Down to Sleep; Up to Eat Lance XRV Update 30 March 2025
Wow! Another month races into the history books and the progress on Lance continues. 
We continue to enjoy the almost always sunny weather here in the deep south of Nevada though being at just over 3800 feet elevation it was still cool temperatures for much of March but warming up more and more each day now as April approaches. This is pretty much “Wayne’s World” these days with my table saw, drill press and chop saw set up alongside Lance in between the two 40’ shipping containers.
As you might notice, I share this space with my buddies Zoe & Razz who enjoy their “grassy patch” and outdoor play pen supervising my work most days.
This is about where things were at the end of February and my last update, with the XAL (eXtruded Aluminium) framing in place at the front end of Lance’s Happytat where the Head/Bathroom and Shower areas will live. The cabinet on the far Right here alongside the side door and entryway will be where the fridge/freezer unit goes. 
To max out volume of storage areas I framed in the space above the Joolca “Gotta Go” separating toilet to create an overhead cabinet. 
I’ll divide this cupboard into two areas with storage in the front area and have a smaller second area behind it where I’ll mount the thermostatic shower control, hose and showerhead. 
As you may have noticed I am working my way counterclockwise around the interior spaces and the last part of the main framing for the primary cabinetry is the currently empty area on the far Left you see here, which will be the Drivers Side Galley. 
I continue to enjoy building all the cabinet framing with 10 Series or 1 inch square eXtruded Aluminium (XAL) and it all goes together relatively quickly having done all the design work as I built the 3D model, hence the ever present laptop running Fusion 360.
Good time to also check the fit and placement of the deep double sink with its great views out the window when washing dishes. 
The model gives me the precise length of each piece I need to cut on the cut off saw and how each joint goes together. Each of those four vertical spaces will be filled with drawers of different heights and the vertical XAL front and rear provide very strong attachment points for all the undermount drawer slide hardware that I’m about to order. 
Speaking of windows, we have our always alert security guards keeping a close eye on the comings and goings of the various others we share this fabulous area. No need for any worry about our safety with these two vicious watch dogs on the job! 
While we don’t see too many people, which is just the way we like it, there is lots of life to see out our windows including the real life versions of Wile E. Coyote & Roadrunner, rabbits large and small, lots of mice and squirrels on the ground and ravens overhead.
Very much a work in progress as you can see but the interior spaces are starting to take shape now. This is taken with me standing in the shower area at the front with the main entry on the far Left, the now completed Drivers Side Galley countertop on the far Right that is 175 cm / 5’ 9” long and a matching countertop opposite that will be 98 cm / 3’ 2” long. 
Now my attention turns to building the lifting bed platform which is atop the L shaped settee that occupies the area aft of the two countertops. Most of the time the bed platform and mattress will rest as you see here, gently squeezing the mattress up tight against the ceiling with plenty of headroom for sitting underneath in the settee.
Here is a skeleton view of the XAL bed frame in Blue which will then have a plywood panel spanning across the support bars with the mattress tucked firmly inside the outer XAL bed frame. 
For sleeping, the full size Queen bed lowers down, along with the Settee table, to this easily accessed position. This setup makes it easy to make up the bed every morning and then have it retract fully out of the way with just the push of a button.
No magic tricks required for this! Instead I’m going to install four of these PA-18 Linear Actuators I’ve had built by a Canadian firm in Vancouver; Progressive Automation.
If you look closely (click to enlarge any photo) at the renders above you can see these located at each corner of the bed frame and you can see here how the one on the PS Front is bolted to the two vertical lengths of XAL at the end of the PS Galley countertop. 
All four actuators plug into this FLTCON-4 central control box which provides the 24 volts for each motor. 
Inside the long aluminium body of each PA-18 linear actuator is a threaded stainless steel rod which is driven by the black motor at the top which in turn causes the black “Car” below it to move up or down the full length of the AL track.
Last piece of this automated lifting bed system is this small set of buttons that is also plugged into the control box. Once the interior panels are all installed this will be the only part you will see and will likely be mounted somewhere out of the way but easily reached when we want to move the bed Down to Sleep or Up to eat. 
The Up/Down buttons allow you to move the bed Up/Down to any position you want and then you can save this position into memory of button 1, 2, 3 or 4.
Now anytime you press that number, the bed automagically moves to that position.
I will likely program #1 to move the XAL bed frame to the max UP position without the mattress in place whenever I’m working on the bed system and want the platform completely up out of the way. Then #2 can be the regular UP position with the mattress in place for whenever we are using the settee, #3 can be the Goldilocks position for best views out the window when in bed and 4 can be the lowest position for ease of getting in/out of the bed. 
To ensure that the positions of all four actuators are synchronized there is a Hall Effect sensor inside each actuator which communicates the position of each sliding Car to the control box.
Here I have all four actuators plugged in so I could test the “synchro” feature which causes all four cars to go to their Home position with all Cars in their max Up position and then I could also test out the memory setting feature before I installed each actuator.
My next challenge was to figure out a way to connect the sides of the XAL bed frame to the four sliding Cars on the linear actuators such that they would move the bed frame would move Up and Down.
