There has been some discussion on sleepers of late. I have a small aluminum sleeper I am going to use on my truck. I bought it from Lowriders art gallery (Greg) in Billings. It's very light 2 guys can pick it up. I am using a behind the cab engine location under the sleeper. Now, in order to get to the engine I have to figure out how to lift the sleeper or tilt it. I have the cab lift mechanism off of a International COE which consist of a ram and a pump. I think I can figure out a way to mount the ram but where I am stumped is an idea on how to hinge the sleeper. Any one have any ideas? -Donn-
Here are a couple of pics of the sleeper. It has 2 3 inch angle irons running from front to back 34 inche spacing (the same as the ch***is) The sleeper is completly bare and I will be reskinning it. It will be a place to put luggage or grocerys and I think they look cool ! More pictures in my albums -Donn-
Yeah I corresponded with this gentleman in Canada but could never figure out what he did. Super nice guy.
that is a great ideal. wish i knew how to draw a picture and show it here. looks like he made a locking hinge for both sides , meaning which ever side is in the lock position acts as the hinge. the unlocked side being the lift side so you could go to either side to operate/lift it. think whats throwing you is its not showing it being locked on to the stationary rod on the sleeper side. you would just need to figure out the pivot point so the out bound ends did not strike anything. it would be the most stable, the further outbound (staying under the sleeper) you could place your latches/locks. and as light as it looks i would think a couple of gas shocks would hold and make ease of operation.
Dezel, Me being as dense as I am, when looking at the pics of the hinge don't see any thing that moves other than the dog that moves fore and aft. All of the hinge is stationary. The rod with the spring is some kind of lock? I do see an alignment bracket on the sleeper its self but how in the world is the sleeper locked to this hinge? If you could draw me something then scan it in as a picture and post it maybe stupid here could understand the operation of this.
hi Don, wish i had a scanner sometimes. nothing dense about not seeing it. its not all being shown. so you see the slot in the eye where the rod pin goes into it. there are two of those per side, just one being shown. and its not lined up.. now imagine two pcs of plate with a hole drilled in it at the end (attached to the sleeper) that would fit between the ears of the slot and the pin could enter locking it in place. it now is locked and acts as as hinge if the opp. side is unlocked and lifted. if im not explaining it enough let me know maybe i could draw a picture and then camera it. gw
Okay, There is a tab going into the slot that the pin is sliding into and there is one on the other end just like it? Two tabs on the sleeper per side. Oh it is starting to make sense to me. The sliding pin that has the spring on it is actually the hinge at the L shaped pin going into the slots? Then the U shaped thing mounted on the hinge connects yo maybe a square member under the sleeper to keep the fore and aft movement to a minimum.
you got it. you could also look into fabing something similar to the center pivot and rods used on a utility box door. only built a bit heavier. and great job on the draw n..
Now you have me thinking another way and much simpler way to go. Just 2 clevis' mounted to the frame and the utility type latch all built on the sleeper. You could have a handle on the out side that you turn to hook or unhook the hinge. See I just needed to be kicked in the head to get me started clear out the cobwebs so to speak !!!
The side tilt is very cool. However, since I'm thinking more along the lines of integrating the sleeper into the cab as one open space on the interior it doesn't really work for me. I'm thinking of tilting the entire COE cab and sleeper forward. I know it will be heavy and need ***istance of some sort. Rough design is essentially a frame (maybe 2x4 stock laying sideways) that the cab and sleeper mounts to that sits on top of the actual truck frame. Hinge the frame in front, pin it in the rear, prolly with some sort of safety switch (cuz I ain't bright). Ideas? Obvious holes? Got a link to that turquois sleeper'd truck above? thanks, Rick
Don, i need that kick constantly. Rick, may look at a few of the import metric tilt cabs for ideals. the larger coe also used hyd. cyls. and a pump. some used a air over hyd system. i used a older dump trailer elec. over hyd pump and a couple of short cyls. making a few cardboard templates of the pivot and placement of the cyls. took a bit of time, but ended up working ok.. here is a link to other photos that may or may not be helpful. gw http://s344.photobucket.com/albums/p348/Dezel_Ingen/coe/
I have a 48 inch sleeper off of a Freight liner and this thing must weigh 1500 pounds. It was too big to use on my project so it sits out back in the field. I went looking for a lighter smaller sleeper made with aluminum. The sleeper I have now must weigh about 350# with no interior. A Coe cab bare no doors, seats, or front clip weighs about 5-600# ad all the various pieces I would say you'll have at least 1,000 pounds on the cab then add the weight of the sleeper you could have a ton of weight you would have to lift doing the tilt cab deal. Getting the cab low enough to look nice could be a problem too. I guess if I wanted to have a walk through sleeper I would go with a front engine and fab up a way to access the engine through the cab. Here is the build on this nice COE http://www.ozcoetrucks.x10.mx/Curran.1..html -Donn-
Me thinks Dezel is a welder and fabricator by trade. You really need to check out his Photobucket out to see some nice work.
What about all you stuff inside the cab when it tilts? Doesnt it all fly to the front? I think if I did something like that it would lead to a broken windshield. Plus the fact that I think mine is now too big to flip forward.
Dezel, thanks for the fab tilt pics, very similar to what I had in mind. And DON!!! You've hit the nail straight on the head! I hadn't seen this truck before, but it's nearly exactly what I want to do. Thanks for the link and the inspiration! http://www.ozcoetrucks.x10.mx/Foss.1.html
thanks for the kind words Don, theres a bunch better and talented than i. but i enjoy dabbling. buggy, its been known to happen, some yrs. back i hot foot it up to Denver peterbuilt, after hrs. you stood in the shop at the parts window. as i m wait young n pulls a fairly new double bunk coe in and lifts the cab, we all got the holly cap deal when a tv came threw the windshield. Rick. welcome, and hope something would help
Had to laugh. It was a bad day when I tilted the old 58 Ford COE to check the oil, and a wrench cracked the windshield. Later that day, throwing s**** iron into the bed, and the rear window got knocked out. Some days you should just stay in bed.
Flowmeister asked me to post these a while back, slipped my mind for a while GMC Sleeper brochure from times gone by
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