Bed Lift for my trailer

After freezing our butts off at BG last fall I swore I was going to put a real bed in my car trailer. No more air mattress for me. The plan is to make my queen size bed rise up to the ceiling leaving the sides free of obstruction.

I took 4 pieces of 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" sq tubing (14 gauge) and notched one side of it.


Then I took some 1 1/4"x1 1/4" x 0.125 and made a slot in it for the cross pieces.


Slip the 1 1/4" inside the 1 1/2" and I have a sliding guide.


Add some 1"x2"x0.125 between the posts and I have one side done.


Sorry about the picture quality for some reason my camera sucks indoors. I have the other side made but ran into a snag screwing the posts to the wall. The one "stud" is not where it is supposed to be so I had to disassemble half the other side to figure out wtf was going on. All the studs are 16" apart except the one I am trying to screw into. I finally quit but will finish it in the morning. I will post more pics when it is done. To raise and lower the bed I bought a small RV winch to lift the bed and frame work.

Awesome idea Jason!!!Love it man.I especially like the Ted Nugent edition rubber boots in the first pic.

Jason they sale a metal stud finder at Lowes or Home Depot made by Stanley that will work great for finding the studs they only a few bucks.Don't know if you have one or not but if someone has a trailer and want to hang stuff in a trailer they are worth the money.I always mark both sides of the studs where it starts and go for the center of it marking it at the top and bottom popping a chaulk line.

Jim

Jason one more thing if your trailer has the hat post the inside walls will have the dubble side of the post with is only about 3/4'' lips about 1 3/4'' apart give or take 1/4''' to 1/2'' just depends on who made them.But if it has a z bar post it will have about 1 1/4 '' lip.

61coon wrote:Awesome idea Jason!!!Love it man.I especially like the Ted Nugent edition rubber boots in the first pic.

Good eye Red, they are my daughters favorite boots.

69F100 wrote:Jason they sale a metal stud finder at Lowes or Home Depot made by Stanley that will work great for finding the studs they only a few bucks.Don't know if you have one or not but if someone has a trailer and want to hang stuff in a trailer they are worth the money.I always mark both sides of the studs where it starts and go for the center of it marking it at the top and bottom popping a chaulk line.
Jim

I should have bought one to double check my measurements but it's too late now. The side in the pictures went perfect first time but I had hell with the other side. The one stud (or what ever they are called in a trailer) was spaced 1" off from all the other ones. Of course this is the one I measured to and wanted to screw into. I ended up taking my corner trim off to see where it actually was.

69F100 wrote:Jason one more thing if your trailer has the hat post the inside walls will have the dubble side of the post with is only about 3/4'' lips about 1 3/4'' apart give or take 1/4''' to 1/2'' just depends on who made them.But if it has a z bar post it will have about 1 1/4 '' lip.

I don't know what you call it but this is what it looks like.

Jason that is a hat post it is alot stronger than the Z post .If you ever decided to hange anything ealse get a stud finder it has a black plastic base with clear plastic cover with a yellow pointer.I don't think they are over $5.00 they are a good investment for trailer owners with aluminum wall or the white vinlye walls for hanging stuff on the walls that need to be in a post.

Will it work through the 1/2" plywood they have under the skin?

I got my bed lift done and started messing around with my winch setup. I was planning on using 1 winch per side. One problem I ran into (and expected) is that the bed frame starts to lift on the winch side first then the other side lags behind. I am sure once it gets to the top it will all even out but is there a better way I can run my cables to stop this from happening? It is really just a 4 post lift so I was hoping someone with a 4 post lift could offer some guidance.

thanks,

use 4 cables and feed them all to 1 drum sectioned into 4 or 2whinches and 2 cables each
Frank

lift it from the middle of each side, one winch each side

ps: dont forget to lube the tracks.

jasonf wrote:Will it work through the 1/2" plywood they have under the skin?

Yes it will work I know up to 5/8'' but want work over carpet

Jason you might could run it like the cable on a pop camper if you could find a lay for one of them

Jason on the cables on the car lifts in a stacker they have a treaded rod stud on the end of the cable we have to bring the lift up to the 1st stop let it sit back down on the stop.Then we hit the button and watch and see witch corner raises last and adjust that nut on that stud and start adjusting from there.After each adjustment we sit it back on the stop to see witch one needs the next adjustment.With that said you could use some treaded eyebolts on each corner to adjust the cable where it will pick up level with eyebolts.If you use 2 winches you will need to get them timed together if you are using electric motors.

Jim

Frank Merkl wrote:use 4 cables and feed them all to 1 drum sectioned into 4 or 2whinches and 2 cables each
Frank

That is along the lines of what I was thinking about tonight.

res0rli9 wrote:lift it from the middle of each side, one winch each side

ps: dont forget to lube the tracks.