Hmmmmm ……..
I work hard to maintain my well deserved reputation as a pack rat and so I had kept ALL the wires, materials, nuts, bolts and hardware when I fully gutted the original Horton ambulance box and took it down to the bare AL frame. One of the pieces of aluminium I kept was this C-channel and it turned out to be my just right Goldilocks solution for building the saddle blocks I would bolt to the cars on the actuators. 
I cut the C-channel into four short pieces that were the same length as the Black Cars on the actuators. 
The width of these Black Nylon Cars was just a wee bit larger than the inside width of the AL C-channel so I carefully guided each actuator through my table saw and trimmed off about 2mm from each side. 
Which allowed them to be a slight press fit onto the Car. 
The inside corners of the C-channel have a radius to them but it was easy to file the corners of the Nylon Cars to match and Voila! A perfect fit. 
Progressive Automation manufactures the thick Black Nylon Cars with three threaded mounting holes on each side which go all the way through the body of these Black Cars; a large M10 in the middle with two M6 on either side, so I drilled out matching holes in the sides of the AL C-channel saddles so I could very securely attach each saddle its Black Car mate.
Next question was how to attach the XAL bed frame to these Nylon & AL saddles? This would need to strong enough to safely transfer the full combined weight of Christine, Zoe, Razz and me as well as weight of the bed XAL frame, cross member, panels and mattress but could not be a solid unmoving connection. It needed to be allow for a bit of rotation for any slight changes in orientation as the bed frame travelled up and down the full stroke length of about 110 cm / 44 inches.
Hmmmmmm ……
I decided to use what are called Heim Joints which as pictured here are typically used to join the ends of connecting rods on things like steering links on vehicles and industrial machinery. These are made for eXtreme loads made of heat treated steel plated with hard chrome and readily available from Amazon. I’ve used these with great success in projects for probably 50 years and they’ll be a good fit here as well. 
I ordered four of these 3/8” Heim joints which are rated for a load capacity of 4,400 Kg/9,544 lbs.
and come with their matching SS threaded inserts and jam nuts. 
I used the same scrap of C-Channel to cut four more pieces and cut each of those in half ……….. 
…….. to make these matching L-bar mounting brackets ……….. 
………. which I then bolted to the C-Channel saddles with the Heim Joint sandwiched between the two “ears” of the brackets and through bolted. 
Worked very well and I could then bolt each Heim Joint Saddle to its matching Nylon Car. I then bolted each linear actuator to the vertical XAL support posts using some AL bar stock that I cut to be thick enough to keep the inner surface of the AL saddles spaced clear of the inside of the XAL posts and they moved up and down.
Final part of this puzzle was to mount the SS threaded inserts for each Heim joint you can see here, to the sides of the bed frame. 
The sides of the bed frame are made from lengths I cut from 3” x 1” XAL and carefully clamped each one in place so I could precisely mark the center of each SS insert and then I drilled undersize holes through the XAL. As you can see in the photos above these SS inserts are tapered so I used my handy dandy Dremel tool with a rotary carbide cutter to enlarge these holes and carefully hand fit the SS inserts to be a slight press fit into the XAL. 
I will likely build different corner brackets to join the four sides of the bed frame but for now these 90 degree corner brackets will work to lock the frame square and true while I finish mounting the frame to the four Heim joints. 
I allowed about 5mm / .2” clearance between the moving bed frame sides and the XAL posts so it is a very close fit that was relatively straight forward to adjust by turning the threaded SS inserts with a wrench on the flats I ground on each one (see photos above). 
The power/comm cables on each actuator need to be extended but I was able to just plug each cable into the control box and hang it in the center which allowed me to test out the whole assembly.
Best of all ………………… IT WORKED first time!! I was able to raise and lower the bed and set four memory positions to the numbered buttons and it all moves up and down smoothly and quietly.
We are eXtremely happy with this design as it gives us have a full Queen sized memory foam bed without giving up any space for seating or eating. And also eliminates the need to set up and make up the bed every night and repeat it all every morning. 
Last update to show you today is that we were able to temporarily slide the fridge/freezer into its home!
This is an Isotherm Cruise 200 that runs off both 12VDC and 120VAC
Total of 7 cubic feet with a 5.3 cubic feet refrigerator and 1.78 cubic feet freezer – each with their own separate side by side doors.
Will go a long way towards enabling us to have plenty of food to go a long way and stay out there a long time. Can’t wait to start using it.
That’s a wrap for this update and my sincere thanks to all of you brave souls who have persevered and made it this far! Probably waaaaaaay too much detail for many of you but hopefully easy enough to scroll through at whatever pace you like.
I’ll leave you with these photos that Christine is so good at taking of the views out our dining room window most evenings here on Road Runner Ranch.
It is difficult to make out in these photos but the Colorado River is running just in front of the mountains you see off in the distance here.
The light at this time of day as the sun is just setting below the mountains behind us makes for some truly spectacular ends to our days we are so fortunate to enjoy most every day.
Hope you enjoy and will look forward to answering any questions or comments you leave in the “Join the discussion” box below.
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