RV Update

Darren Wright

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Springfield, Missouri
A friend of my asked if I could do some updates to his RV. It's a Chinook Concourse, which has a couch on one side, and two benches and table opposite, like this.
112489233_6thumb_770x574.jpg

He and his wife are the only ones that use it and the bed makes out across the RV, the couch drops down, the table lowers, and the pads for the table seat lay over the table top. Both are in their mid 50's and finding that both need to get up in the middle of the night having to crawl over the other to head to the bathroom in the back.

They don't do a lot of long overnights and never use the table. His wish is to pull out the Couch, table, and bench seats and replace them with a mattress down each side. A local company makes trucker mattresses and can custom build them to size. Below is what I"ve come up with. Each side has some mechanicals that are built in under the seating. I'm planning to have it where he can lift each side to access those and storage as needed. The inside of the cabinets will have more bracing, just sketched out their outlines to get things laid out.
redesign.jpg

They will have to move the front seats up for additional room. The drivers side is electric, so can at least wire in a remote switch for it to be able to move it up from the rear. Will have to see if I can find a replacement electric base for the passengers side if he wants to do the same there, but it is easier to access without a steering wheel in the way.
 
Couple things, but I have to leave for church soon. What is affected here is the resale value. Especially the removal of the table.vvMight consider keeping and storing the removed items. You would be very surprised how chintzy these things are made and how little support there is under sleeping bodies, even in a very high end motorhome. I was amazed when I remodeled my motorhome. Think 1 1/2 x 3/4 frames covered with 1/8 'skin' ply. The support under the queen bed included extruded cardboard, like a corrugated box sandwiched between the skins. Seriously. Weight (gas mileage) is the issue. Likely all you will need here is a a mid-divider frame in the storage area. The gas struts are probably overkill under those conditions.

Make one bed a flip down like a horizontal murphy bed. In the up position, it could have a flip up table. Two folding chairs could easily be bungeed when traveling. Tables are for much more than eating in an RV.

My 2 cents.
 
Carol makes some good points. I bet whatever you do, the quality will surpass what's there now, and if they intend to resell or trade up, the old table/bed set up would be important to some prospective buyers. I did some mods to our PU camper and found really flimsy construction. I was amazed it held together as long as it did.
 
Thanks all, I posted the same concerns to him about resale, he's one of those guys that really has little concern about it. He and his kids also use it for tailgating and things besides camping. I seem to remember the camper we had growing up had a flange in the floor that the post sat into and table sat on top of it. He's wanting me to replace the carpet with an engineered floor also, so thought I might research that a little and see if the post and top could store under the bench to keep a table a feature of the RV too.

Something like the ones here, but using the flush mount and make a plug for the hole when stored.

http://www.dyersonline.com/hardware/table/legs-bases.html

Actually someone makes a flushmount without a plug hole needed, though I think I'd still want something there to keep the dirt out when not in use.

http://www.boatersplus.com/detmar-flush-mount-floor-receptacles.html
 
Well, he liked the table idea, so have parts ordered for that. He's got the mattresses on order, said they have a 5 day turn around, so may have them by Saturday. He said he's stopping by this weekend, so planning to go get some flooring for it then.
 
Maybe you can get some inspiration from some of these pics?

I noticed how they have made the walls look like psudo airline walls.

and gotten rid of the everything is fuzzy van look with smooth walls and seats.

http://www.beckerautodesign.com

Nice! Yeah, I'm not charging him that much and he's not paying that much. ;)

Pretty ambitious project Darren :thumb:

I think it will be simpler than I'm building it up to be, still have a few unknowns to figure out. The bench pedestals will stay in place, but will be cut down some to open up the isle with a new face added to close up the middle. The other side will be a long cabinet face and front panel, may have some partitions to add inside to keep things from banging around when stored.
 
