When I started looking at motor coaches with my hunny last year, we came across the Thor toy hauler at our first RV show and I was smitten by the space in the back and the flying patio setup - it was just the coolest idea, but not because I wanted to haul anything, not an ATV / motorcycle enthusiast or anything. We did even try to find a small vehicle for the space instead of doing a toad. I found out that even the smallest vehicle (a SmartCar) would fit in the garage space, but they were too heavy for the garage space. Capacity is 1,500 lbs and the SmartCar was 1,800 lbs. (so close!)
Shifted gears - I do not see me retiring for a while yet as most of my work was online & via phone so why stop now? The office idea that I envisioned would have an area with an outdoor feel as a room. I just needed to figure out a) a working space configuration and b) how to stay connected to the web for my work - and I immediately claimed the idea of an office in the garage space even though we didn't an RV or motor coach at that point! The boss let me.
Last year via private party, we found a deal on a 2010 Newmar Canyon Star CS3920 with the toy hauler space. Could this be my mobile office?
Once I found the MIA (Mobile Internet Aficionados) group, I had the answers to having Internet while being mobile - now to crack the code on the workspace configuration.
The garage had a configuration of a bunk bed that lowered from the ceiling and a set of bench seats below that, all run up / down using a Happi-jac, 4 point chain-driven system.
I & the CP used the rig several time last year to test out the Internet access and I really enjoyed being able to lower the ramp, pull down the back screen and enjoy the great outdoors and fresh air as I worked. The soft-top benches were good enough for a pinch, but not ideal. If I was going to still have to work every day - which is what we were planning, the workspace would have to come together.
Trip after trip last year the vision of what I wanted and how to make it happen became clearer.
Starting with the end in mind, I'd knew I would need a work surface - no planks or door on saw horses for me. For our home office in the homestead, the office & the bosses (my CP) had IKEA desks. Instead of buying something new, we decided to try and cannibalize the work surfaces for the project. The vision had my desk fitted to the bottom and her work surface would become a shelf on the top - also wanted to see if we could fit them to the existing Happi-jac mounts. I was a bit concerned though because while the desk tops were not solid wood, they were still pretty heavy.
The distance from side-to-side, inside the Happi-jacs was 93" - how could I span that distance and handle the weight? Wood (any wood) was too weak, steel too heavy. I looked at round stock, square stock and angle stock in a variety of materials. The answer came in the form of an extruded aluminum square T-channel from aa company called 80/20. Amazing stuff - when cut to length, I could hang 100lb plus and withe the T-channel system, I could futz and figure out specifically where to tighten things down without needing metal working tools or special welding.
I got 4 lengths of the extruded T-channel from 80/20.com, cut them to length using a chop saw borrowed from the neighbor and voila' - I had a solid, readily mounted frame to carry the work surface up & down. I still had some concern about the twisting of the surface as the front edge did not have anything to stabilize it. I ordered a few more pieces of 80/20, but this time with the ends of the channel threaded to take some end pivots. Attached them to the frames and now I felt a lot better about the work surface not torquing and staying flat.
As all this was coming together I wondered about how to deal with all the bouncing & flexing the work surface and shelving would receive going down the road. I wondered what I could do to mount teh desktops, which had their own frames, and how to attach them to the 80/20 aluminum frame I had just crafted. Ideally, I would find something strong, light, inexpensive and easy to use. A recent client I did work with mfg's zip-ties and I learned that there are zip-ties out there that will take 175 lb load! Who knew!
I picked up a couple dozen of the high strength zip-ties, strapped the work surface to the 80/20 fame and now...
Well, hope you enjoy the video!
(Sorry about that; not sure the video uploaded properly,
here's a link to a YouTube version)
. Hope this helps.
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