# Another Bunk Support Thread



## bbwb

Hi All:
When winterizing my camper I found that the ceiling track appeared to be separating so I wound up building a bunk support based on a design by another member (yeah I know it is a stolen/copied design idea, but if it is a good idea, what the heck). I think that this solution will provide additional support while I am bouncing down the road. Here are the photos:























































I made the top and bottom blocks with recessed bolts and nylon nuts to allow the wood to swivel. The other connections are glued together except for the threaded fitting. All moving parts were coated with a silicone grease. The top and bottom wood exterior surfaces had non-slip shelf liner glued to them to prevent slipping.

bbwb


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## dwest369

Look's great, Since I have no idea of types of material used, can you supply bill of materials. Exact layout would be great as well. Hope you don't mind me borrowing your idea as well. Thanks


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## SLO Outbacker

I like the addition of the blocks. I was going to do something similar but was unsure how I would do the blocks.

Nice job.


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## rdvholtwood

dwest369 said:


> Look's great, Since I have no idea of types of material used, can you supply bill of materials. Exact layout would be great as well. Hope you don't mind me borrowing your idea as well. Thanks


x2 - I would like to do the same.


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## gzaleski

Great Mod!


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## Dave_CDN

Great looking support, but do you find the wooden block slips on the floor when travelling? I found with the one I made out of pvc, I had to use a piece of the non slip rubber material under the base.


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## Hiner

We just purchased our 210RS and I will be sure to have my other half build one too. Thank you!


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## bbwb

How about this...









Sorry for the picture size...was in a hurry.









bbwb


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## bbwb

I forgot to mention that when you are marking the length of the pipe it has to be short enough to tip the assembly under the bunk. This is how I did it:


Glue the threaded fitting to the base assembly.
Thread the upper fitting onto the male portion and hand tighten to it's lowest position.
Glue a coupler to the lower fitting.
Measure the depth of the ring inside the top side coupler and transfer it to the outside of the coupler.
Glue the upper assembly and the pipe together so you have a fixed assembly.
Hold both the upper and lower assembly at an angle touching the floor and underside of the bunk and transfer the coupler mark to the pipe.
Cut the pipe to length.
Dry fit the assembly and with any luck it will a perfect fit (or longer than you need...if not re-cut).

One thing I found is that I had to add another 6"x6" piece of masonite with non-slip shelf liner under the contraption as I was slightly short.









If anyone has questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer.

bbwb


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## dwest369

Thanks for the additional information. I will give it a try.


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## Camping Family From MI

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for sharing!

We pickup up all the pieces today. We will be making one in the near future.


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## John3640

Here is my version of the rear bed support.






I bought an expanding cargo bar for supporting loads in truck beds. It was $20 from Home Depot.






Disassembled and cut down length with a hack saw. Used scrap 2x4 and 3/4 inch plywood to make upper and lower rests.






Side view of upper support rest around rear bed. I added foam tape to protect the trim but it is not pictured.






Added sheet of rubber under plywood for grip. Stained with old can of stain. The truck bed support has a nice ratcheting device which allows quick adjustments. Then you twist the bar which has a left hand thread and right hand thread on opposite ends which allows fine tuning for the amount of pressure you want. Total cost for me was just the $20 for the truck bed support since I had the other stuff laying around my house.


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## bbwb

That is a clever support!








If my pvc device fails providing service, I'll try one of these.

bbwb


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## twincam

Wow, thats cool!!


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## Tangooutback

John3640 said:


> Here is my version of the rear bed support.
> View attachment 1300
> I bought an expanding cargo bar for supporting loads in truck beds. It was $20 from Home Depot.
> View attachment 1301
> Disassembled and cut down length with a hack saw. Used scrap 2x4 and 3/4 inch plywood to make upper and lower rests.
> View attachment 1302
> Side view of upper support rest around rear bed. I added foam tape to protect the trim but it is not pictured.
> View attachment 1303
> Added sheet of rubber under plywood for grip. Stained with old can of stain. The truck bed support has a nice ratcheting device which allows quick adjustments. Then you twist the bar which has a left hand thread and right hand thread on opposite ends which allows fine tuning for the amount of pressure you want. Total cost for me was just the $20 for the truck bed support since I had the other stuff laying around my house.


Keystone engineering department should take note of this improvisation.


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## Eorb

Like the cargo support idea, so I bought one from Home Depot today. But how do you take it apart to cut it down? How much did you cut off. Looks like the ends are pressed in, do I just brute force the threaded plugs out?


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## John3640

I'm tying to remember what I did. I think what I did was slide the bar to its maximum width. You will see a rivet in the ratchet mechanism which will not allow the 2 halves to separate. I drilled out that rivet the get the pieces apart. You may not have to do that though. I think you can just unbolt the clamp mechanism that is under the ratchet part and then slide the pieces apart. I then used a short metal rod I had laying around and forcefully slid it down the painted metal tube to tap out the bottom plug/foot. It popped out really easily. I then cut the tube to about a foot or less. I cut from the bottom so I wouldn't have to re-cut the shape on the top. I measured things out at the time and can't remember the lenghts. You have to cut the silver ratcheting tube shorter to account for the bottom plug/foot. When putting back together I replaced the rivet so the two halves wouldn't come apart.

