specifically the Ruby Sue build) is what originally made up our minds to build on. I keep waffling between the beauty of a pure teardrop and the practicality with beauty of the Benroy. Waffling won't last much longer, as I will probably start the fabrication in the next week or so and the Benroy is probably going to win out. I love looking at everyone's builds and see the beauty in every single one of them. And yes, I am a proud member of the "Idea Suckers of America and the World". :-) My biggest problem is that I know I must at some point quit doing the "wow, what if..." and start the "ok, this is what I'm probably going to do, but it won't look like that when done".

My one advantage is that I've been around stressed skin panels since I was a boy. My dad owned a company that made them back in the 50s. That and working on laminated boats and such, including a pop-up camper of my design, let's me feel pretty confident in the idea of strength and light weight do work together.

dave

[len19070]

I've done a few styles of "Roll out Galley's" over the years.

My first was on this trailer.

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One of the problems I had with this trailer was that there was no rear Bulkhead to triangulate the rear. I corrected this by inlaying some Huge Flat wall angles on the top and bottom.

And unlike what you were thinking of, we could sleep in the trailer with the galley rolled in so we usually shut the lid at night.

Some other Roll-Outs I've done on Square Back trailers.







I'm posting these last photos because this Principal could be used on just the lower shelf of what I call a Half Galley. Building the upper half under a Hatch conventionally and the Lower half a drawer.

My example of a Half Galley.



Then on this trailers Video I just got "Silly" with a roll out stove.



Happy Trails

Len

[S. Heisley]

The reason that most teardrop builders move the axle closer to the back is to help balance the weight of the galley in the back. If you decide to do a side pull-out galley on the front of your Benroy, you shouldn't need to move your axle back. You'll need to know how much weight is being put in the up-front galley design and use the balance sheet found in Design Resources (up top, in the header area) to know want you can or need to do as you'll want to be careful with the tongue weight.

I'm glad to see Len posted. He gave you a lot of ideas!

[daveesl77]

Len, PERFECT!!! (oh and sure get me all excited contemplating making it all motorized too :-) ) Your other builds are also great.

What you brought up on the racking, that is what I meant by actually building a bulkhead wall section, like a few inches thick, where the movable galley locks into while traveling and also into when extended out.

Sharon, I literally read your entire build thread a few days ago and loved your design. Brilliant concept and creation!

I agree with those who brought up the tongue weight problem with the forward galley idea, I think it might be too much, but I haven't fully trashed it yet. I'd have to determine how to do an offset on the weight, which is definitely possible. I'm going to do a laminate build, which will reduce weight substantially while maintaining strength. Laminate builds are one area where I do have a fair amount of experience, so I feel comfortable in that.

Thanks again and LOVE THE PICTURES!!!

dave

[len19070]

One thing I always do, and I'm a very "Shallow" guy, I'm all about "The Looks" is; forgetting the tongue! 1/3 of the trailer Box behind the wheel center and 2/3 in front.

All that said I always tow with a Truck......and not a big Truck, Nissan Frontier, Ford Ranger etc.

Never had a Problem.













Happy Trails

Len

[Gage]

Here's a couple pics of my galley.




You can see just how I did mine HERE

[daveesl77]

I knew you folks would have done this! Beautiful work and yes Gage, that is what I meant.

On the tow vehicle and tongue weight with a forward galley, I wasn't concerned about how much load there is on the actual tow vehicle as I have my trusty old F150 with a 9,000# tow capacity and 900# tongue load. I could pull my fully loaded 26' TT up the mountains out west without breaking a sweat. I was looking at it from a structural view on the trailer side which I realized doesn't matter much in one of these due to how light they are. I do think I have actually figured out how to negate that should I go with the forward galley idea. Simply move my "solar generator" system from the back of my truck to a compartment inside the rear of the camper. Battery weight will do a lot to offset the galley weight, just like it does in reverse in a "normal" build. And then I do not need to drag the solar box up and down a ramp (which does suck).

I'm actually putting pencil to paper now and trying out different designs that I've seen here.

dave

[daveesl77]

We finally decided to do an up-front, slide-out galley (side slide). Since we have altered the original design to become a semi-standy, this looks like it will work very well. Interior height, floor to ceiling, is to be 5'. 5' interior width. 10' curve-curve length with floor length of 9' (built). With the queen bed on a 15" platform running back to front, this gives a 15" flat floor with the galley inboard and 36" with the galley slid out. I already built my runners for the cabinets, well actually I realized I already had them from a jib-crane & dolly build I did a few years ago. This will be interesting.

I found a few youtube videos on similar designs, but I guess ours would kind of be a combination of these two designs. Slide out from the cargo conversion, but many of the components of the swing-out. I already have all of the stuff that both of these have. I love the way the swingout did his waterheater, as this is the exact one I have and I did a similar build to use with my tent-camping galley. With my water heater setup I built everything is on an aluminum panel, including waterpump, shore water connection and galley faucet plus the shower faucet.

Cargo Conversion slide out galley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsjCIgutgq4

Off road swing out galley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21uSZTaEK1E

Time to start building walls, yippee!!!

dave and regina

[daveesl77]

One of the fun parts of doing something like building this trailer is how I have the ability to change designs as long as I haven't done a cut or structural weakening. We love cooking when we camp so the galley is a big part of the design.

I first started with the idea of doing a normal hatch galley, but doing it where the galley would slide out the back a bit, just to give more interior room. I then went to the idea of doing a front based, side-slide out galley to give me even more room. Luckily, even though I had framed in the walls to do this, I had not yet cut out the opening in the wall.

It was then that I saw a photo of a 1960 Montgomery Ward trailer, that had the entire galley fully slide out the rear. I tied that image to Coyote Blonde's galley and the design of the Dominion off road trailer kitchen, with the flip out section and realized this could be an absolute winner. My bed was going to be on a 15" high frame anyway, just to allow us to use it as a settee if we wanted. The build height is 5' above the floor, so I have plenty of headroom clearance. By raising the bed frame up to 21 inches, I still have 6" of headroom if sitting, but can now mount the entire galley under the bed. Making the galley components 18" high and 5' long on the slide out. By using the Dominion flip over, I end up with one arm being about 7.5 feet long and the other can be the same. The other arm will carry the ice chest and storage. Main arm carries the sink, cook top, water heater, pumps, etc. I already have the components for the runners (slides) as I'm making them out of aluminum square tube and roller blade bearings, so I just double them if I want 2 slide outs. The weight when driving is now focused close to the axle area. I'll still carry my little dorm fridge, but put it in the now 3' x 5' open floor space in the front, where the galley was going to go. And I can add in some cabinetry in the front.

Here are photos and links to what I'm talking about, as this is really confusing. My wife just stared at me when I tried to describe it, but when she saw it she loved the idea. A full galley that takes up no floor space.

The Dominion Off Road Trailer Kitchen



Montgomery Wards trailer galley



Blonde Coyote's galley.



dave

[tfunk]

I built my first with a slide out galley and am very happy with it. I have been modifying it since its original build(hope to add a real sink this month). I love having the galley under the same awning as the entrance to the camper. The entire lower back of mine slides out to give you 5" of counter space and about 7.5 cubic feet of storage.

[S. Heisley]

Just to keep these slide out galleys together, here's one more:

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=47901&start=240