retrofitting pre 1973 indian with later scissor bunkbeds

[turfclubroad]

I wanted to post this in a thread i already started, but cant seem to make it work.

Anyway, i understand the 73 and later scissor type bunks up font give good clearance. I have found what i hope is a good quality 72 indian and need some technical advice. Would it be possible to change the standard  front and (important) rear piano hinge type bunks with the later type scissor hinge mechanisms?

thx

Wiebe

[LJ-TJ]

     YES   

[LJ-TJ]

I thought I posted the complete mechanism for sale of Craigslist for $100.00 bucks.  Hm?

[Frankencow]

Hi,
I'm new and this is my first posting.  I am trying to lower the bunk on my 72 Indian and did not want to reinvent the wheel.  Can you folks share a link to where I can see more about replacing the old hinge with the newer scissor hinge referred to?
Thanks,
Joe

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Mine came this way (not a conversion) but in my 78 Chieftain, you can see the first photo the bed is pushed up flat against the ceiling (above the speaker).  In the 2nd picture, the bed is pulled down and resting on the top of the seats.  That is not a stock seat so it is highter than it would have been originally.  Spring (garage door size) mechanism for the arms is in the blue boxes mounted to the upper sidewalls on each side.  Those springs are strong enough to break your arm so be careful with them if working on the mechanism.

[Wantawinnie]

Dave,

Is the drop down bunk and mechanism in your Chieftain the '73 and newer style? The original one was removed in mine and I am looking for a correct replacement bunk. From the pics it seems the mechanism on yours would block the vent windows in my rig. I found a '73 Titan being parted with a bunk and the owner is sending pics tonight.

Thanks

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

I have a 78.  It does not have vent windows at the top.  The sping boxes do go above the driver/passenger windows.
There are heavy garage style spings in those boxs (Warning: Those springs are dangerous)

http://s286.photobucket.com/albums/ll120/BaileyDave/Winnebago/New/



Dave

[Wantawinnie]

Thanks, the ones in the Titan are like yours. It is a 73 model like mine so maybe it was added later. I "think" I need one that drops straight down with a crossed scissor setup. The boxes look to be about 6" deep and 36" long from the mounting holes. I saw one in the gallery on another early Chieftain that clears the windows.

[LJ-TJ]

This is the bunk over the drivers seat in my 1975 21footer. It's 4 3/4 Tall, 37" long, and 1 3/4" Thick. The bottom of the box runs just above the vent window but over the top of the top trim piece.

[Wantawinnie]

 That's the one I need exactly! Thanks for the pics LJ-TJ.

Now I just need to track one down.

[Oz]

If you don't have the original safety straps shown in the first photo, don't forget to put good latches on both ends of that bunk.  If the springs are spongy at all and you hit a good bump in the road, it really, really hurts when it comes down and wallups you on the head.
D:oH!

[Lefty]

Mark, funny you mentioned that... When we purchased our new (to us) Georgie Boy, Frank was driving it home, while I followed in our car. I was familiar with the area, and knew about a set of railroad tracks that had a nasty hump...I thought Frank was also aware of them, but apparently he wasn't. He hit the tracks (and hump) at almost 45mph, and I saw first the front end, then the back end of the coach leave the ground!!! He got about a foot of air under the tires! Then it started coasting to a stop, with him pulling into a parking lot. I figured the jolt had stalled the engine, but when I pulled up to the drivers window, it was still running. I looked up into the window and started dying laughing... He was sitting in the drivers seat with his head sideways, and the bunk on top of his head!!! He yelled for me to "Get this (blank) bunk off my head!! It just about knocked me out cold!!
He had broken the only strap that was holding it up, and the springs weren't strong enough to hold it up. I had to fashion a makeshift prop to hold it up until we got it home.
I later mounted two screw in eyelets into the bunk, one on each side, then two more eyelets up near the ceiling into the ends of the front side of the living area cabinets. I used S hooks to attach 125lb chain to the cabinet ends, squeezing them shut so they couldn't come off, and attached two more S hooks on the other ends of the chains so I could hook the chains to the eyelets on the bunk. I made it just long enough so that there's enough slack to push the bunk up to the ceiling and unhook the chains, and lower it. When up, the bunk is about 1" from the ceiling. Works like a charm! I might grab my camera tomorrow and take some pics of my low budget fix.

[LJ-TJ]

 :)rotflmao  :)rotflmao Not s*#t toyota. It will only happen once. Lauren couldn't get the latch on the bunk one morning and never said anything. She was sitting back at the kitchen table when we hit a bump and nearly knocked stupid well more stupid than I already was. D:oH!

[Oz]

   Same here, railroad tracks on a road I hadn't been on.  When it came down, my nose ended up kissing the steering wheel horn.

Here's my fix.  I got the latches from a junkyard for free.  The stop brackets on the walls are mounting brackets for car stereo speakers.  (I'm a hardware hoarder.  Amazing what you can make with junk!).  The latches slide over and then the wing screws go into holes to positively lock them in place.  A slide bolt would work just as well.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

 :)rotflmao

Same thing happened to me in our maiden voyage of The Ark!  Hit a hump in the road and almost knocked myself out cold!  It didn't come with a retaining strap seatbelt thingy, so being new to classic RVs, I had no idea it needed one.  AND we stored all kinds of stuff up there since we removed the mattress, including swords and whatnot.  WHACK!  D:oH!

So I did a quick fix by screwing a plastic shower curtain rod retainer to the doghouse and the bunk, and used an adjustable shower curtain rod nice and tight to hold it up while driving.  Ghetto supreme!  But it worked.

Then I saw Mark's post and picture on the Chariot and went out and bought slide bolts like his and L brackets, and it worked like a charm...and didn't look as stupid as my shower rod setup.

Ah, the memories...

That was the same maiden voyage where the throttle cable broke, and I had to drive it with the doghouse removed and rope tied to the throttle linkage just to get it off the busy road and into a Walmart parking lot, from where I rode my bicycle...we didn't tow a car at first...down to the auto parts store and ordered a new cable, rode back to the RV, stayed the night in the Walmart parking lot, went into Walmart and bought the shower curtain rod and whatnot and secured the bunk...rode back to the auto parts store the next morning and got the cable...rode back to the Walmart, installed the cable, and we hit the road again.

I think we made it all of 11 miles the first day of our fulltime life on the road!

Kev

[Wantawinnie]

Hmm....note to self, wear crash helmet after installing front bunk setup.