happijac lift bed ALTERNATIVE

[12t1]

I want a queen lift bed in the rear of my toy hauler. Queen on top and couch on bottom that can look forward or out the back door. Happijac makes this exactly but too much $$$ for me. I know i can always build both platforms with e track and just manually disassemble but it would be nice to have it slide up. I just need the lift system as the cross beams, platforms I can easily handle.

A concept I am floating is using track with holes in it

This is designed for conveyance systems so I believe the load is downward and not sideways like I’m thinking but I think you could push each corner of the bed up a bit manually and slip a pin in to hold it and go around the bed doing this and move it up manually with not too much trouble. Any thoughts on this?


I also found THIS THREAD and have tried to contact the op but no response. Even a come along could lift a bed like this too.

Someone must have figured this out???


tia,

[12t1]

Do you have any other source for a different more robust track system?

thanks

[nayther]

12t1 wrote:
Thanks for the replies.

I believe the track and trolley have the load specs to hold a bed. I'm estimating 2 people + regular queen mattress + well designed light steel frame with ply wood inserts not more than 600 total = 150 max per corner

I know both parts are designed to face down and not vertical and I agree this might bind if the platform was lifted as a whole from all 4 corners at the same time…BUT…what about no motorized lift…if the bed will be lifted and lowered by each corner by pulling a pin in and out and maybe moving it 3-4 holes at a time then go to the next corner??? So you go around the bed moving is slowly.

The trolley has a flat edge on the bottom that would take most of the load off the wheels. I also would weld tabs against the trolley plate with oval shaped cutouts for pins that match the way happijac has them since the trailer moves so much and might not always be square.

I believe the load will be mostly on the bottom edge of the trolley and against the cross pin…so do you think the track holes with cross pin are good for 150lbs downward? I do know there is some lateral load on the trolley wheels in this design hence the likely binding and this lateral load might be increased temporarily with movement on the bed but I still do not think that exceeds the load potential of the front opening walls of the track to keep the trolley wheels inside.

So if the bed can lateral shift and inch or across, I don’t see why I can lift it a bit and move it that way all the time keeping it very secure pinned in the track bottom and top of the cross rails.

We would of course remove the wall coverings and add in some steel backing to mount this too.

What do you think?

Buy one and experiment then I just know that's not what its designed for and if it gets a bit cantywampus it will bind up. This thing will be pretty heavy.

[12t1]

Thanks for the replies.

I believe the track and trolley have the load specs to hold a bed. I'm estimating 2 people + regular queen mattress + well designed light steel frame with ply wood inserts not more than 600 total = 150 max per corner

I know both parts are designed to face down and not vertical and I agree this might bind if the platform was lifted as a whole from all 4 corners at the same time…BUT…what about no motorized lift…if the bed will be lifted and lowered by each corner by pulling a pin in and out and maybe moving it 3-4 holes at a time then go to the next corner??? So you go around the bed moving is slowly.

The trolley has a flat edge on the bottom that would take most of the load off the wheels. I also would weld tabs against the trolley plate with oval shaped cutouts for pins that match the way happijac has them since the trailer moves so much and might not always be square.

I believe the load will be mostly on the bottom edge of the trolley and against the cross pin…so do you think the track holes with cross pin are good for 150lbs downward? I do know there is some lateral load on the trolley wheels in this design hence the likely binding and this lateral load might be increased temporarily with movement on the bed but I still do not think that exceeds the load potential of the front opening walls of the track to keep the trolley wheels inside.

So if the bed can lateral shift and inch or across, I don’t see why I can lift it a bit and move it that way all the time keeping it very secure pinned in the track bottom and top of the cross rails.

We would of course remove the wall coverings and add in some steel backing to mount this too.

What do you think?

[nayther]

I've had those unistrut pieces in my hands before, they won't work for vertical application IMHO, they're meant to rest in the turned up portion of the track with the track opening facing down and would bind within the track when vertical.

Also note that the beds need to be sort of free floating in the brackets if attached to the walls since the walls are not perfectly parallel. The bottom brackets of my Happijac are elongated to allow this to occur and you can see from the paint that they do move.

If you're a good fabricator you could come up with something similar to that in the link you sent with most of the weight supported off the floor, wall attachment just for stability and a cable lifting mechanism. But that will be a LOT of work.

Check some of the R.V. salvage yards, maybe you can find a bed system out of a wrecked hauler, lord knows we see enough pictures of wrecked trailers on this site.

[BigDogF250]

The one in the link you provided looks custom built. Not too tough to do if you are handy with a welder, you could use an inexpensive 12v winch as the lift.

You could adapt something like this storage lift from Amazon. It would only have to lift the empty bed. Come up with some wall mounted positions for storage, even my happijack beds have pins for travel so the weight is not on the lift.

Good luck.