squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

[milner351]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

if you're building a "roof" specifically for the purpose - sweet - then you can build in what ever lifting factors you need to make it work.

I've been tinkering in my head for years different scenarios for lifting and storing truck caps inside....

[Caveman Tony]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

....to put the truck and/or camper in, to keep it out of the weather.

'weather'.... in so. AZ.... ha, I hadda laugh at that... ;D ;D

[DanStokes]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Cool to see the project on the front page. Gee, Jim, YOU ARE SOMEBODY!

Dan

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

'weather'.... in so. AZ.... ha, I hadda laugh at that... ;D ;D

Sun eats up weatherstripping and seals, water during summer rains gets in and rots things away. If the camper wasn't 40 years old I'd probably feel different about it.

Of course if it was up north, it would probably not exist by now.

[Bobbyhotrods]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Hey Jim, you're wise to hang any lift mechanism off the side of a building, moreover you should try to positively attach that side of the camper to the mechanism. When that's done, going up and down won't be scary. Bob in Boston

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Thanks for the suggestion, it make sense...

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Jim, I know Bobby and frankly if he's making sense, we're all screwed.

Just kidding. He has cool junk that you would really dig and he's a smarty pants guy like you are. Both he and I are working on Caveman Tony to keep the traditional suspension in his truck rather than go the weiner Mustang II route.

Brian

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

heh...he said weiner ;)

Robots started up again, lots to keep me busy. I did reseal a camper jack today, need to do another, and work on attaching them better to the camper. So I can get the darn thing out of the doorway

[nesabo]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Cool, will you do a build thread on the robots? :D

Seriously....

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Hopefully we'll get some info up on the robot team's forum

but there isn't really anything there yet about the new robot.

http://www.project1726.org/forums/

[AFFORDILLAC]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Been diggin the truck so far, but the interior shots made it....had no idea they were that usable inside. Very kool project!

[Birdman]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Hey, Jim, this may be off-the-wall, but hear me out...

How about using an airbag system under the camper? They might be the correct height necessary to clearance the cab roof, and with a single control, the entire camper could be lifted and supported to slide on/off the bed. There are many sources available for a new set-up, or you could scour e-bay, craigslist, etc. for a used set-up. One under each of the 4 corners would work excellently.

Engineer a pair of rails attached to the bags, one for each side, for the camper to ride/slide on, or even a single flat plate attached to the 4 bags and you've got yourself a system that will do all of the raising and lowering for you! The only head-scratcher would be where to put the pump. I'll leave that to you, since I've figured out everything else! :

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Pump is easy, I have a compressor at my shop

but I don't know what would hold up the bottom of the air bags while driving the truck under or out from under the camper? A sketch always helps....

Anyways, I got the 3 jacks working and with some front/back diagonal bracing. The camper is sitting on them right now (with the steel sawhorses an inch below to catch it if it falls). It's pretty wobbly side to side, but it should be ok for loading the camper if I do it quick

I'll probably make a riser platform for the camper right now, and set it in the truck if I can. The bottom of the camper needs to sit about 4-5" higher than the current floor of the truck bed, so the overhead will clear the cab. I'm just going to make a quick 4' x 8' thingy out of 2x4s, one vertical over one flat along each edge.

I took some pics of the jack reseal thing, but I'll post that later. For now...a pic of it being supported by the 3 jacks.



back to work! I had to come inside to get my framing square

[Birdman]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

The entire set-up would be mounted in the truck bed, either permanently or in a removable frame and the camper would slide across the top of it.

The pump thing was not about where to source one, but where to mount it.

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

I know, I was hinting that I probably don't need to remove the camper except when I'm home at my shop

Anyways, I got the camper setting on the truck! Wasn't too bad.

First I made the pallet so it would clear the cab roof



then I raised the camper, backed up the truck, and moved the front sawhorse back a bit



I had to keep raising the camper as I went back. The loading instructions for the camper are adamant about keeping the nose higher than the rear. Makes sense...that way it will slide in, not catch.










and ta-da! it's loaded



Big block and even sized tires front and rear will help get the nose down, but I may want to add spring spacers (blocks) in back to get it up a bit for when it's loaded with water, stuff, etc. Seems it's pretty common with these things to need to raise the back of the truck, even with a modern dually one ton.

The springs are still arched the right way, they just don't sit high enough on the frame, because of how the perches are. 2" blocks should fix it.