17B with gaucho bunk beds: modifications, décor, and storage solutions - Page 3 - Escape Trailer Owners Community
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Old 06-14-2018, 01:08 PM   #41
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Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Seattle, Washington
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Originally Posted by redarrow View Post
My compliments on your customizations, this thread will be a sticky for me to reference in the future.
Thank you! We had a few threads that we referenced many times too, so it makes me happy to know our thread could be that for someone else. Good luck getting your trailer figured out!
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Old 06-14-2018, 03:34 PM   #42
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Yes, it's mine! Thank you, Adrienne!

I will check out that advanced button and hope that that's the difficulty.
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Old 06-14-2018, 03:55 PM   #43
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Yes, it's mine! Thank you, Adrienne!

I will check out that advanced button and hope that that's the difficulty.
Oh good, glad that was it. Enjoy it, it looks nice!
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Old 06-14-2018, 11:46 PM   #44
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I'm very interested in how you set up the bunk bed ladder. I don't have a great solution figured out for our bunks yet. We've also got a 17B (that we also got in April, and we're also near Seattle, in Issaquah) and are using it with our two kids. Would you mind posting some more pictures of the structure and supports for the boards for the top bunk? How are you keeping the board that the ladder is connected to in place, for example?
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Old 06-14-2018, 11:56 PM   #45
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Don't know how old your kids are, but not a far step down to bottom bunk, as a step before the floor...
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Old 06-15-2018, 01:43 AM   #46
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Originally Posted by kpfn1216 View Post
I'm very interested in how you set up the bunk bed ladder. I don't have a great solution figured out for our bunks yet. We've also got a 17B (that we also got in April, and we're also near Seattle, in Issaquah) and are using it with our two kids. Would you mind posting some more pictures of the structure and supports for the boards for the top bunk? How are you keeping the board that the ladder is connected to in place, for example?
That's a fun coincidence you got your 17B the same month as us and live nearby. Sure, happy to explain in a bit more detail.

The two boards are secured with four L brackets each. I attached two pictures that show the L brackets fairly well. I'll try to explain what we did, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Originally, we were trying to make the L brackets not show from the top bunk, so we bought shorter brackets. We used those on the bigger guard rail board that is also supported by the bathroom wall, and the angle was just right along the wall. We first attached the brackets to the bottom inside of the guard rail board, and then we attached them to the bottom of that long filler board.

For the ladder support board, we decided we should buy heavier duty L brackets to make it more secure. Like the guard rail, we first attached the L brackets to the bottom inside of the ladder support board. However, when we went to attach the brackets to the long filler board, we noticed the angle of the ladder support board did not match the guard rail board. So we ended up adding some washers underneath the L brackets to change the angle. The screws went through the bracket and washers, and then into the filler board. So because we had brackets sticking up out of the filler board some, we decided to pad them so that kids didn't bump their heads on them. We covered them first with corner protector foam (same kind we used above the door to prevent head banging), then with the dish foam, and finally with our matching custom fabric.

To make sure the ladder doesn't slide around, we installed screws with spacers on the top of each side of the ladder support board.

If we did it over again, I think we would use the same L brackets for both boards to keep them at the same angle. Though you would just want to make sure the angle works correctly with the bathroom wall too.

We have been camping with the kids twice now plus they have crawled up and down the ladder in the trailer a bunch at home, and it has been working great. We have used the ladder ourselves a few times too, and it's been totally fine. The weight on the ladder seems mostly to go into the ground and it also pushes into the support board some, which is fine. The board isn't pulled down or pulled back with the ladder usage.

The ladder does get in the way of being able to open the wardrobe. We can open the wardrobe some with the ladder there, but if we want to fully open it, we have to move the ladder to the side (which is easy to do). The steeper you cut the ladder angle, the more you can open the wardrobe.
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Old 06-15-2018, 09:10 AM   #47
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Thanks for re-posting the link. Love all the creative and very functional upgrades and plan to incorporate some of them in our 17B.
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Old 06-15-2018, 12:44 PM   #48
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Have you consider putting a brace/bar or something to prevent leaning or pushing against that from glass window. Accidentally or intentionally, that window can break.
Perhaps purchase some of that hurricane vinyl they apply to windows that keep debris from breaking the glass during high wind storms.
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Old 06-15-2018, 04:12 PM   #49
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Have you consider putting a brace/bar or something to prevent leaning or pushing against that from glass window. Accidentally or intentionally, that window can break.
Perhaps purchase some of that hurricane vinyl they apply to windows that keep debris from breaking the glass during high wind storms.
Do you mean someone pushing against the window when they are on the top bunk? Like leaning against it or pushing into it when sleeping?

Do you know if anyone on this forum has had problems with it breaking from leaning against it inside?
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Old 06-20-2018, 01:38 PM   #50
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Thanks for the additional details on the bunk! I’ll likely be trying something similar myself.
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Old 07-18-2019, 10:51 PM   #51
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Picking up my 17B in October so was glad to find your posts! Thanks for sharing!
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