MegaJohn
NW Geogia
Senior Member
Joined: 08/21/2010
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club Member
 Offline
|
The DW & I have started a new project. Our goal is to make our bunks (twin/full) removable to allow us to use the space as an office.
The kids are mostly grown and don't travel with us. I work in technology and my employer allows me to work remotely with phone & internet access. The DW is a teacher and has summers off... unfortunately, I don't have enough vacation time each year to take the whole summer off. The plan is to put some distance between us and home during the summer... working some, vacationing some. Sometimes we have other family or friends join us... so we need to have the bunks when needed.
The plan...
- Removable bunks
- Install a removable desk/work area
- Frame around some tub drain pipes
- Install a 120v outlet in the area
- Install an a/c vent in the area
- Install a door to create a separated area
Yesterday the beds were removed. It wasn't a big job and they came out with only a little cosmetic damage. We will reuse the top bunk's "slab" and the bottom bunk's base with only minimal modifications.
I didn't take any photos before starting... it's the typical twin/full bunk in the corner of most campers situated between our dinette and bath room.
Here's the space with the top bunk completely removed and most of the bottom removed. I plan to leave the cabinet on the corner wall...
I plan to work on it during weekends mostly, however, everything needs to be back to normal before our spring break trip... the first week of April.
I'll come back with photos as the project progresses. If it goes as planned, I should have the removable bed phase completed in the next week or so.
Happy Camping!
John.
Stock 2006 Dodge Ram 3500 MegaCab, 5.9L Cummins, Automatic, 2WD, Dually
- 30' 2006 Pilgrim Interntional travel trailer, dry weight ~7k pounds, GVWR ~9k pounds
- Husky weight distributing hitch, friction anti-sway control, electronic brake controller
|
ScottG
Bothell Wa.
Senior Member
Joined: 02/25/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
I'm looking forward to watching your progress!
Scott, Grace and Wesly
2003 Dodge 3500 4x4, 6 speed Cummins (lightly bombed),
2004 Forest River 25RKS many, many mods.
H0NDA eu2000i
|
Perrysburg Dodgeboy
Perrysburg, Ohio USA
Senior Member
Joined: 12/06/2003
View Profile
|
The wife & I have talkd about doing the something similar also. Our TT came with a table in the rear bunk area with a/c and cable already run. We will just remove the bunks and replace them with a small end table and chair or maybe a futon (sp).
Our only problem is the window located at the floor. If we do this she wants the window removed, but that will require patching the side. If I do that I would want to paint the entire TT or at least clear coat it. Sounds like a lot of money to me.
Good luck and I'll be watching your progress.
Don
Perrysburg Dodgeboy
2004 Dodge Ram 2500 Quad Cab SLT Cummins HO
2005 Keystone Cougar 304 BHS
How many remember this?
Pics of stuff
|
hitchup
Fulltiming and on the Road.
Senior Member
Joined: 02/17/2005
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club Member
|
It's always better financially to re-new instead of buy-new. Sounds like a great plan.
We fulltime and I'm with DH 12 mos out of the year. Another person who works for same company takes his wife part of the year, she takes her work with her: medical transcription. Last summer, they were sent to Key West. Rough duty.
2009 DRV Mobile Suite 38TKSB3 (38RSSB3)....our custom home w/2011 upgrades
2010 Ford F450 KR CC 4x4......his office
Working Fulltimers since 3/2005
"Shoot for the Moon! Even if you miss it, you will land among the Stars."
|
MegaJohn
NW Geogia
Senior Member
Joined: 08/21/2010
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club Member
Offline
|
Wow! We made a lot of progress so far... I'm a little long winded. I hope provide enough detail and not too much.
The 120v outlet is installed... not much to it, so I've not included photos.
The bunks are now removable...
In this photo the top & bottom bunks are removed. The rail on the wall is a piece of uni-strut (found in the electrical section of your favorite building materials store). This rail is used to rest the top bunk on as well as attach the desktop to. It has since been painted as seen in some other photos. The box on the floor contains water supply lines for the showers (inside & outside) as well as access to the underside of the tub. This box was left in place and is not removable... it's actually part of the bottom bunk. The short wall for this box used to extend the whole length of the bed. I've cut it into two pieces to allow access into the bunk area.
