| 73-74 dinette Upgrade [message #246824] |
Tue, 08 April 2014 20:09 |
Chr$
Messages: 2690
Registered: January 2004
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Karma: 1
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OK, I did this in my Travel Trailer, but the earlier coaches seem to have similar foam block over plywood for the seats.
After several camping trips where I became tired of sitting on the bricks that the manufacturer calls seat cushions, I decided to do something about it. After all, they are merely foam blocks sitting on plywood. The foam is so dense so as to look nice and keep their shape without any regards to what constitutes a comfortable seating surface.
I decided to look at what made my flexsteel furniture in my previous motorhome more comfortable, and realized that is basically like a household couch or stuffed chair. I was able to find couch springs quite easily at an upholstery supply and all the clips needed to make this project work.
For $30, I was able to redo about 6 ft of seating. I chose to do the two sides of the rear wraparound dinette in our 2010 Nomad trailer. The materials in the photo may differ from what you find, I used slightly different clips. It really depends on where you mount them. The spring comes in 140 ft rolls for about $30-40 or you can buy them in pre-cut lengths. I bought 24” pre cut springs for 97 cents each. The clips were 9 cents apiece and you need two for each srping.
First, I removed the removable OSB-Plywood convert-a-bed panels. As a couple, we don’t use it as a bed anyway, so I figured that comfort trumped guest bedding. I kept the padded trim boards from the front of them to hide the gap. Mine were just screwed in with matching snap covers. It was a matter of simply removing them from the OSB panels and using all the same screws and caps to mount them to the existing base permanently.
I then tried different spacing between the springs to get the right feel. Since there are different spring rates, you may need to try different spacing. I have no idea what gauge or tension they were as they were in a big tub at my local upholstery shop. There don’t seem to be many sizes. I’d guess these were about equal to 8 or 10 AWG wire. I settled on three-inch spacing from bracket to bracket. This gave me a nice compromise between the feel of an upright chair and a couch. I did not place coil springs between them, but I have seen some photos like that. I think that my spacing of 3 inches eliminates the need for that. In the photos below I show the markings and the finished product. I used two 1¼ drywall screws for each bracket. I chose to mount them to the frames, but a removable frame could also be made so the entire assembly could be lifted out, but I would venture to make that out of angle iron as these springs are under constant tension when installed.
Even though the springs replace a removable panel, you can reach between them to access some items, or pop them out for maintenance such as the water pump in mine. I may actually put some cabinet doors on the fronts as time goes on and my storage needs increase.
Now that I got the seat portion resolved, it was time to address the rear seatbacks. My seats were basically two hard foam bars zipped into two sections of the seatback. I took the top one and cut “V” shaped notches from the back surface to about 2/3 the way into the block. This makes the seat “give” a bit more when you relax against it but it keeps its shape when you are not using it. I left the bottom ones whole, as that gives more lumbar support when seated upright.The cushions do pucker a bit at the top and the rear, which I am sure can be dealt with by cutting holes from the rear instead of the “V’s” like I did on the corner blocks below
I then cut an oval hole in the center of the corner blocks in addition to a couple of “V’s” like the side cushions.
I’m happy with the results, and it looks stock. This was a much lower cost option than ripping it all out and replacing it with a sofa or a couple of recliners.
Photos
-Chr$: Perpetual SmartAss
Scottsdale, AZ
77 Ex-Kingsley 455 SOLD!
2010 Nomad 24 Ft TT 390W PV W/MPPT, EV4010 and custom cargo door.
Photosite: Chrisc GMC:"It has Begun" TT: "The Other Woman"
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