Extending Cab over on grandby

[brokenhorn]

If everything works out I will be picking up an older granby on sunday.

It has the smaller cab over, we are going to see how that works. but was Wondering if anyone has extended one of these to the larger size bed.

I did a quick Google search but found nothing.

Old threads, advice or personal experiences would be appreciated

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[GoinBoardin]

It would be a challenge to do this without a lot of work. A roof extension (frame + sheet metal) and canvas extension would be in order, along with major surgery on the top hoop (C channel) of the camper frame, and obviously the bed wood would need to be replaced.

If the canvas is newer, I think you can use glue to bond in an extension of vinyl coated polyester. The bond is stronger than the fabric. If the canvas is weathered, I would make a new one.

What year Grandby?

 

[brokenhorn]

It would be a challenge to do this without a lot of work. A roof extension (frame + sheet metal) and canvas extension would be in order, along with major surgery on the top hoop (C channel) of the camper frame, and obviously the bed wood would need to be replaced.

If the canvas is newer, I think you can use glue to bond in an extension of vinyl coated polyester. The bond is stronger than the fabric. If the canvas is weathered, I would make a new one.

What year Grandby?

Mid 80s

New canvas

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[GoinBoardin]

I think it can be done. It will be beneficial if you can weld aluminum but not necessarily essential. Sort of the wildcard in my mind is how to extend the roof sheet metal, I'm thinking overlapping seam with Sikaflex to seal the extension.

 

[brokenhorn]

I can weld aluminum

to find pictures of what the frame looks like before tearing into it would be helpful.



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[AF6GL]

Not completely sure what you mean by "smaller cabover" but the larger beds extend further into the living space. Was this different in the past?

 

[GoinBoardin]

I suspect this Grandby has the ~24" cabover, much like my '82 Fleet. My bed slides out into the living space, but a longer cabover would be nice.

The main hoop/frame of the cabover is just some thin aluminum channel-like material, about 5" tall and 1" wide. These pictures are from my flatbed conversion build thread, not the greatest but might help. In the first pic, that's 3/4" ply wedged into the cabover channel frame.

 

[PV Hiker]

I had a 82 FWC Fleet and extended the bed on the inside just like the newer ones do. Might be easier to add wood blocks on the inside and have overlapping plywood that pulls out. On all newer smaller campers have the pullout that you can model it off of. Our second FWC was a Eagle and had the bed slide out. Now our FWC Hawk flatbed has a queen bed but the top really extends out the front. There is heavier supports to do this.

 

[brokenhorn]

Yup just like the pictures. Thx



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[BajaSurfRig]

Does anyone have photos of how they modified the interior of an older FWC to make the bed slideout further into the interior? I have a 83 Grandby and the bed over the cab is too small for two people.

 

[GoinBoardin]

Does this work?


Each side of the camper has 3/4" poplar screwed into the frame (notched near the rear ends), with another on the front wall of the camper. These support the slide out when it is out. An oak face board on the 3/4" thick plywood slide out hangs down about 3/4" and that drops into the previously mentioned notches. The fixed bed is about 24" deep while the slide is 23". The slide out is about 0.25" narrower than the camper interior so there's no binding while moving it in and out.

 

[BajaSurfRig]

@GoinBoardin thank you for sharing! Do you have any deflection of the 3/4" plywood? What type of 3/4" plywood did you go with?

Has anyone tried adding a third piece so it slide it in three section for an even larger bed (I am 6'3" and the cabover bed on my 83' Grandby is pretty small...)

 

[BajaSurfRig]

@GoinBoardin What did you put on the underside of your cabover (the PO of my camper installed painted OSB up there and there are gaps at the front corners)?

 

[GoinBoardin]

The cabover bed is 3/4" birch ply, both the fixed and the slide sections. There's slight deflection if I sit on the edge in the middle, nothing to worry about but I'm only ~170lbs. The 3" face oak is key, and it's also backed with a 1" square piece on the top side of the ply. If you used 4" and routered a groove for the ply to sit in I think it'd be very stout.

The fixed piece of cabover bed was thoroughly sealed prior to install: on the edges and exterior/bottom it got 2 coats of thinned spar varnish (urethane), 2 coats not thinned, and three coats oil based enamel paint. The interior got 4 (or 5?) coats of poly on top of the stain I used. The exterior portion looks nothing like wood, and I think it'll resist rot for a long time this way.

 

[brokenhorn]

Decided to leave the cab over length alone for know.

But now thinking of putting a lift on the roof. Welding 4x1 tubing on the frame of the roof to lift it up so I can leave bedding on the bed when the camper is closed.

Has this been done before?


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