A few more pics, another enhancement...
It's been a while since I posted. The rig has been out on several trips to Flaming Gorge on the Utah/Wyoming border. We do 5-6 outings there every summer, and is the type of camping that I designed the rig for. So far, so good. Next week we'll start heading down to the Swell for fall riding and canyoneering. It is a very, very comfortable and functional setup for a large family and friends. I haven't made time to get the Topkick in for more diagnostics, however. As long as I don't push the hills at highway speeds, it does just fine. I still want to see if the situation can be improved before I cut the crawl-through.
I neglected to post shots of the bathroom and cabover, so here's a few. Sorry about the iPhone shots; I really need a wide-angle lens to do a decent job. It's a much larger bathroom than most, but it makes for a happy wife, so it's well worth the space! This is looking straight in the door:
Over the years, I learned that my family rarely uses the shower- except my wife loves to use it for extra luggage storage. So I built the shower to hold to snap-in cargo shelves. The lower one is in place for this shot. They're held in using simple ball-catches and are easily popped out if someone wants to take a shower.
The shower floor had to be about 7 inches above the main floor to accommodate the trap-less valve, as well as provide maintenance access, so I used the rest of the space for large drawer that holds all of the central vac accessories. The black bag on the shower floor holds 4 folding chairs for the dining area.
Central vac, by the way, has been awesome. It makes keeping the rig clean a snap.
There's a ton of storage in the bathroom vanity. It also provides access to the water heater and propane furnace for maintenance/service.
The upper cabinets are also very spacious and provide lots of extra storage.
The pop-up cabover has become a favorite feature. It makes for a very comfortable, quiet bedroom, and makes accessing the roof deck a snap. There are inside and outside brush seals on all moving surfaces, and they do their job very well. The cabover is accessed with a swing-up, removable aluminum step assembly. It swings up to allow access to all of the storage cubbies, as well as to allow for the crawl-through to the cab (when it gets installed).
The cabover can be closed off with it's own little door.
Not a great shot, but you might be able to get a feel for the head-room, which is about 6'8" at the peak. I still need to cover the folding-wall hinge in nylon fabric, and the door isn't shut tight (it also needs to be painted). The console in the corner has the radiant floor thermostat, 120VAC and 12VDC outlets, ceiling fan controls, and light controls. The upper duct is for the A/C and the lower duct is for the propane furnace. Both work surprisingly well, even with single ducts. The step ladder is the current solution for roof access. I'll eventually fab up a more elegant solution, probably this winter.
This shot is taken standing in the rear passenger corner of the room. There are two cushions stacked on top of each other, which are unstacked when you need a queen-size bed.
And from the driver's side. The gas shocks make raising the roof easy. The red De Staco clamps on each side secure the roof in drive position.
I also got to work, finally, on my combination motorcycle lift/carrier and slide-out support. This was part of the original design, and I've decided to give it a try. The frame is raised and lowered by two 2000lb. winches, which will also be the mechanisms for raising and lowering the motorcycle platform. The whole assembly bolts onto the camper body (not the chassis) and can be removed in about 20 minutes.
The rear jacks, which are normally mounted on the back of the slide-out room, slip into "cuffs" that pivot 90 degrees. V-groove wheels mount where the jacks normally mount on the back of the slide room, and roll on the angle welded on top of the double Unistrut beams on each side of the frame.
Now that I know the cable/winch assembly works just fine, the jacks rotate, slide, and support as intended, and the room moves in and out nice and smooth (way better than when it cantilevers), I can run the wiring, weld the corners and gussets, and fab up the motorcycle platform. Then another trip to the powder coating shop!
I deployed all the moving parts when I got home to make sure everything is working as it should.
