With the wiring project behind us, we now move forward to 'beefing' up our bed frame. We have long known that the floor in the under bed storage area was sagging. We also know that the plywood on which the bed lies is also in need of more support. The guys in Elkhart thought they had solved that problem by simply reinforcing the plywood top with a 2x4 screwed across the underside. Well, it did stiffen up the plywood top, but it also added weight. So much weight that raising the top was difficult...even with the hydraulic arms. Here is what we found.......and what we did........
This is what we found under the storage bed floor.
Hopefully you can see by the photo.....but all they had supporting the bed floor was about 3/4 inch of wood strip stapled into the bed frame. The staples were even starting to pull free.
We removed their wood, added a support from below and then nailed a 1 x 2 into it's place. We also added supports running across the entire frame. Then laid the floor on top and nailed everything together.
This is the completed floor. Now we are going to use joist hangers at the foot of the bed to hold the 2x4's we are installing for added support for the plywood top. The other end of the 2x4's could be screwed into the frame.
Here is the finished product. The floor is now stable and the 2x4's support the plywood above. Now I can easily lift the bed to reach the storage....where I can actually store stuff now and not worry the floor will fail.
One more project we can check off the to do list. We had planned on leaving here on Wednesday, but the weather has taken a turn for the worse. A cold front came through this morning and although we survived the rain and thunderstorm, the wind has now become an issue. They are forecasting winds which could gust up to 70 miles an hour for the rest of today and tomorrow. Pulling a 40 foot fifth wheel through that kind of wind could be disastrous. So, we will stay put til Thursday. I noticed the weather in Phoenix was sunny and in the 80's today.....
Nice job. I guess I better take a look at ours and see how it is put together.
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It's a good thing you looked under there. Good idea on staying put, better safe then sorry.
ReplyDeleteInteresting....I'll have to have my husband check under our bed. Right now there is no storage space there. But then adding space for some storage would raise our bed even higher...and on my side I need a stepstool to get in bed now. It's worth a look though. How much weight did it add doing the reconstruction under the bed?
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