# Lifting bench seating to access storage- solutions ?



## Grizzly

We have a 2007 Bessacarr E530 which has 2 long, lateral bench seats /single beds with storage underneath. The passenger-side one is empty and can be accessed via a door from outside, the driver's side one has the hot water and space heater in the centre but useful storage on either side of it. Both have heavy, single foam slabs on top.

Access to the storage from inside involves taking off the foam, which, when on its end is almost the same height as the van, and lifting a slatted bed-base which then has to be held up while items are removed from the locker.

It's always been a nuisance to do but is now getting physically quite difficult too. 

We have had an estimate for putting in gas struts but this would involve quite a bit of re-building and strengthening and cost about £1000. It would also narrow the space between the two bench seats as the bed would have to be made wider to allow for the depth of the foam when the bed is lifted. 

We use the beds as singles most of the time and leave the aluminium legs unfolded in the daytime. This means that a drop-down hatch on the front of the underbed locker would be obstructed.

Is there anyone out there who has solved this problem or can think of an ingenious solution ?

G


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## aps1

We have a 2008, E540 'van which sounds similar to your E530.

The only problem that we had was holding the seat slats vertical to have safe easy access to the boxes. I solved this problem by hooking elastic bands around the slats and hooking over the window catches.

Obviously this still involves lifting the seat cushion and backrest cushion out of the way.

Adrian


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## Spacerunner

How about putting a drawer (s) in the front.


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## Grizzly

Thanks both.

We hold the bed base up with a metal hook ( over-door type) but rubber bands do sound easier ! The real problem for us is lifting the heavy mattress and the seat back off ( having first removed all cushions etc) and then putting them somewhere without also removing the ceiling lamps as we do it.

Unfortunately we can't have a drawer as the aluminium bed support is U shaped and runs the length of the bed base, on the floor. If we pull the bed out into the space between beds we can't get into that space to access a drawer...if you see what I mean ! We could fold the support away but it involves lifting the mattress and the slatted bed base right up first- just what we're trying to avoid.

G


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## Spiritofherald

Is there no way to make the slatted base complete with cushion slide forward instead of being lifted?


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## Grizzly

Spiritofherald said:


> Is there no way to make the slatted base complete with cushion slide forward instead of being lifted?


We do pull the beds out at night and the seat back cushion slots down between the wall and the seat cushion- making a 3 ft wide bed. Snag is that the hinge to access the underbed storage is right up against the wall so, with the cushions in place, there is no way to lift the base.
The £1000 solution would have involved removing the entire bed base and replacing it with one hinged about 8 inches away from the wall, so that the cushion could have stayed in place. Gas struts would then have been fitted to make lifting the lid and cushions possible,

I still bear the scars from last Easter when I tried to prop the whole thing up on the bed legs just to get a book from underneath. The whole lot fell on my shoulder and arm.

G


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## Kev1

Is it possible to convert the front of the seating area to drop down doors
just so you can slide things in.
We had a caravan ans all the bench seating was lift up but also had drop down doors on the front

kev


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## peejay

Hi Chris,

Would it be possible to have sliding or tambour doors to an opening under the seat, or possibly an open plan hatch with a neat curtain to pull across.

Pete


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## Grizzly

I'm not sure how possible it would be to do either of these. I suspect that much of the weight of the person sleeping or sitting on the bed is transferred to the floor through the wooden bed frame and removing or slicing the front up would result in sagging or collapse. I'd have to check that however and see if it is possible to support it and still allow the frame to be pulled out at night. We'd not thought of a curtain but had rejected tambour doors as the ones we do have in the van are always getting fouled up or coming out of their runners. 

G


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## Bill_H

Can you have the foam cushion made into two or three smaller cushions? - easier to lift out and move.


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## peejay

Bill_H said:


> Can you have the foam cushion made into two or three smaller cushions? - easier to lift out and move.


Bill has beaten me to it :lol:

I was going to suggest splitting the cushion bases into two and also do the same with the slatted bed bases to make acces easier.

