Put in a Spa. Make the back water tight, and fill it with hot water
New truck canopy...looking for ideas to make dive friendly.
- Thread starter huskychemist
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huskychemist:
All of our boats out here use 4 to-a-side racks like these to hold tanks. They work great and take a ton of use and keep on working. You may be able to find them at West Marine or your local boat seller.
The Horn
Contributor
First time upoading a picture so hope it turns out. Anyway have the full sliding 4x8 foot bed and the other side opens as well.
Modifications to include extendable drying racks and the sliding bed will have a cage at the end for securing gear and/more tanks. Side door carries dive flags, tanks, seating for four and extra weight. on the other side I carry camping gear and a propane BBQ plus tools, rope, chain etc.
The shocks on the side doors are just shy of holding up a drysuit on a hanger.
I get carried away so there is a 1972 22 foot trailer getting reno'd for some longer diving trips. The pull out bed is rated for 1700 pounds fully extended so it should take alot of gear. Could possibly add a fold out bench for change up/ tank support?
Hope the picture works.....
Modifications to include extendable drying racks and the sliding bed will have a cage at the end for securing gear and/more tanks. Side door carries dive flags, tanks, seating for four and extra weight. on the other side I carry camping gear and a propane BBQ plus tools, rope, chain etc.
The shocks on the side doors are just shy of holding up a drysuit on a hanger.
I get carried away so there is a 1972 22 foot trailer getting reno'd for some longer diving trips. The pull out bed is rated for 1700 pounds fully extended so it should take alot of gear. Could possibly add a fold out bench for change up/ tank support?
Hope the picture works.....
Firecracker
Guest
Sweeet. Looks like you've got a good start on it!
JustinW
Contributor
Can't really see the picture very well but if your shocks are like the ones on my shell then I have a trick to make the door stay propped open with weight. Take some 1" PVC pipe and cut a slit down the side of it the width of the inner shaft. Cut these to a length so you can place them on the shaft of the shock and apply weight to the door.
jumbo
Guest
Canopy stuff-
Get serious on lockdown, I thought my canopy was secure just had standard locks. that was untill some one pried opened the side slider and crawled in, must of been a really small dude, then they used my tools to take apart or cut the locks and steal about $5000 woth of tools. Kind of ironic because I was on a dive trip to BC when it happened.
As far as mods are concerned the best thing I did was mount two tractor lights to the canopy, makes it a breaze to gear up on those night dives and of course backing up. It cost me about $20 bucks total, I ran power to a toggle switch in the cab, its pretty cool. With the lower power tractor lights I can leave the lights on for about an hour with out running the engine.
I added leaf springs to the rear end to give it a little extra umph, cost $70 and took about on hour to install
Also the stupidest and cheapest tank rack that I've seen that works like a dream is just a fat rope off a ship tied in knots every foot or so, works like a dream
Good luck
JUMBO
Get serious on lockdown, I thought my canopy was secure just had standard locks. that was untill some one pried opened the side slider and crawled in, must of been a really small dude, then they used my tools to take apart or cut the locks and steal about $5000 woth of tools. Kind of ironic because I was on a dive trip to BC when it happened.
As far as mods are concerned the best thing I did was mount two tractor lights to the canopy, makes it a breaze to gear up on those night dives and of course backing up. It cost me about $20 bucks total, I ran power to a toggle switch in the cab, its pretty cool. With the lower power tractor lights I can leave the lights on for about an hour with out running the engine.
I added leaf springs to the rear end to give it a little extra umph, cost $70 and took about on hour to install
Also the stupidest and cheapest tank rack that I've seen that works like a dream is just a fat rope off a ship tied in knots every foot or so, works like a dream
Good luck
JUMBO
OP
huskychemist
Contributor
It's been a while since I've visited the thread...
Thanks to all the recent ideas you posted. Great stuff! I haven't had time to work on the canopy stuff yet, but our trip isn't until July, so I've got a little time.
Thanks again to all of you.
Thanks to all the recent ideas you posted. Great stuff! I haven't had time to work on the canopy stuff yet, but our trip isn't until July, so I've got a little time.
Thanks again to all of you.
FatRob
Contributor
Truck caps... bahhh! Get a box van!! far more practical, if a little less chic! 
and you can do away with the awning!
I thought of an idea.. if you made a scisor jack arangement for the side mounts of the cap, and made some canvas sides that fold in, you could have a pop up truck cap with standing room for changing and gearing up...
how about some tank steady's cups on the tailgate to hold the tanks steady when you're gearing up ?
and you can do away with the awning!
I thought of an idea.. if you made a scisor jack arangement for the side mounts of the cap, and made some canvas sides that fold in, you could have a pop up truck cap with standing room for changing and gearing up...
how about some tank steady's cups on the tailgate to hold the tanks steady when you're gearing up ?
CuriousRambler
Contributor
On the note of hanging your drysuit on the side doors, you can purchase stronger gas shocks from a lot of aviation supply shops. These guys are really helpful, but be warned - if you order a catalog it's about 1,000 pages. They have some pretty high rated ones, as they're made for opening cockpit canopies, so if you look around online hard enough, you can probably find one that would hold YOU up 
.
If you run an inverter and/or lights to the back, I strongly suggest getting something like this. There are endless numbers of them available on the market, I jsut couldn't think of the names or where to get them at the moment heh. Basically, it'll keep your battery from getting drained to the point where the vehicle won't start. If the battery gets too low it shuts off all together and won't turn on until you start the vehicle.
.If you run an inverter and/or lights to the back, I strongly suggest getting something like this. There are endless numbers of them available on the market, I jsut couldn't think of the names or where to get them at the moment heh. Basically, it'll keep your battery from getting drained to the point where the vehicle won't start. If the battery gets too low it shuts off all together and won't turn on until you start the vehicle.
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