Help needed to design a bed on a winch/pulley system!
Hi!
I am converting a Sprinter van into a campervan. I want to put my bed up on the ceiling, and use a winch to lower it partway down to sleep on. I will have legs for the bed to sit on in the down position, so the bed will only lower/raise about a metre.
I was thinking of using pulleys on the ceiling on either side of the bed, in the middle, so one cable could run from side A of the bed up to the ceiling through a pulley to the other side of the ceiling - this is where I get stuck!
I think it needs to go through a double pulley with the second cable running from side B of the bed, and then both cables need to get to a small winch that preferably sits at one end of the bed (not underneath it).
I realise that having the cable only in the middle of the bed would leave it unbalanced during winching, but planned to keep one hand on the end to steady it - it's not going far.
Would it be easier to not use pulleys? I need the bed to smoosh right up onto the ceiling, so a pulley might take up too much space... Could I run the cable through eyelets instead? Or would the friction affect the wire? It is going to run through twice a day after all...
I'm afraid I don't have the engineering knowledge to figure this one out, I hope someone can help me! I'm open to completely different ways of achieving the same end too.
Thanks!
Missy