DomoArigato's 7x16 Homesteader Build

[McDave]

Hydration is crucial. Nice job on the flooring, very professional results.

McDave

[phoenixbound]

I like your bed setup. I have mine setup on eTrack that we raise to haul my Tri-Glide and lower it when we get to the campsite. It works, but I am always interested in something better. How does your bed frame raise and lower? Is it powered? Any more detail would be appreciated.

Been busy with the camper the last couple of weekends. I fashioned up some pulley brackets for my bed lift, painted, installed. Then I finished the ceiling insulation and firring strips. Got the ceiling skinned out and the outside wall of the bathroom skinned. Still have to do the inside bathroom walls and trim the ceiling out, but after that it will be ready for paint. Gloss grey is what we're thinking. More pics to follow as things progress.

I changed my interior design up and am going to do a small two person dinette where the cooler currently sits, and move the cooler to the nose. I think that I am going to move the sink location to the bathroom and make a couple of extra seats where the cooler is moving to. Upper cabinets up front will stay the same per original design.

- Domo



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[domoarigato]

Hey there Phoenix. Funny you should ask about this, as I am finalizing the lift and getting ready to see if this flaming pile of crap that I cobbled together is going to work.. Just kidding, I have my fingers crossed.

It is a manual crank lift and basically a series of pulleys that all feed back to a central location where the crank is installed. One thing that I will say is that buying the roller guides like I did was completely unnecessary and ended up hurting more than helping. To be honest with you, I really like the idea that Icon posted in this thread and I believe made a seperate thread about. His design / mechanism seems to be a LOT more clean than what I am going to end up with, and I would consider doing it if I were to ever do another.

So far this is what I have. Cables are cut to length, strung up, pretty much everything is staged and ready to fasten in place. Second to the last picture shows the pulleys above the crank location that all of the cables feed to (yes, I botched the top pulley height and need to notch the ceiling a bit to give the cable room to move). The last picture shows the cables in place and staged where the turnbuckles will go. I will follow up with more pics as progress is made. Hopefully I will have it finished up before the weeks out.

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[phoenixbound]

Thanks. It's looking good. Anxious to see the finished project. I am guessing you do your own welding. What steel did you get for the uprights and bed crossover supports? I need to start looking.

[domoarigato]

Thank you, me as well. Things are just getting smaller snd smaller from here, so I hope to have it at least in a functional state soon. "Finished" is yet to be determined, got a lot of stuff in mind yet to do. Nice thing is it wont consume my weekends with work once it's functional.

Yep, used to do fabrication work for a living when I was a kid, now as a "hobby". The vertical channel is unistrut material that I got off of a friend, the rest is thin walled rectangular/square tubing. I buy my metals from a local steel distributor. It's really the only way to go if you want to buy in bulk. Usually a local fabrication/welding shop will have a cache of metals that they use for their business, some are willing to sell. That can be a good route if you only need a few pieces.



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[phoenixbound]

Did you mean these roller guides? They look like they would work perfect.

Roller Guide.JPG (19 KiB) Viewed 4451 times

[quote="domoarigato"]Hey there Phoenix. Funny you should ask about this, as I am finalizing the lift and getting ready to see if this flaming pile of crap that I cobbled together is going to work.. Just kidding, I have my fingers crossed.

It is a manual crank lift and basically a series of pulleys that all feed back to a central location where the crank is installed. One thing that I will say is that buying the roller guides like I did was completely unnecessary and ended up hurting more than helping. To be honest with you, I really like the idea that Icon posted in this thread and I believe made a separate thread about. His design / mechanism seems to be a LOT more clean than what I am going to end up with, and I would consider doing it if I were to ever do another.

[Ottsville]

, the rest is thin walled rectangular/square tubing. I buy my metals from a local steel distributor. It's really the only way to go if you want to buy in bulk.


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I know you are in RVA area, who are you buying from? BMG seems to not want to deal with small orders.

[domoarigato]

Phoenix, due to the deviation's in the trailers trueness and the fairly tight tolerances of the trolleys, I was getting binding when I moved the bed up/down. I feel like a slider mechanism that could soak up the deviations could have worked in hind sight, but I ended up cutting out the rollers on one side to free it up. With the bed already pinned out in the stowed and sleeping positions, the trolleys just served as an unnecessary guide when travelling up/down IMO. I feel like it ended up complicating things and served as an overkill, when just a simple plate with no rollers would have fit the bill. Meh, if I didn't learn anything from my mistakes, I would probably know little to nothing at all.. :-D

Ottsville, BMG is who I use for most all of my metals purchases. They are the ones who offer free delivery on purchases of $200 or more and they deliver next day. While I don't know that they will sell a small section of angle or tubing, they will sell you a whole stick (20-25') and cut it down to whatever size you need for travel. If I am in a pinch and need a small piece, there is a small steel fab shop close to me where I can buy smaller individual pieces out of their existing inventory that they keep in their yard.

There is chain called Metal Supermarkets that has a location in downtown Richmond who are supposed to be a go to place for buying metal products in small batches. They have an extensive selection of metal products from what I understand, but they are a bit more expensive than BMG (convenience factor). They might be worth a look if you don't already know of them. They have sn online catalog and ordering system too.

https://www.metalsupermarkets.com/richmond-virginia/

-Domo

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[Ottsville]

Thanks Domo. Metal supermarkets is crazy expensive, but they do have lots of specialty stuff. Been there for some aluminum channel to put leds in.

[flboy]

I have the same issues with binding trolleys unless the bed goes up perfectly even. I raise my bed manually with gas strut assist when I move it at all.


When I decide to fix the problem, I may just remove the trollies from one side.

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[McDave]

Teflon pads on slider plates. Ya gotta build in some slop. It's almost impossible to keep the frame, tracks, pulleys, cables etc. true as it was when you built it. Keep it loosey goosey, like an elevator in it's shaft. The only time you don't need/ want slop is when it is pinned, and the pins should be able to handle that.
just sayin',

McDave

[domoarigato]

I have the same issues with binding trolleys unless the bed goes up perfectly even. I raise my bed manually with gas strut assist when I move it at all.


When I decide to fix the problem, I may just remove the trollies from one side.

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Yep, thats what I have going on, even still. I have my fingers and toes crossed hoping that the turnbuckles will allow adjustment to keep the lift even so that it doesn't bind! Otherwise, I'll be manually intervening to assist up/down as well. And just like you implied.. Its not like up/down is a daily process, so not too big a deal to manually assist when needed.

Mcdave, agreed.. slop is what is needed. The trailers aren't built in a fixture, so there will absolutely be deviations in trueness. Doesnt help that I cut out studs and welded in headers either.

-Domo


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[domoarigato]

Welp, she goes up/down without any major issues. The only issue that I have, minor really, is that the cable clamps rub as they pass by the bed frame. A little guidance as they pass and really a nuance more than anything else. I'll live with it for now. I have 3 pin positions drilled out. Bike storage mode, loft bed with cots underneath, and the lowest position is about 28" from the floor.

Got the MC wheel chock quick release setup installed as well. Works nice, 3 bolts, 1 minute and the chock is installed/uninstalled.

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[McDave]

Are you using the crimp ferrule type of clamps like these?



Garage door stuff.

McDave

[domoarigato]

No, but I should be..

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