Modification to bed in 21C

[Hancock]

Many thanks to Tom Fowler, who was helping me with quite a few mods over a two day period. He and I discussed the issue of hot water plastic hose, and the design of the bed. All of this came out of needing to take the bed apart to run some wire for additional 12 volt and USB outlets.
When we disassembled the bed, we noticed that the "slats" or supports do not extend all the way across to both sides of the bed. It seemed a bit odd, even though it had not yet been a problem for me. Nonetheless, I decided to do a little modification that will make the bed quite a bit stronger.
In the first photo you can see the slats that run from the bath wall almost to the driver side wall. In the second photo you can see where I cut notches for new 1x3 slats. This was done on both walls. In the third photo you can see the new slats fitted in the slots.
Was this mod absolutely necessary? Probably not. I did it because it was easy to do with the bed taken apart.
I also applied clear polyurethane to all of the plywood and parts of the bed. At this time we live in a very humid climate, and it seemed like a good precaution to take. Again, thanks to Tom Fowler for all of his assistance. The bed and plumbing mods were not even the reason we had everything opened up, but as many know, one mod leads to another.

[WillyB]

If I was the owner of Escape I would be quite embarrassed of their shoddy attempt of workmanship.

That is simply cheating the customer. Goodness!

[Semievolved]

Originally Posted by WillyB

If I was the owner of Escape I would be quite embarrassed of their shoddy attempt of workmanship.

That is simply cheating the customer. Goodness!

Well, I haven't owned an Escape yet but I got a tour of one recently and I can tell you that the quality of workmanship in that Escape was worlds better than our Scamp. I could provide detail for hours but it was an incredibly striking comparison that was all positive for the Escape at all levels.

[yangstyle]

Originally Posted by Hancock

Many thanks to Tom Fowler, who was helping me with quite a few mods over a two day period. He and I discussed the issue of hot water plastic hose, and the design of the bed. All of this came out of needing to take the bed apart to run some wire for additional 12 volt and USB outlets.
When we disassembled the bed, we noticed that the "slats" or supports do not extend all the way across to both sides of the bed. It seemed a bit odd, even though it had not yet been a problem for me. Nonetheless, I decided to do a little modification that will make the bed quite a bit stronger.
In the first photo you can see the slats that run from the bath wall almost to the driver side wall. In the second photo you can see where I cut notches for new 1x3 slats. This was done on both walls. In the third photo you can see the new slats fitted in the slots.
Was this mod absolutely necessary? Probably not. I did it because it was easy to do with the bed taken apart.
I also applied clear polyurethane to all of the plywood and parts of the bed. At this time we live in a very humid climate, and it seemed like a good precaution to take. Again, thanks to Tom Fowler for all of his assistance. The bed and plumbing mods were not even the reason we had everything opened up, but as many know, one mod leads to another.

You mention 3 photos, I only see 2. I might try this also on ours also, I have never had a problem but it should be easy enough to do.
Did you have to take the side boards off to cut the slot into them?

[Hancock]

Originally Posted by WillyB

If I was the owner of Escape I would be quite embarrassed of their shoddy attempt of workmanship.

That is simply cheating the customer. Goodness!

In reality, I never felt any sag or other issues with the bed as built. The real reason that I did the mod was because I already had it disassembled. I am on my third trailer at this point, and find that the build quality is great compared to others. I truly believe that you could buy a stock Escape and happily use it for years without any modifications. Then there are those of us who can't seem to put down the screwdriver/saw, etc.

[Hancock]

Originally Posted by yangstyle

You mention 3 photos, I only see 2. I might try this also on ours also, I have never had a problem but it should be easy enough to do.
Did you have to take the side boards off to cut the slot into them?

I have edited the post to include the second photograph. Yes, I did take the side boards off to do the cuts. Not having a dado blade, I just made multiple passes on the table saw to make the cuts. Having them removed also made it easy to apply the clear polyurethane.

[Rossue]

Never had a problem with any ETI framing of bed, benches. They're designed with keeping weight down. Some have self-admitted they can't keep their hands off and some are such perfectionists that are probably never satisfied.

[Eggscape]

I and others have done the same mod changing from plywood stiffeners to bed supports.
Nice job.

[Greg A]

Those original supports are incredulous that they don’t go across to the outside wall support. You did a nice solution to remedy. I’d sure feel much more confident with ur redo than the original. Nice work.

[Dcboyd]

Will be doing the same with my 21C when it arrives around Jan 20th.