On Thu, 26 May 94 16:12:19 CDT Dyer Lytle said:
>Now a new question.  How do you camper owners get up to your luggage
>rack on top of the bus/vanagon?  I was putting some stuff up there
>last night and used a step stool but I don't really want to haul
>the step stool around.  I can get to the back of the rack by standing
>on the bumper and I can get to the front by popping the top and
>unziping the big rear-facing window but the sides are a problem.
>Has anyone added steps or a ladder to make this easier?  Any other
>suggestions?

well, one thing i cut out of a magazine and 'one of these days' i'm gonna
make, is a folding step that 'hooks' over the top of the tire, like so:

         oxxxxxxxxo                         where o are little one-way hinge
         xTTTTTTTTx                                  joints (only so the
         xTTTTTTTTx                                  will fold into a smaller
         xTTTTTTTToxxxxxx                            pile)
         xTTTTTTTT                            and xxxx is the square 1"
          TTTTTTTTh                                  channel-iron that the
          TTTTTTTThh                                 thing is made of.
          TTTTTTTThh                        TTTT is the tire, and hhh is
           ... rest of tire deleted         the hubcap.

the trick seems to be to make two of these ?-shaped things, one for each
side of the tire, and then connect/weld them together by straight pieces.
the 'step' could be made from whatever you want ... steel, wood, etc.
and since the outer part (with the step on it) only touches the rubber of
the tire, you don't have any scratching of paint, either on the car or on
the wheel. it would give you a 'step' almost as high as the tire itself, and
if you make it yourself, you can adjust it to fit your legs. :)

looking at it from the side of the bus, it would look (?) something like this:

               xTTTTTTTTTx      where x is the stuff its made of, and ---- is
              TxTTTTTTTTTxT     the step part.  TTTT is the tire, and hhhh is
             TTx---------xTT    the hubcap again.
            TTTTTTThhhTTTTTTT
            TTTTThhhhhhhTTTTT
            TTTTThhhhhhhTTTTT
without the tire, it looks like this:

            oxxxxxxxxxxo               and, if you built it right, it would
          x x        x x               fold up into something like this
        x   x      x   x               (from the side):
      x     x    x     x
    x      x   x       oxxxxxxxx           oxxxxxxxxxxx
   oxxxxxxxxxo        x-------x            x oxxxxxxxxxo
   x   x     x      x-------x              x x
   x x       x    x ------x                x x   or maybe flatter, if you
   x         x  x-------x                  x x   are real good at this stuff.
             oxxxxxxxxx

yeah, i know ... it's pretty hard to figure out from my drawing. there are
commercial versions available from those catalogs you get in the mail (you
know, the ones with way-over-priced junk), but the cheapest price i've seen
is about $50. which seems kinda high to me.

one of these days ... :)
joel