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TurtleBack · 03-19-2009, 11:19 PM

When the rear slide is closed I can see valuble space under the bed which could be used for rarely needed items like the Costco sized TP or paper towels, or perhaps my dehydrator which we use for making backpacking food.

I'm not talking about the already accessible space at the foot but by the head. It is separated in the middle from the opening foot portion with a center piece where the hinges are attached. There are two openings at the headboard end which look like hand holds. However, when pulled the plywood(?) does not come up. This piece is fully wrapped in a covering and the covering goes around the plywood and between the upright panel supporting it. No screws are evident.

Has anyone salvaged this space and can offer some advice. If not I'll just rip out the piece and replace it with hinges to the center piece. And yes I'll isolate/protect any mechanism underneath.

danes-on-tour · 03-20-2009, 07:31 AM

Being the self proclaimed "king of extra storage space" I have off course recovered that space.

The plywood that you see coveres, amongst other areas, the well that houses the slide-out mechanism for the bed. This area will have to be covered seperately by a 15-18 inch wide piece of plywood, and you will need to add seperate supports for this. Put a couple of screws in this smaller piece of plywood so that you still have access to this area. This is a small job.

Under the plywood of my slideout is a carpeted area which I have additionally insulated with some of this shiny aluminium "bubble wrap" that is sold at RV stores. There are in the area a few wires and an electrical connecton box fixed directly to the carpeted area, but wires are long enough to be relocated along the edge of the bed frame.

I did this modification about 2 month ago and have had no ill effect as a result hereof. The space I gained was significant.

TurtleBack · 03-20-2009, 12:54 PM

Thanks Dane for your response. I spent some more time looking at this issue earlier today and discovered that this is going to be much easier than I thought. First the space I got a peek at was not under the head of the bed. I discovered that below that panel was a three inch space and then a very thick panel below that. Not worth messing with.

I removed two screws in the shallow panel by the foot of the bed. (We store our seldom used bedspread here.) Eureka, this is the open space that I saw. Three potential areas, 19 x 27 x 15H, 10 x 13 x 15H - probably not useful, and 13 x 14 x 13H.

One junction box will have to be moved as Dane commented and some spacing brackets to be made for the 13 x 14 x 13H space to allow movement of the mechanism without interference. The trick will be assembling the storage container in the larger space - either by assembling it in place or by temporarily removing some of the hardware and wiring harnesses. We'll see as this will be a late summer project when I can borrow some needed tools since I sold all of my woodworking equipment when we went full timing.

The coach is now a little lighter after all of the construction debris was removed!

Pusherpilot · 03-21-2009, 12:38 PM

Be very careful with the weight of material you put in that space. We had it loaded pretty heavy and broke the teeth off the drive mechanism. We've since traded weight for bulk and hav't had a problem since.
Ron

danes-on-tour · 03-21-2009, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pusherpilot

Be very careful with the weight of material you put in that space. We had it loaded pretty heavy and broke the teeth off the drive mechanism. We've since traded weight for bulk and hav't had a problem since.
Ron

Good advice from Pusherpilot - I will keep this in mind.