flying grand daughters!

[john warren]

my first real life mod of my scamp.

couple weeks ago me and gramma and one of our grand daughters "camped out" in front of my garrage in the scamp.
of course being 9 years old she wanted to sleep in the upper bunk, i figured it would be fine.
at 4a.m. there was a hellashish whoomp and i knew right away jo had just landed on the floor.ok,,,,ghonna have to do something about that.
oh,,,,the grand daughter is 9,,,,not gramma....though i probably didn't have to explain that part.....
so 1 piece of clear pine 1x4, 4 feet long. a little router and stain and finish work.
2 pieces of conduit, 8 inches long. flatten one end with a hammer and drill a hole for the mount screw. in the other end 3 inches up a hole parallel with the flattened tab, with a bolt threw it. screw a nut on the bolt all the way to the head first, then put it threw the hole, then two more nuts.
place the tubes in the bunk supports and the nuts will position them.
with the board held in position, top slightly above the end of the flattened tab, one 3/4 inch screw holds it in position, but don't tighten it down tight.
by placing the tubes in the bunk support you don;t have to measure to get them the right distance.
by using one screw, and not making it too tight, when you lift the board assembly out, the tubes swivel out of the way for easy storage.
i swear scamp should make these at least an option , if not ,included with a bunk bed.
i will post pictures tonight, and will probably send them to scamp with my blessing to use it if they want.
think total cost is about $4 if you have some screws and some leftover finish/stain around. or could paint it white.

[Carol H]

John I know the feeling. I have taken my friends children camping and on one of the trips the party on the top bunk (11 years old) falling out and landing on his head at 3am..... not a great way to start a camping trip.

Sounds like you have found a good solution to it.

[john warren]

isn't it amaizing how you wake up knowing exactly what happened?
actualy in our case it was more about slippery sleeping bag material i think. once she got a little over the edge,,nothing she could do to stop. at leas nothing got hurt but her pride.

though the same girl broke her arm playing in her back yard last saturday,,,so maybe it was arm karma?
lol and she has a violin recital next week,,,poor thing.

anyway i plan on having the pictures up tonight. its so easy to make theres no reason everyone with bunk beds doesn't have one.

[Carol H]

I was pretty sure as to what had happened the moment I hear the bang as well, even before the crying started..... the slippery sleeping bag was the issue in our case as well.

My solution was to move the child down to the bottom bunk but the problem there was that bunk also happened to be the bunk my 80lb lab felt was his & he was known to be a bit of a bed hog..... not sure what was worse the worry of the child falling out of top bunk again or having to listen to the child attempted to convince the dog to give up more space through most of the night :-)))

Your solution is a far better one.

[john warren]

well, our little rat terrier, 13 pounds finds he spot between my feet. and my rather pudgy cockerspaniel, has decided the space under the bed is his bedroom. i think it reminds him of his crate , so its comfortable to him. as long as he doesn't chase anything in his sleep(think earthquake) it works out well.

[Byron Kinnaman]

A very simple "guard rail" can be made of PVC pipe. Pipe sized to fit over the ends of the support pipes, a couple "t"s. That's all it takes. Make the upright pieces just long enough so the "rail" part is an inch or two above the pad.

Here's a couple pictures. One of the pieces and with the railing in use. She can get in and out at she wishes but railing stops her from rolling out of bed, slippery bag and all.

[john warren]

yup,,,that would work fine .

[BCDave]

When my son was a munchkin, he also did the "superkid" flying thing. A quick stop at a thrift store found a little gizmo that tucks UNDER the munchkin's mattress and sticks up the side. Aluminum frame, fabric center of the upright. The "legs" that go under the mattress are swivelled so they can be swung parallel to the "upright" part so it will lay flat to stow under the mattress for travel.

I think they may have something like that at the "toysaurus" store.

[bomni]

Originally Posted by john warren

well, our little rat terrier, 13 pounds finds he spot between my feet. and my rather pudgy cockerspaniel, has decided the space under the bed is his bedroom. i think it reminds him of his crate , so its comfortable to him. as long as he doesn't chase anything in his sleep(think earthquake) it works out well.

I have a 45lb husky who think sleeping curled between my legs is the best place to be!

[Perry J]

John, you story reminded me of an incident with our first trailer.
I was a tent trailer and the canvas on the ends was held under the bed platform with a bungee cord.
MY 4 year old was sleeping next to the canvass, rolled over in his sleep and slipped to the ground.
At about 5 AM there was a pounding on the door. When I opened it there was my 4 YO with tears in his eyes asking, "Why did you throw me out of the trailer daddy?"
I felt like a bum at the time, now we can all laugh about it.
John

[john warren]

Originally Posted by Perry J

John, you story reminded me of an incident with our first trailer.
I was a tent trailer and the canvas on the ends was held under the bed platform with a bungee cord.
MY 4 year old was sleeping next to the canvass, rolled over in his sleep and slipped to the ground.
At about 5 AM there was a pounding on the door. When I opened it there was my 4 YO with tears in his eyes asking, "Why did you throw me out of the trailer daddy?"
I felt like a bum at the time, now we can all laugh about it.
John

lol picturing what the folke in the next camp site would have thought if they had heard him say that....lol . its amaising how many things like this we go threw growing up. and we still didn't get any drain bammage.

[Mike Magee]

Same thing here with my young son back in the mid '80s in the rented UHaul 13. Rolled off the top bunk in the middle of the night, fortunately unhurt. I would like to shout from the heavens to all egg owners: put up a railing for the top bunk!!!

When I read the thread title though, I had a mental picture of a girl flying around on pixie dust (Peter Pan style). That would work too, if you could find any.

[David Tilston]

My Trillium 4500 has the option for a bar on the top bunk. It is a spring loaded pole and two shower rod ends mounted to the walls on each end of the bunk. You put the end of the pole in one of the shower rod ends, then compress the pole against the wall and position the other end in the opposite shower rod end.

The picture is from the brochure.

[davelikebike]

I simply cut out a thin piece of of laminate board that fits from post to post (the ones that hold the top bunk up). It squeezes tightly between the mattress and the support posts, but leaves room for her to climb up & down at the end (by the door).

The beauty of my design is that Mom and I can play cards at the table while the little one is falling asleep. Because the board is high enough that she can't see over it while sleeping, it's one less distraction for her while trying to fall asleep.

Cheers!
Dave