I need your ideas for a bed frame lift...

[Nord-SKO]

So I've got a RE Bluebird and I'm putting my bed over the lower shelf of the engine compartment. I want to maintain access to the engine hatch which is on the lower shelf. So I want to put one hydraulic or pneumatic or some sort of lift option on each corner so with the press of a button the whole bed frame will raise itself to the ceiling. Has anyone else done this? I need your help finding these lifts (i don't even know what to call them). Maybe even some sort of scissor lift design...I don't know. The only thing i can find on the internet is the typical bed lift where only the front raises up.

Let me know your thoughts!

Thanks.

Oh and why do the images always flip sideways when I upload them??

 

[CHEESE_WAGON]

Sounds like the general principle of operation for a slider used on RVs. Push a button and it slides out, push another button and it slides back in. Turn it on its side 90 degrees and you have basically the same thing. Some of these are cable-and-pulley-operated, others are rack and pinion type. Could possibly scavenge some slider parts and modify them to make it work.

 

[musigenesis]

If this wasn't meant for regular daily usage, a really simple and cheap way to raise the bed would be with eye hooks on the four corners of the bed frame and on the ceiling above with pulleys, one additional center hook with pulley and then a winch or hand-crank to pull the bed up. You could stow away the pulleys, cables and crank so you would just have the hooks showing normally and these could be very small and unobtrusive.

Convert your pics to PNG format (and make sure they're rotated how you want them when you do so) before uploading them here, and they'll be oriented correctly.

 

[Nord-SKO]

Ooooo I like that idea! Yeah it would rarely be used but want full access if something bad were to happen to the engine.

 

[musigenesis]

Ooooo I like that idea! Yeah it would rarely be used but want full access if something bad were to happen to the engine.

I really wish I had some reason to do something like this myself. I've read a number of memoirs of sailors from the Age of Sail recently (as well as one by a guy who sailed around the world in a commercial sailing cargo ship in 1939, a ship that is now a floating restaurant in my city) and I kind of want to get into knot-tying and pulley-rigging and stuff like that. Without going out on a boat since boats make me puke.

I can't think of anything in my bus that I need this technology for, except for maybe a foot pedal opener for my chest freezer.

 

[Native-SKO]

If this wasn't meant for regular daily usage, a really simple and cheap way to raise the bed would be with eye hooks on the four corners of the bed frame and on the ceiling above with pulleys, one additional center hook with pulley and then a winch or hand-crank to pull the bed up. You could stow away the pulleys, cables and crank so you would just have the hooks showing normally and these could be very small and unobtrusive.

That is a very clever, prectical and low tech solution! I really like it.

 

[bus-bro]

Some RV's have a bed that lowers for use. It's called an "Electro-magic" bed, IIRC.
If you could find one of those, well, that'd be trick.