Extreme bed failure

SeanRN · 09-10-2016, 07:11 PM

How many adults can sleep on a bed made of 1/4 inch plywood? My wife and I are not small muscular people. If we were we would probably be hiking into a national forest not resting my big butt on leather furniture in a 34 foot 5th wheel.

My wife and I felt like we were rolling into each other. Then one night the head of the bed ripped out of the wall and the foot of the box pushed out. What a mess.

The platform was constructed of two 1/4 inch pieces of plywood that was held together by some staples and a 1/3 up the middle.

I ended up putting a piece of 1/2 inch plywood against the wall with another 1/2 inch board that I then attached the hinges to instead of just the 1/2 inch board with a bunch of 2 inch screws. I used "L" brackets on the inside of the box at the bottom of the bed. I then added a four foot by six foot piece of plywood centered on the platform.

harley · 09-11-2016, 07:20 AM

If your hinges are less than 12" from the wall, cut the 1/2" ply 12" wide and secure the 12" part to the frame against the wall and have the hinged piece screwed to that so when you lift the bed the matress will have somewhere to lay instead of jambing itself into the wall thus ripping the frame apart.

malojeer · 09-13-2016, 08:11 PM

mine did the same thing. Screwed a 2x4 to wall into studs and refastened hinge

NorskeNY · 09-15-2016, 10:01 AM

Performed a "major" overhaul of our bed - supports on sides and under the sheets of plywood - no problems since.

gaslou · 09-20-2016, 07:02 PM

The same happened to us the bed ripped of the wall

NorskeNY · 09-20-2016, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gaslou

The same happened to us the bed ripped of the wall

Our separated from the wall too. I added the vertical supports at the end to provide a better anchor. The studs in the walls are made of aluminum and the screws can easily pull out of the aluminum.

Also, anytime we lift the bed top we pull the mattress about 6-8 inches from wall to prevent the mattress from adding horizontal stress when the top is lifted. (tip we learned on the forum).

harley · 09-20-2016, 08:05 PM

Like I said earlier, if the mattress is 8" thick then there should be at least8" of plywood solidly attached to the wall then the hinge attached to that so the mattress has somewhere to sit when the frame is lifted. Of course the bed frame is never built correctly ...

micklyn · 02-26-2017, 12:16 PM

Mine separated from the wall too; but also was dragging on the carpet. The two rollers under the bed were attached to a 1X4 which had sagged allowing the side frame to drag the carpet. Also the side boards being made from MDF developed a curvature from the weight of the bed also contributing to the drag. All components of the bed frame were poorly engineered and constructed. Other than the sideboards, all other wood was low quality scrap that would not meet Home Depot standards. I decided to build a complete bed frame. It now sits 1" above the carpet, is stronger, and weighs less than the original frame.In addition, it now has 4 rollers under the main frame for support and ease of movement.
I believe my previous Schwintek track failure was caused by the bed dragging. The dealer that replaced the tracks did not spot the bed drag. I discovered the problem after spotting the 3 lower outside screws holding the slide in place had popped the heads off and the metal strip would push away from the side of the trailer when retracting. Attached are some pictures of my new bed frame. Hope it solves the problem.
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J Ren · 02-26-2017, 04:22 PM

Nice job Micky,

I may have to rebuild mine too. Were those 4 rollers on the old or existing bed? or did you replace those.

**mark5w** · 02-26-2017, 05:30 PM

Looks like a very nice build.

RVCRUISER34 · 02-27-2017, 05:22 AM

Nice job, I built up and strengthened mine with extra wood support. Probably would have been easier, to pull it out and rebuild completely. It was out of square also.

dmetcalf · 03-03-2017, 08:43 AM

Great job on the rebuild. I know what I need to do now ....

dedmiston · 03-03-2017, 09:26 AM

Makes you wish Crossroads read this forum.

micklyn · 03-05-2017, 04:57 AM

John,
two rollers were reused and I purchased two more

SeanRN · 03-20-2017, 01:01 PM

Thank you for all the suggestions, pictures and sympathy!. At a minimum, I am going to take the plywood off and replace it with 3/4 inch plywood that is hinged forward of the wall. I'm actually thinking of just taking the whole mess out and putting in one of those bowed slat type frames right on the floor and putting storage containers under the bed.

micklyn · 03-20-2017, 01:15 PM

Sean,
If you have a slide, the slat frame option probably will not work. The reason I used 1x2's as a frame and then covered it with 1/4" plywood was to reduce weight and ease strain on the schwintek slide. Using 3/4 plywood might add too much weight.

NorskeNY · 03-20-2017, 03:50 PM

The plywood on ours was two pieces instead of one piece - assume they made all of them that way.

sleepyT · 03-22-2017, 07:53 AM

Mickey
did you have to disassemble the frame to get it in your camper.???

SeanRN · 03-22-2017, 11:28 AM

The piece of 1/4 inch plywood that was on top of the box was in two pieces vertically and stapled down the middle. This is supposed to hold two adults? The first time I thought there was a problem was when we started rolling to the middle.

I'm a big guy, my wife is not big, but she's not petite either. The first time the bed exploded it was when it tore from the wall. The second time it blew out the bottom. The plywood top was already bowing in the middle. I ended up putting a piece of 1/2 inch plywood over the top and building a 2x4 brace along the edge in front of the slide mechanics. That provided some support across the middle.

The second time it exploded it blew out the bottom of the box. I added corner brackets to beef that up. I'm not going through another season waiting for it to fail, much like my diet did over the winter. I'm either going to build a new box, probably lower to the floor so that our faces aren't at window height or investigate the box spring mattress frame option.

SeanRN · 03-22-2017, 11:32 AM

Mickey,

Why do you think the frame will put too much strain on the slide? I would have to cut the legs at the head end to accommodate the height difference. I would put rollers on the bottom legs. I don't see how that weight would be much more than the current box. The bed frame is less than 40 pounds.

If the slide can support the weight of the current set up plus two adults, The bed frame and mattress shouldn't be a problem. Am I missing something that you are thinking of?

Thanks

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