Today I went and picked up the custom made mattresses my friend ordered/paid for, was a bit shocked at the sticker price, but looks like he did some upgrades to them (just added an 800% mark-up over what I had found for him). After some quick measurements to verify the sizes were correct. I started to do some dis-assembly of the table benches. About 15 minutes later and a whole lot of screws, this is what I was left with. I'll be re-using these two cabinets and cutting them down in length by a few inches, then adding a new face.
2014-07-12 15.59.28.jpg

I wanted to do a quick check on the size of the mattresses and they fit like a glove.
2014-07-12 16.41.11.jpg

Next I removed the couch. I found I had to dis-assemble it to get it out, but wasn't too hard. This side has the fresh water tank, water pump, and hot water heater, so I'm thinking about using the couch's mounts to build off of with some 1" square tubing as I won't have room for center supports. My friend didn't care too much about trying to re-sell the couch anyway, so will use what I can from it.
2014-07-12 18.13.21.jpg 2014-07-12 18.24.06.jpg 2014-07-12 18.24.11.jpg

More to come. Though it was 96 here today, I did get the A/C going in the RV, so wasn't too harsh to work on.

I've got an idea for hinging the bases for the mattresses, I'll post them up later for some feedback.
 
What does the couch you took out look like? I have to replace the one in my camper and would only need the cushion parts.
 
What does the couch you took out look like? I have to replace the one in my camper and would only need the cushion parts.

It's got one spot that's not good, was next to the sink, something got spilled on it. I spoke with him this morning and his wife is thinking of cutting the material from the cushions to use for pillows since it matches the walls. She's also using the ones from the benches and re-sizing those.
 
So I'm debating about the best way to hinge the bases for the mattresses so that my friend can access storage and equipment under them. My original design was to use piano hinges, mounted about the thickness of the mattress from the wall to allow for binding. Well after picking up the mattresses, they are a bit thicker than originally planned for 8" instead of 5", they've also added a re-enforced edge as a day bed would have to help with the edge springing back to shape, so they don't flex as easily as I thought they would.

hinge1.jpg

So this is what I'm thinking about doing (just a quick mock-up, placement of hinge and spring are not accurate). Making the top solid for the full width of the mattress, then using links in place of the hinge. My thought is that when lifting the mattress, the links will lift and move forward at the same time to allow clearance away from the wall to prevent any binding with the wall. I'll probably be reversing the direction of the air springs, but will have to see if it makes any difference.
hinge2.jpg

Any thoughts about doing this?
 
It seems like it would work, but will require some experimentation to get the strut placement right. If it were my rig. I would go the simpler route and use the technique you show in the first picture...8-9" of the top, fixed, to accommodate the width of the mattress when it is tipped up and the rest piano hinged. I would also forgo the spring struts in favor of a simple brace hinged to the top and designed to fit into a notched ratchet receiver in the top of the frame. I would only use the spring struts if they was needed to help the lady lift the mattress. Sometimes you just want to lift the top just a few inches to drop something in or pull something out. Would the spring struts allow you to do that?
 
It seems like it would work, but will require some experimentation to get the strut placement right. If it were my rig. I would go the simpler route and use the technique you show in the first picture...8-9" of the top, fixed, to accommodate the width of the mattress when it is tipped up and the rest piano hinged. I would also forgo the spring struts in favor of a simple brace hinged to the top and designed to fit into a notched ratchet receiver in the top of the frame. I would only use the spring struts if they was needed to help the lady lift the mattress. Sometimes you just want to lift the top just a few inches to drop something in or pull something out. Would the spring struts allow you to do that?

I'm thinking you're right, I've been playing with some mockups and I think it will be more trouble than it's worth, so will stick with the piano hinge, just adding a few inches more to a fixed base. As for the gas springs, I think no matter, he wants them as his wife will need to lift them and wants them easy to use.
 
Well in my Trailer RV our queen size bed has a lift up base on a full queen mattress from the foot end of the bed. Its configured like your initial drawing shows and has gas lifts which i would not be without just make them stout enough in tension choice to ensure that they hold up the mattress including bedding and extras like covers. I would add a latching strut that can be put in place as a safety. I have personally already had our bed come down on my arms when digging beneath the bed for gear we have stored under it and not removing load off the bed like clothes lying around on it etc. I could easily brace it back up but for a lady it might be different. Rv dealers have loads of easy pop in pop out gadgets end fittings for this purpose a simple dowel and some fittings could serve the purpose. Nasty words were said when this bed crashed down on me and my "special fly rod" my own stupidity but hey things like this happen.
 
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