Bed pulling from wall again

[NorskeNY]

The front of the bed is pulling away from the wall again - guess I'll fix it myself this time - don't expect the local dealer to do it - they have failed twice to resolve the issue.

I know there are others that have repair it themselves - re-enforced the area where the front of the bed attaches to the slide wall.

[Dayle1]

Locate the aluminum studs in the wall and make sure you attach the bed frame into them. If you have the wood paneling on the wall like mine, then one stud will be found at the panel joint that is covered by seam tape. Others should be on 16" centers and a stud finder will locate them for confirmation. Use sheet metal screws of the proper length that won't go thru the exterior skin.

[NorskeNY]

Originally Posted by Dayle1

Locate the aluminum studs in the wall and make sure you attach the bed frame into them. If you have the wood paneling on the wall like mine, then one stud will be found at the panel joint that is covered by seam tape. Others should be on 16" centers and a stud finder will locate them for confirmation. Use sheet metal screws of the proper length that won't go thru the exterior skin.

Thanks!

[dhasenwinkle]

We like othershave had the same problem. After reparing ours myself, I realized that we should pull the matteres out a small way, before lifting it up to store/remove things underneath. That seems to have solved any further issues.

[Kamper Dave]

You should have stopped over an checked out my fix. Of course, we would have had to move 200 lbs of stowage.
Hope you get her fixed.
Kamper Dave

[NorskeNY]

Originally Posted by Kamper Dave

You should have stopped over an checked out my fix. Of course, we would have had to move 200 lbs of stowage.
Hope you get her fixed.
Kamper Dave

I have some pictures that happycampers84 posted on Photobucket and info from others that had problems.

I'll attach a 5/8" sheet of plywood to the wall and add framing as needed to it. This should give supported needed and provided a stronger base for attaching the bed to the wall.

The plywood that the mattress sits on is pretty thin too - cut down the middle and supported. I may replace the whole piece of plywood (thicker and not cut down the middle) and support as needed to eliminate sagging.

Put 6349 miles on the truck out west and back. A majority of the mileage was pulling the trailer - 5124 miles. Went through 542 gallons of diesel fuel and averaged about 11.2 miles/gallon when towing. I was worried about tire wear - had the alignment checked last fall and the tires are wearing fairly even - about 10,000 miles or so on the tires.

The Red Bus tour on the going the sun road at Glacier NP was a big hit - glad we took it - allowed me to enjoy the sights along the road. We had a great driver.

On the way home we drove through northern Wisconsin and Michigan. We entered Canada at Port Huron and re-entered NY at the Lewiston Bridge - took just about 2 hours to enter the US - allot of people on the road and through inspections.

Hope things are well with you - allot of fires started after we left the west.






Edited by: NorskeNY

[Kamper Dave]

I have some pictures that happycampers84 posted on Photobucket and info from others that had problems.

I'll attach a 5/8" sheet of plywood to the wall and add framing as needed to it. This should give supported needed and provided a stronger base for attaching the bed to the wall.

The plywood that the mattress sits on is pretty thin too - cut down the middle and supported. I may replace the whole piece of plywood (thicker and not cut down the middle) and support as needed to eliminate sagging.

Put 6349 miles on the truck out west and back. A majority of the mileage was pulling the trailer - 5124 miles. Went through 542 gallons of diesel fuel and averaged about 11.2 miles/gallon when towing. I was worried about tire wear - had the alignment checked last fall and the tires are wearing fairly even - about 10,000 miles or so on the tires.

The Red Bus tour on the going the sun road at Glacier NP was a big hit - glad we took it - allowed me to enjoy the sights along the road. We had a great driver.

On the way home we drove through northern Wisconsin and Michigan. We entered Canada at Port Huron and re-entered NY at the Lewiston Bridge - took just about 2 hours to enter the US - allot of people on the road and through inspections.

Hope things are well with you - allot of fires started after we left the west.






[/QUOTE]




Hello Bob,
That sound like a good fix.

FIRES: We were more than a little concerned as they closed the
Mud Volcano, called in extra equipment and closed the road. The smoke was so
thick that we could not see Mount Washburn directly behind camp. I quickly
re-installed the Reese Hitch, fueled the diesel and generator. The wind switched and then the Fishing Bridge area was the area of
concern. Right now there are 5 fires on the park and two others close by.
Thankfully we have had several days of rain and cooler weather. For now the
fires are suppressed by Mother Nature but they are still burning. Such is life
in Yellowstone National Park.

Bert the resident Buffalo dragged is tail out of Hayden
Valley. The mating season took its toll on him. He is skinny and raked with
several horn wounds but not bleeding. He does nothing now but eat, sleep, dream
of next year and wishes he had a cigarette.

[NorskeNY]

Took the top off the bed and found out why it was pulling away from the wall - not fully anchored to the bed slide. Multiple holes where drilled looking for a stud - I did not have any problem finding them - found the first one on the right and they are all installed on 16" centers.

Should have taken some before pictures and the mess I found when i took the bed apart.

I installed additional supports to the bed "top". There were 3 2X3s and 1X1s on the ends. I put 3X2s on the ends and added 6 supports (2X3s) between the 2X3s. No more sagging. I didn't replace the plywood because I still would have ended up with a seam. I used screws to attached all of the 2X3s - the factory used staples in everything - needless to say they were pulling out.

