Weight of rear door with glass in

[garyd]

David,
you obviously haven't got one but some factory high tops came with a taller sliding door which would have been just what you needed for a slide out.

The fixed rear extension would just like Jed has just posted on his Morocco thread under syncro.

[NicBeeee]

have often thought that if you have a twin-slider van, the second door could be made into a slide out too. This could take the kitchen box with it and leave much more space in the centre of the van. Would make having a turntable under the driver's seat more meaningful!

My thinking is similar, however I would try to get hold of a LHD door and cut the centre panel out of our rhd van, in some respects this would be an easier task then the rear slide out I am currently making such as a square hole and not a headache inducing rhomboid trapezium thing with an engine hatch below and no hinged exterior door to worry about either

[DavidPallister]

David,
you obviously haven't got one but some factory high tops came with a taller sliding door which would have been just what you needed for a slide out.

The fixed rear extension would just like Jed has just posted on his Morocco thread under syncro.

Mine is a factory hightop, but only has a standard height slider. I've seen the tall sliders, but I think they only came on LHD vehicles. Mine's got 2 obscure recesses just inside the FG roof on the RHS where I assume the extra taller structure was fabricated to. I still wouldn't want to cut through that upper structure though!

Just checked Jed's morocco thread, can't see any rear extensions?

[CovKid]

An ambitious idea and I think many of us have mused the possibilities but your greatest hurdle could well be insurance, or if you do manage to get any, it'll cost a fortune. It'll be easier (and more cost-effective) to get a a more modern vehicle that is slightly bigger. Not as fun I'll agree but you'd need to throw an extraordinary amount of money at this.

[NicBeeee]

An ambitious idea and I think many of us have mused the possibilities but your greatest hurdle could well be insurance, or if you do manage to get any, it'll cost a fortune. It'll be easier (and more cost-effective) to get a a more modern vehicle that is slightly bigger. Not as fun I'll agree but you'd need to throw an extraordinary amount of money at this.

Hopefully the insurance would not cause me a problem with the rear slide out as it will be a detachable unit when not needed, as for the side I guess you have made a valid point and I will check it out before I get my plasma out. As for the cost I have calculated the rear at about £300, not sure about the side yet. I almost thought about going over to the other side and getting a most modern long wheel base VW, however I was alarmed when looking at their forum at the amount of mechanical problems the new vans are having, very expensive ones at that. I love the size of our van, easy to park, ferry,s, driving position, small winding country lanes, people (ASBO,s) shouting cool van at us out of car windows on the motorway, smile it puts on our face when we get off the driveway, a driveway that it can fit on at that, the sound of the engine, the fact its so easy to fix (plenty of practice now), could go on and on and on, plus what else would I do with my spare time.

[NicBeeee]

Quick update on project, I was hoping to be a bit further advanced than this but what with the weather an all, anyway frame is made out of western red cedar due to its light weight, minimal expansion contraction properties, and it smells nice too. base 12mm marine ply, interior carpeted 6mm exterior ply, stainless patio door runners, exterior aluminium composite sheet dibond or similar, lexan glass in rear hatch, not attaching to rear hatch of the van so I guess I dont need to now the weight anymore, going to brace the rear door to the van with some stainless box section 13mm or so with some tig weldered mountings, this will brace the rear door open and give the slide out something to attach to, therefore dont need any legs in turn keeping the slide out at the same height as the rest of the van. To keep things watertight a detachable outer rim (so the slide out unit can be removed if needed) on the inside lip will attach itself to an interior framework with rubber seals. Looks like the sun is out today so I could move thing forward a bit.

[poshbuggers]

Here is the original, the ADS Inventor from the 80's.

http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimages/ ... or%201.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.vwpix.org/T3/Prospekte/deuts ... eite06.JPG" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have a few more images if anyone wants to look further.

Much as I like the it I question it's practicality other than for extending the bed space (which any R&R bed offers). If you used it for storage it could be an encumberance when needing to access the engine. Removing it to work on it would become a bind I am sure.

I also have a factory hightop and like the idea of a slide out side section. I have a spare uncut side panel here which I was going to fit (ironically to cut again to fit 80's dayvan glass from a Polyroof T3).

For either option I think the use of industrial slides would take the weight, after all commercial manufacturers use them to pull generators and emergency equipment out. These were used on the T3 emergency vehicles and ambulances.

Perhaps a LHD T3 door aperture could be retrofitted, along with matching door on the side pod.

[NicBeeee]

Much as I like the it I question it's practicality other than for extending the bed space (which any R&R bed offers). If you used it for storage it could be an encumberance when needing to access the engine. Removing it to work on it would become a bind I am sure.

Do you know I searched and searched to see if I could find anything similar with no luck, cheers for the pics its nice to tap ideas from others. I was originally going to use the tailgate as in ADS inventors design but I was concerned as you in the fact that it was more of a fixed unit, this is why I have designed it to be removed if needed. Also I will be able to work on the engine either with it inside the van or outside, no storage just a full width bed, I am an early riser and I would love to be able to get out of bed, close the curtain that will be seperating the sleeping area from the rest of the van, make breakfast with door open (no draught for sleepyhead in the back) and bit of reading whilst laying on the bench seat without disturbing said sleepyhead in the back.

In respect of the mechanics after calculating the weight of the unit I decided that a lot of the industrial slide outs were a little overkill, the unit itself only weighs the same as anouther adult and slides without any hassle. To purchase a telescopic slide to 1.5m is also very expensive. However if I were to do one on the sidethey would be more suitable, best place I have found is

http://gsf-slides.co.uk/en/products/sli ... 030+DTS-50+(140-390kg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)+Heavy+Duty

,they do some nice stainless ones that can take quite a bit of weight.

[poshbuggers]

Thanks for that. My half height bulkhead has arrived so I am going to look at how much work would be involved to convert to a twin slider and build a side pod. I suspect it's a horrendous amount of fabrication and welding - but if you don't look, you will never know

[NicBeeee]

Things are going well so a quick update, unit slides in and out nicely with just little pinky, inner fixings are done and not such a big problem as I was expecting, ready for the outer skin to be fitted now along with rubber seals and rear hatch. Going to be a while until things progress as work is a bit hectic at the mo which is frustrating as anouther week or so and it would have been complete. Unit weighs around 35k at the moment so its easy to manouver when out of the van, if anyone is equally insane and would like some info on this, as I have done lots of research on it, then I will be happy to oblige, just might not be a particularly quick response but i will get to you in the end.

[NicBeeee]

Coming along nicely, just a slight detour as needed to sort out some tin worm, windscreen corners, funny little dome shape that hold the breather tank in (why did they do that and not just fix with two bolts).

Anyway managed to get some seals in and fix the aluminium composite, all ready for the interior

[NicBeeee]

Not given up yet, interior nearly there, slide out nearly there, electrics nearly there, insanity nearly there

[poshbuggers]

Looking good. I'm still interested and look forward to seeing the finished product. In particular the slides and rear treatment.

[mrhutch]

dude.. you haz skillz.

I'm liking that a lot chap.

[CovKid]

Makes a lot more sense in pictures. I can't see it being an insurance issue at all in that context. You haven't altered the vehicles structure so it should be fine. I like it. Ideal in a panel van certainly

Actually, the bit I like most is the full-width storage behind front seats. Useful but you can still hop through when needed.