Heavy Bed

[JWN]

We have added a 3" memory foam bed topper to our mattress. It's now heavy to lift and struts won't hold it up. Does anyone have a suggested mod to make it easier to lift & keep it up to access the storage area?
Thanks

[cwit]

Change the struts. I went with 100 lbs. struts. Just take one out and mach them up fro lenght. I believe I bought mine at NAPA

[cwit]

Boy I need spell check this morning. lol

[FFFord]

I just put a 42" 1 x 4 under the bed & wrote on it "bed prop", so it would not get thrown away.

[coastn]

I did same as cwit. It's about a 5 minute job.

[Lstreutker]

I store our baseball bats under the bed, use one for a prop, as we have the 3 inch memory foam also it is very heavy

[Korbe & Diana]

We extended our bed frame to support a california queen mattress and don't even attemp to access the under bed storage area.

I cut off a wooden round curtain rod and leave it under the bed to also prop it open.

[JWN]

Yes, I understand proping it up & using a pole but the real problem is my wife lifting it in the first place.
I saw about replacing the struts. Is there a way to tell what size the current struts are and a suggestion on how strong the replacements should be?
Thanks

[NH Horseman]

When I have a problem, I have the wife lift it for me!! Just kidding. Couldn't resist!

[mapachoo]

we added the 2" foam. Our original struts were 20" 60 Lb strut the number is the last number on the bottom row. You strut will be stamped similar to this
DO NOT OPEN HIGH PRESSURE
MANUFACTURER INFO
PART # THE LAST STAMPED # IS USUALLY POUNDS
our old strut said 60 LB the new ones included it in the part # GSNI-2300-80
We replaced ours with 80LB struts, with that being said if you problem is lifting weight you may very well want to increase to 100Lb struts ours is still a little heavy. The problem with 100Lb struts is the torque placed on that 1X3 that they are mounted on you would be advised to change out the mounting board and go to a 2X4 that you can put a double row of screws in place to secure it to the side of the box use the dress screws from both sides on the side that shows and some short drywall screws on the closet side no one will ever see them. Hope this helps. Eric and Deanna

Edited by: mapachoo

[timscruiser]

On one of the last campers I went to a cabnet shop a got 2 replacement oak 1'X 2'x 1 in think doors and surfase mounted with the hindge's on the bottom then cut out the opening's 1 in smaller all around with mag. to hold them closed . this way we could use the space without lifting the bed .

[MidTex]

Originally Posted by timscruiser

On one of the last campers I went to a cabnet shop a got 2 replacement oak 1'X 2'x 1 in think doors and surfase mounted with the hindge's on the bottom then cut out the opening's 1 in smaller all around with mag. to hold them closed . this way we could use the space without lifting the bed .

Also our solution, put in drawers on the street side, access doors on the end and curb side. We seldom have to lift the bed for access.

[r2millers]

Originally Posted by Lstreutker

I store our baseball bats under the bed, use one for a prop, as we have the 3 inch memory foam also it is very heavy

Beside a good prop, do you also them for playin the game or just a little security?

Either way, not a bad idea!

[Dege257]

I had the same problem. The struts have a number on them that will show the lift capacity. Mine were 60lb lift struts. Simply took the strut off, a really easy thing to do with a small screw driver, and took it to Camping World and upgraded to 80 lb struts. It cost about 30 bucks and works great. If you need to go up to 100 lb struts, simply take the 80's back and trade them in to Camping World. They all cost the same.

[Biker]

Craig,
Thanks for the info. I needed to upsize to a more powerful strut also and the 80 lb was just right. You saved me the guesswork. This was an easy task to get off the "mod list".