Pete


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## Grizzly

Bill_H said:


> Can you have the foam cushion made into two or three smaller cushions? - easier to lift out and move.


Nice one...I'm not sure how practical it would be to tinker with the Swift cushion- it would need new upholstery- but we could have two smaller ones made. We have loose covers anyway and I have masses of material left over from making them so they would not have to be upholstered in Swift material.

I'm not sure how my OH would react to having to find a place at home to store the current cushions...along with all the other bits and pieces we've removed: carpets, swan-neck table, shower duckboard etc

Thanks

G


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## Grizzly

peejay said:


> Bill_H said:
> 
> 
> 
> .....and also do the same with the slatted bed bases to make acces easier.
> 
> Pete
> 
> 
> 
> Now there's a thought. We could remove the slats altogether- they remove themselves anyway on a regular basis- and replace with two or three perforated, hinged plywood trap doors that support the sleeper but lift to allow access. It's no trouble simple tipping the big cushion on it's side against the window while this is done.
> 
> I think you've cracked it ! You're star Pete !
> 
> Thanks to all who've answered. I only wish the Swift designers had been as thoughtful as they fitted the thing out in the first thing.
> 
> G
Click to expand...


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## ChrisandJohn

When we had an Auto-Sleeper Medallion we eventually got around to leaving the long, heavy, upholstered back rest at home. This reduced our weight and meant we didn't have to find somewhere to prop it up at night. We replaced it with the pillows (suitably covered in daytime) and cushions that we carried anyway. 

Now, in our Hymer, the upholstery isn't so substantial and we pull the back cushion down on top and towards the front of the seat cushion and lift them all together. 

I doubt this helps or applies to your situation, but you never know so thought I'd mention it.


Chris


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## Kev1

Hi Grizz
attached a pic of our Bessecar caravan which had drop down 
doors under the bench seating


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## Grizzly

Thanks Chris. We have to take the back cushion with us as, slipped sideways into the space between the wall and the main cushion, it extends the size of the bed. The big main cushion is the real pain to move; heavy and huge.

Kev...do you have to pull the bed base out to pull out the drawer ? Our bed supports are long lengths of aluminium and they'd get in the way or drop-down drawers. I notice yours are wooden legs.

G


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## alphadee

We had long backrest cushions on our Autotrail. I stitched a curtain ring to both ends on the upper side of the cushion, and screwed a couple of hooks into the under side of the lockers above.We could then hang the cushions there (about 3 feet above thir normal position) while accessing under the seats. It was a bit of a fiddle to hook them on, but they were out of the way. Looking back, I could have stitched a cord on to the cushion, screwed a ring under the locker above, and had a pulley system with a little cleat to wrap the cord round while they cushions were in their raised position!


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## Grizzly

alphadee said:


> We had long backrest cushions on our Autotrail. I stitched a curtain ring to both ends on the upper side of the cushion, !


I love the idea of this; real lateral thinking. I suspect if we tried it with the mattress cushions however we'd pull the lockers off the wall. They are seriously heavy- and I have the strained back to prove it.

G


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## alphadee

We found that with the backrests up and out of the way, we could lift the base with the mattress still on. We used something to hold them open...I think it was a cord round the slats hooked round something from memory!


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## Kev1

Hi Grizz 
It was simply a drop down door
No drawer.

A hole was cut in the front of the base
and an over sized door (hinged at the bottom edge so the door lowered to the floor) simply covered the hole up

of course you could fit a drawer runner inside if you wished to go to that amount of effort.
We simply stuffed our pillows and quilt inside
Kev


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## Grizzly

An update on all this.

When the van went in for service we were browsing other vans and came across one almost exactly like ours but with gas struts fitted. I- rather jokingly- asked the man on the service desk why ours could not have struts fitted and was told that there was no problem, they could !

Two were fitted to one locker when the van was being serviced and the other locker had them fitted a week or two later as they had no more in stock. The costs were pretty reasonable and they have made a huge difference to our lives.

I suppose it points up that it's wise not to take no for an answer.

Thanks all for the good ideas however.

G


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