I added additional plywood where the slide anchors to the wall, vertical supports, and replaced the 2X2 that the front hinge is attached to with a 2X3.

Added a 2X3 to the front on both sides (bolted in place) this gave a better place to screw the ends of the "hinge plate". The hinge plate was originally screwed to the side of the bed - needless to the say the side of the bed did not provide the proper attachment point.

Added a center support and an end support.

You can see in the pictures where the shop damaged allot of the top of the sides of the bed. It is all covered bed spread.

Can't believe that the factory put most of the bed together with staples and no wood screws.

And - - as many have posted we pull the mattress back about 4 inches before we lift the bed top.

front attachment - I found the 3 studs and used 3 metal screws (2 1/2 inches) to attach each upright 2X3 that I installed. Where the factory used 2X2s or 1X2s I replaced with 2X3s.



Top supports:



center support:



end support



Hinge plate is now screwed in place instead of stapled. Hinges and hinge plate now is attached to a 2X3s instead of a 1X2 and a 2X2. Also the end of the hinge plate is now attached to a the 2X3 bolted to the end of the bed.












Edited by: NorskeNY

[socoguy]

As always Bob nice work and great pictures. Your repairs and mods are always quite informative.

[happycampers]

very nice job. You have alot more storage under there with the
schwintek slide. Are those the hinges that came with your bed??? Mine
has a piano hinge the whole length across.

[NorskeNY]

Originally Posted by happycampers

very nice job. You have alot more storage under there with the
schwintek slide. Are those the hinges that came with your bed??? Mine
has a piano hinge the whole length across.

I think these are the hinges that came with the bed slide. The dealer had the bed apart many times last fall - I do not think they replaced the hinges.

As I indicated in my posting the wood that they were screwed into was too small (my opinion) so I used some larger boards. Also the hinge plate (the plywood piece that the back of the hinge is attached to - slide side) was replaced by the dealer because they broke it when the worked on the bed.

[shoe2728]

NorskeNy
Nice job on the bed and great pics. I will have to inspect mine a little closer. We were at Glacier Park around middle of July and drove the Road to the Sun, it was really fantastic.Our trip was 8891 miles around trip and 748 gal. diesel. My 2 year warranty ends this Oct. so was a pretty good final shake down. No blow outs and no other fifth wheel problems other than my generator battery died and I had to pull start it.

[TTKITTLE]

I am feeling the pain you went through. My wife and I were tired of sliding to the center of the bed. I mean we are close but we had to spoon whether we wanted to or not. We took the bed frame out and I laid it on the garage floor and put a level on it. It had a bow of about 2 inches the center. I thought I could just replace some parts but after I started tearing it apart, the abundance of staples and the poor quality of wood used in the frame was too great to save. I rebuilt the entire bed pad with quality 2/3's and screwed the original plywood in place. We added a 2.5 inch mattress pad and because of the added weight replaced the bed shocks with 70lb. Shortly after we did that the shocks pulled the bolts right through the side of the bed frame. I had to reinforce the bed frame with 2/3's just as you did. That did the trick.

However, I did not replace the headboard piece and it is pulling out of the wall. I will take your excellent instructions and pictures to make our upgrade before the next towing season. Thanks for your input.

[NorskeNY]

TTKITTLE

When setting up to provided better support for the bed attachment to the wall - The left stud was easy to find - there was a hole where wire was through the wall covering. With the walls on 16 inch centers it was easy to find the other two.

[harley]

I have a fix that I posted somewhere else....on NorskeNY's last pic ,it shows the 2 " piece of wood against the wall that has the 3 hinges attached. Take that out and replace it with a piece that is at least the thickness of the mattress.ex:8" piece of plywood,cut the plywood under the mattress to fit new measurement,and attach hinges again. This will give the mattress somewhere to sit when plywood and mattress are lifted, thus not using the mattress as a lever to pry the whole assembly from the wall.

That sloved my problem.....easy

[NorskeNY]

Originally Posted by harley

I have a fix that I posted somewhere else....on NorskeNY's last pic ,it shows the 2 " piece of wood against the wall that has the 3 hinges attached. Take that out and replace it with a piece that is at least the thickness of the mattress.ex:8" piece of plywood,cut the plywood under the mattress to fit new measurement,and attach hinges again. This will give the mattress somewhere to sit when plywood and mattress are lifted, thus not using the mattress as a lever to pry the whole assembly from the wall.

That sloved my problem.....easy

Used part of your solution to modify ours - - always good stuff on this forum - - has saved me allot of time when trying to figure out how to fix a problem or add a modification.

[harley]

Originally Posted by harley

I have a fix that I posted somewhere else....on NorskeNY's last pic ,it shows the 2 " piece of wood against the wall that has the 3 hinges attached. Take that out and replace it with a piece that is at least the thickness of the mattress.ex:8" piece of plywood,cut the plywood under the mattress to fit new measurement,and attach hinges again. This will give the mattress somewhere to sit when plywood and mattress are lifted, thus not using the mattress as a lever to pry the whole assembly from the wall.

That sloved my problem.....easy

Is This your problem?????