Self Leveling Bed

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by Bahama, Jul 2, 2010.

  1. apex1

    apex1 Guest

    He lurked around here yesterday, so, unfortunately he did not test it.:D
     
  2. mydauphin
    Joined: Apr 2007
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    mydauphin Senior Member

    Concrete submarines aside... when my traditional queen mattress failed to provide its desired function, I replaced it with air bed, like the kind you go camping with.

    It is great, cool,hard and soft were I need it. If weather gets rough, take out a little air and it cradles me. If boat sinks I can always use it as a life boat. When other mattress go bad, I will replace them also with air.
     
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  3. waikikin
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    waikikin Senior Member

  4. Derek_9103
    Joined: Oct 2019
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    Derek_9103 Derek

    Along the way, somebody mentioned a double gimbal system
    (I found this thread by searching the internet for -- double gimbal bed)

    To me it seems possible to use a gimbal system so there's no chance of pinching unless you do something dumb like crawl under the bed (don't put anything under there either, though).

    A point was made that rolling isn't what causes sea-sickness, it's vertical movement.
    I would imagine dune buggies and Baja 500 trucks have some really long throw shock absorbers - they are probably way too stiff to be useable, plus, the "action" is way too fast. But...

    A quick internet search makes me wonder... I see pricy shock absorbers are adjustable both with "slow action" and "fast action" adjustment... off the top of my head I'd guess wave action's "fast action" would be about 5 times slower than what a vehicle shock absorber is designed for (washboard), and wave action's "slow action" is about 30 times slower than a vehicle shock absorber is designed for (a rough dirt road)... so slower "action" required in both dimensions in the boat case... but the fact that both fast and slow can be "adjusted" makes me wonder if the same concepts could be used, could BOTH "fast" and "slow" be shifted in the slower direction, so both "hitting a wave" and "riding a swell" would both be dampened?

    Another angle... beyond practical, but... I remember being on a simulated "rough space flight ride" twice in my life... once at Disney, once somewhere else I can't remember now... I didn't learn my lesson the first time. That movement (probably created by hydraulics at the four corners) made me pretty darn sick to my stomach. Would it be possible to do something like noise cancelling headphones, and use cheap motion sensors, a Raspberry Pi, and hydraulics to "counter move" the bed to soften the vertical movements? (and leveling too), especially for those slow rolling swells? But... as I think about one of my dad's stories about being on an Alaskan fishing trawler, and where two trawlers in adjacent wave troughs could not see each other's masts over the crests... for even a quarter of that wave size, there's no possibility of moving fifteen feet to counteract fifteen feet of up and down movement.

    Billionaire yachts almost certainly have this figured out for a "land-like" experience in heavy seas, so this almost certainly is possible.
    But maybe "it's not whether we can, but whether we should" for the rest of us. :)
     
  5. Cajunpockettunnel
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    Cajunpockettunnel Senior Member

    This is me in crew boats(insert puking emote here). Now put me in an open boat I'm fine. Well, years ago I was. We used to go 25 miles out in the GOM in a 18' tri hull. Rollers never bothered me, but, a chop messes me up everytime. Ill let you sailors have the ocean. I've just never been able to get my sea legs.
     
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  6. Squidly-Diddly
    Joined: Sep 2007
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    Squidly-Diddly Senior Member

    GENIUS! I've been wondering if I could use trekking poles as spreader bars on normal backpacking hammock since I never really got the 'lay diagonally' thing right and like to sleep on side. I'm nuts for anything that serves two purposes to save on weight and space.
     
  7. JSL
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    JSL Senior Member

    From my experience I think Derek is correct on the vertical motion (heave). Yes, 'heave' will make you heave.... A gimbal bed would not eliminate this motion
     
  8. Storm_Eagle
    Joined: Aug 2020
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    Storm_Eagle Junior Member

  9. JSL
    Joined: Nov 2012
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    JSL Senior Member

    4 swinging people cruising on a 40' boat, this appropriately describes how the cabins can run....... AMOK
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2020
  10. Squidly-Diddly
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    Squidly-Diddly Senior Member

    saw a big foam wedge on a water bed. It was about 4' long, 3' wide and 0-12" high. Don't know if it was for head or feet.
     

  11. Doug P.
    Joined: Oct 2022
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    Location: Henderson, NV

    Doug P. New Member

    “‘Gimbaled bed’ thread” follower, here... keeping the thread alive.

    The concept applies to boats, camping, vanlife, long-haul truckers, et al. Multiple groups independently are trying to solve the same problem.

    Has anyone found a master location that is the honeypot for where everyone's goes to collectively brainstorm the solution to this bed design problem?

    Thanks.

    Doug P.
    Henderson, NV
     
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