Video of HappiJac Bed Lift operation below at end of this post.

Having a queen size bed in a motor home just takes up so much space, you look at almost all caravans and motor homes and  think of what you could do if you did not have to have the bed taking up all the room!
Peters very first motor home an old Ford Transit van, he had some 30 odd years ago, had the bed that was up against the roof of the vehicle during the day and at night you would unclip it and manually lower it, it was a bit fickly as it worked by weights at each corner, so you had to make sure each side came down at the same pace but generally it was a brilliant space saving idea.

We have chosen to install a slat floor into the bathroom toilet area along with a sliding door on the toilet, as this is the entrance we want to try and keep it as non bathroom looking as possible and I think we have achieved that. With the toilet door closed and the shower head put away in its cardboard it looks like a normal walkway. One of the biggest advantages about this area is we have somewhere where we can wash off the sand or mud before entering the main living area and this goes a long way to keeping the inside much cleaner.

Any water from the shower just runs through the slats and then out of the drains underneath. The slats can be lifted anytime so that we can clean underneath.

We chose Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) as it is very durable, even in wet and weathered situations, making it a choice structural material for bridges, wharves, railway sleepers, ship building, telegraph poles and of course bathroom slatted floors. I think the end result gives the entrance bathroom area a really smart look.

We already have two 135 watt Kyocera solar panels and a mix of four  mostly dead batteries, but it is just not enough for the sort of electrics that we want to run which includes:

- 210 litre fully 12v fridge
- 90 litre deep freeze
- Webasto diesel heater and hot water system (starting)
- Webasto diesel cooktop (starting)
- Vacuum toilet
- Water pump
- Radio/stereo sound system
- TV (all day in the background if we want)
- Communication & Internet Devices
- Various LED lights
- Laptop for varying amounts of time
- Charging various equipment such as iPhones, iPod, cameras etc.

We really want to just not have any power problems at all, after the last year of living with 4 dead batteries we are a bit over power problems.