General Boards > Redecorating and Updating your Motorhome

Under Bed Access and Storage

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Fred Brooks:
               Greetings Fellow Handymen and project lovers,

        We have 2 rescue kittys that we have had a while and travel with us. The litter box is always a challange as many of you are aware. We have tried all the obvious locations: shower, under dinette table ect.
        Another issue that bugs me is getting the bed platform up and secured so I can access the engine hatch, or blow out the dust of the hurricane heat exchanger. Access also to the slide-out motor and manual over-ride is also something to consider. Well I finally copied the engineering from American Coach and installed 2-150lb gas props on the structure that moves in and out that now makes it easy to raise the bed (even my wife can do it). This allows me to remove the 2 drawers that we never use and the track structure. Now we have room for a litter box under the bed. I am going to line it with Lino or something that is easy to clean. It also needs a partition to keep kitty out of the slide motor. Hardware cost is about $70.00 and the project took about 3 hours so far. Please give me some feed back it would be appreciated because I am not done. Fred

Richard McQuillan:
What length struts did you use (or what mfg & part number)? Also, from the pictures it appears that the extended struts are very near vertical. Does that make them difficult to close? It's a great idea to put the struts on the bed and I've always wondered why Beaver didn't do it to beging with.

LaMonte Monnell:
And here I thought I had the only Beaver coach without bed supports!

Fred Brooks:
          Hi Rich,

     The hardware used is AP Products. The struts are 26" X 150lb capacity. The bed platform mounts are #010-188 and the frame mounts are 010-078. The angle iron is 1 1/2 X 1/8" that the bottom mounts attach to.
  If you are interested, I can send you a drawing with all the dimensions so you can skip the geometry hassle.
I would have prefered props that were 24" but could not find them. Fortunately the way it turned out, you can lift the bed and leave it at what ever angle is convenient for you. If your mattress was replaced with an air mattress like a "sleep number" then 150psi props are way too strong. Guessing maybe 120 or 100psi.
      Regards, Fred

Edward Buker:
Fred,

You are a man after my own heart. After all these years it looks like you came along and solved this puzzle. I have bolted an oak strut with a pin in it to hold up the bed, much like a car hood support but there is no gas assist (except possibly my own from the hefty lifting). I had pondered this gas strut approach but gave up given the slide mechanicals had restricted the available space to a great extent.

It may be a help to post some dimensions of your mounting locations along with the strut specs. Good job Fred!

Later Ed

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