This is along the lines of my original plan. The downside is wiring two winches plus two switches etc. Twice as much work so today I was trying to figure out a way to do it with just 1 winch. The whole thing ways maybe 100-150 lbs and I have a 2000 lb atv winch. I did not consider the cost of power cable when I was originally think "I'll just use two winches". It looks like 10 gauge wire which I would have to run for both red and black (plus twice for the other winch) probably 20' from the front of the trailer where the battery is mounted. My walls are all glued so just running a wire is not as easy as it sounds.

69F100 wrote:
Yes it will work I know up to 5/8'' but want work over carpet

I am going to have to look for the Stanley one. Home depot only had the Zircon ones which I tried but they won't pick up anything through the plywood.

69F100 wrote:Jason on the cables on the car lifts in a stacker they have a treaded rod stud on the end of the cable we have to bring the lift up to the 1st stop let it sit back down on the stop.Then we hit the button and watch and see witch corner raises last and adjust that nut on that stud and start adjusting from there.After each adjustment we sit it back on the stop to see witch one needs the next adjustment.With that said you could use some treaded eyebolts on each corner to adjust the cable where it will pick up level with eyebolts.If you use 2 winches you will need to get them timed together if you are using electric motors.
Jim

That is kind of what I was thinking. Putting an eyebolt in the top of my slides then a pulley at the top of the post. That way all the cables would be pulling up. I'll need a lot more cable but with only 1 winch and some pulleys I think I can make it work.

The inner bed frame just sits on the outer rails with two screws holding it down. This means I can remove the bed in a matter of a couple minutes if necessary. By working off of the post I can leave the winch, cables and posts in place without the actual bed.

Jim is this the stud finder you are referring to?

http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=LAYOUT+ACCESSORIES&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=47-400&SDesc=Magnetic+Stud+Finder

jasonf wrote:Jim is this the stud finder you are referring to?

http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=LAYOUT+ACCESSORIES&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=47-400&SDesc=Magnetic+Stud+Finder

Yes Jason that is it.

Jason one more thing I was looking over and studying what I could see of what you have now.I don't know if you have thought about it but after you get it to the top where you going to leave it until you get ready to let it down and use it. Put a safety pin in each leg then let it down on the pins and let it rest on them to keep the wieght off the cable,that way you don't have to worry if one brake and it lands on top of your ride.

This is along the lines of my original plan. The downside is wiring two winches plus two switches etc. Twice as much work so today I was trying to figure out a way to do it with just 1 winch. The whole thing ways maybe 100-150 lbs and I have a 2000 lb atv winch. I did not consider the cost of power cable when I was originally think "I'll just use two winches". It looks like 10 gauge wire which I would have to run for both red and black (plus twice for the other winch) probably 20' from the front of the trailer where the battery is mounted. My walls are all glued so just running a wire is not as easy as it sounds ( edit )

Run ONE winch at the front middle of trailer with two cables to top have two pulleys and run one cable to each top corner with another pulley and then though conduit back to bed post. this way you have one motor and shorter batt. cables

69F100 wrote:Jason one more thing I was looking over and studying what I could see of what you have now.I don't know if you have thought about it but after you get it to the top where you going to leave it until you get ready to let it down and use it. Put a safety pin in each leg then let it down on the pins and let it rest on them to keep the wieght off the cable,that way you don't have to worry if one brake and it lands on top of your ride.

Yes that is definitely in the plans.

res0rli9 wrote:
Run ONE winch at the front middle of trailer with two cables to top have two pulleys and run one cable to each top corner with another pulley and then though conduit back to bed post. this way you have one motor and shorter batt. cables

That is some good thinking. I will look into that.

Well Jim I have tried almost every stud finder known to man and non of them work through my 1/2" plywood. That thin layer they put over the plywood totally drives the electronic units crazy. The stanley magnetic one you recommended will only pick up screws but not the studs.

jasonf wrote:Well Jim I have tried almost every stud finder known to man and non of them work through my 1/2" plywood. That thin layer they put over the plywood totally drives the electronic units crazy. The stanley magnetic one you recommended will only pick up screws but not the studs.

OK! you have the of the studs uncovered, so measure the center to center of the top studs and come down to the bottom measure over from the center of the stud you know. drill a very small hole with the littlest bit you have to make sure its there. If it was made right it'll be there.

The electric stud finders don't use a magnet to pick up the stud a magnet will not stick to aluminum or true stainless that the reason I was saying to get one of the stanley they use a magnet to find the stud that yellow pointer in them is a maginet.Your trailer has steel hat post the that stanley works them little magnet they use are strong

69F100 wrote:The electric stud finders don't use a magnet to pick up the stud a magnet will not stick to aluminum or true stainless that the reason I was saying to get one of the stanley they use a magnet to find the stud that yellow pointer in them is a maginet.Your trailer has steel hat post the that stanley works them little magnet they use are strong

Oh I tried that one and it won't pick up the posts either. It will only work if I am lucky enough to kit a screw head that is holding the plywood down.

They may use a thinner hat than we do and it not picking it up I know on the Pace Trailers we use 3/8 plywood plus 3/16 luain plus the aluminum sheet matel and it would read through them but you have to move it real slow to make it read.