Here is the other side of the area...
Not much to see here. You might notice the piece of angle aluminum on the wall near the floor. This is original... the bottom bunk's mattress platform is hinged to allow access to storage underneath or if you wanted to use it as a bike storage area. The hinged section of the bottom bunk's mattress platform rests on the angle aluminum.
This is a photo (from above) of the entry into the area. You can see the box from a previous photo...
The opening is 29" wide. There is a short wall which sits across the opening which supports part of the bottom bunk's platform (I'll show it shortly). The "brown thing" on the floor is a 1x4 cover... the tub drain extends into this area and dumps into the grey tank. Unfortunately, I could not think of a simple way to reroute this drain, so I covered it to prevent damage to it. When you walk into the area, you have to step over this cover. In this photo you can see the metal plates on the wall where the removable section of wall connects.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo from above showing the removable sections of bottom bunk support walls installed. However, I do have some detailed photos to share.
To install the piece of the bottom bunk's inside support wall I used sliding bolt locks. Here is how the removable section is connected to the fixed portion...
Basically, the piece of wall is inserted into place then locked in place next to the plumbing box from above. These used to be one piece. I added some additional framing then cut them apart on the miter saw.
The inside bottom bunk support wall used to be attached to the back side of the dinette wall. Here's how it is locked into place now...
The bottom bunk support wall which crosses the opening into the bunk area is wedged into the corner on one side. On the other, it is fixed to the wall by using two sets of 2 eye bolts with bolts inserted between them...
It's not very elegant, but gets the job done.
After that, we put the bottom bunk's platform in place...
The mattress then would be installed to complete the bottom bunk install.
The top bunk is placed on the rail around the wall...
Now it's ready for the mattress.
The desk top is still in progress, but is relatively simple...
Note: The uni-strut rail is painted olive green in this photo.
The desk top is a piece of 3/4" ply-board I had on hand with a piece of trim installed around it and rounded over to dress it up a bit. Then I installed 1x4 pieces on the underside for some additional support. It includes shelf braces for support also... though I'm not certain they do much. It's mounted to the uni-strut rail with 3/4" threaded rod.
I still have some fitting to do on the desk top... then stain and polyurethane it.
It's not fancy; however, gives me a work area when needed as well as bunks when we have others joining us.
Hopefully this gives others some ideas for personalizing their own camper.
Happy Camping!
John.
* This post was
edited 02/10/12 08:45am by MegaJohn *
|
|
|
MegaJohn
NW Geogia
Senior Member
Joined: 08/21/2010
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club Member
Offline
|
The desk top fitting is completed and ready for stain & polyurethane.
Happy Camping!
John.
|
byrdr1
Elon, NC / Central Piedmont
Senior Member
Joined: 10/02/2003
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club Member
Offline
|
Great mod. get it all finished and then post some more pictures. with your work set up
randy
Go Mark Martin?
2003 F-350 SRW CC/LWB 4X4 7.3PSD
2011 Keystone Cougar 327RES
My Webshots Pages
Happy Campin'
Randy
Elon, NC-Piedmont area
|
MegaJohn
NW Geogia
Senior Member
Joined: 08/21/2010
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club Member
Offline
|
byrdr1 wrote:Great mod. get it all finished and then post some more pictures. with your work set up
randy
Unfortunately, it may be a while before we get the office setup again. It will probably be in June... the DW is making plans for a trip to Charleston, SC to test out the setup. 
While working on the conversion, we've had everything kinda scattered around the camper. We put the bunks back in last night and stored everything in its rightful place. We're having new tires installed in the morning and need to have it ready to roll.
Happy Camping!
John.
|
rgolding
Southern Illinois
Senior Member
Joined: 05/09/2010
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club Member
Offline
|
Thanks for sharing, safe travels.
|