I will get the support from storage tomorrow and measure it if you would like. I probably should have documented when I was building it but didn't think about it at the time.

John


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## John3640

You don't have to drill out the rivet to separate the two tubes. Just unbolt the clamp around the black tube. You have to replace with a new rivet after you cut the silver tube down or the come apart during use.
Here are the dimensions I used. The top support is about 10 inches wide.
Side view:
View attachment Scan_Doc0007.pdf


The black tube was cut down to








The silver tube was cut down to 9 inches









Hope this helps.

John


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## TXJax

This is the very best solution I've found. Thank you, John.


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## Stumpy75

Here's the one I use.

http://www.task-tools.com/us/hand-tools/quick-support-rods/2-6-4-6-76-cm-137-cm-short-quick-support-rod.html

I had to cut off about 4" of it, but it's worked fine for the last few years.


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## Yroc

Thinking of trying this out:

https://www.amazon.com/FastCap-3-HLITTLE-Little-Support-System/dp/B002474UMG/ref=pd_sbs_469_8?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B002474UMG&pd_rd_r=JHAF3QTHK38KFPXGBHKA&pd_rd_w=0Y85H&pd_rd_wg=qcmCz&psc=1&refRID=JHAF3QTHK38KFPXGBHKA

Says only 150lb capacity, but I'm thinking that is the lifting capacity, I would think the fail point is much higher than that. Could be cool if it tightens into place and doesn't move. I'll update if I get it and if it works or not....


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## Yroc

I decided not to mess around with a ground support as the roof support is a full-on wood beam that the slide rail is connected to (I removed a speaker and took a look and was able to get my hand on it and feel that it is wood and it is thick). The weak link is the actual aluminium rail that splits and breaks, so I built a bracket and another anchor (screw through the rail into the beam) at the point where the slides stops when it's all the way in. So now all the force is not on the aluminum bracket and that single last screw (there are 2 now with fender washers on the very outer one and then the bracket I built on the other right above the end of the slide wheels in there). I didn't eliminate the weight on the aluminum bracket as the wheels are still on that channel and the force is still pulling down on the rail, but it's not got the additional bracket and additional anchor to hold it. I did some pull-ups on it and jumped on the bed and it's solid...we'll see.

BTW, all the screws holding the rail to the ceiling beam where loose....I'm sure this causes a lot of the problems as once there is play, that movement can really start o break think (the rail).

A real easy way to make the existing setup way better is to get some fender washers that go edge to edge inside the rail and then put those on all the screw along the channel. I bet that would eliminate most problems as my rail failed at the last screw and it just split around the small screw head. It's a bad design as the slide weight is on the outer edges of the rail, but it's only mounted in the center, so it's leveraging against those screw heads. Adding the washers will give it support directly above where the weight is. Even better would be square washers the size of the channel for even more outer edge support.

Make sure you get a semi thick washer. It does look like you could get too thick of a washer and the slide wheels wouldn't fit anymore, but there is room for a decent washer.

FYI, this is on a 2012 210RS, so the rear slideout king bed.


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## brkramer

Very impressive rig. I threw something together in under a hour with materials I had on hand for the most part. I had a 4 pack of Camco leveling jacks that I hadn't used since we got rid of our tiny R-Pod. I strapped one to a board and drilled and screwed the head to a piece of plywood that I covered poorly with carpet. As you can see carpet cement doesn't do a very good job on the edges. The whole thing rests on a plastic milk carton which is handy once we are camping. Good to keep kindling in or other odds and ends.The jack section is used to support the edge of the open couch, which we leave open all the time with lots of pillows. If you have ever looked carefully at how well that couch is supported you probably don't want to spend a lot of time sitting on the edge of that couch when it is opened into a bed. What I like about your design compared to others I have seen, is the ability to fine tune the amount of upward pressure you put on the bunk. I like to crank it until I hear the faintest noise in the ceiling rails. Then I am sure I have removed the majority of the stress off the ceiling. I hadn't planned to use mine forever as it was only a quick down and dirty solution, but frankly it has held up well for over two years and I have better things to hopefully get around to, like extending the kitchen drawers to use most of the cabinet space provided.


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## Arosenwinkel

Thanks for all the info. We just purchased a 2018 250URS and this provided a good heads up to avoid future problems. The only road travel it's done so far was home from the dealer, so we're going to implement a few of these solutions before we ever take it out. We got the washers to better secure the screws in the upper rails, and purchased a 30" scissor jack from amazon; going to put a 12"x12" board both top and bottom, covered with the carpet scraps previously used as doormats, and putting a cheap, rubber doormat underneath to prevent any sliding during transport. This will allow me to apply just a hair of upward pressure during travel and keep everything tight and cozy. Being a stabilizer jack, it also allows me to use the same drill/socket that I use on the outside stabilizer jacks. We'll see how it works!


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## Leedek

bbwb said:


>


*bbwb** - It has to be very difficult to turn the trailer on its side to install this crazy thing!







**







* 

*Sorry...*

*Leigh *


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## Cvin

wanted to add to this thread that i have the 2015 model with electric and my rails are splitting also

everyone should be doing supports while hauling inside and probably out also

i will from now on be doing both

these rails look way too light duty/thin to be supporting to be supporting this heavy bed especially going down the shitty roads in this country, there is just no way they are going to hold up


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