17B Bed Extension Brainstorm - need your help!

[medora]

Hi all,

When we bought our 17B in 2012, Reace kindly made a bed extension for us - basically a piece of cut plywood with legs that nestles into the area between our fridge and sink and allows us to sleep along the length of the trailer (and keeps us from climbing over each other to use the loo in the middle of the night). It's a brilliant thing and it's let us sleep super comfortably in our camper, BUT -- it is a royal pain in the butt to put in every night, especially after a drink or two by the fire. As you'll see in the photos, it has "wings" which sit on the rails that hold up the dinette tabletop and give it support, but it's tougher than you think to get those wings under the cushions, mattress pad, and blankets every night.

SO -- on our last trip, I dreamt up a plan where this extension would SLIDE OUT from under the tabletop. I think this will work, but I need your help ... I'm thinking that I would need two slider rails that are very very similar to the ones that are used on the bottom of the tabletop now that allow you to push the table from side to side to get out of the dinette seats. I would:

- cut a new rectangle to replace the tabletop (since we almost always keep the bed down on trips anyway) -- minus the "wing holes"
- attach the rails to the bottom of that plywood rectangle
- cut a second plywood piece that's the same size as the current extension, again minus the "wings" and install sliders and two foldable legs (like ours currently has)
- then figure out some sort of lightweight insulation piece or somethingorother (ideas?) that we would lay over the extension to bring it level (as I know it would hang down a bit as it's sliding out from under the main plywood piece).

Does this sound workable?
What am I missing?
What would I need? I have NO IDEA what those sliders are called -- I've looked and looked and can't find a name for that hardware so I'm not sure how to get it.

Any help or ideas you have would be so greatly appreciated. I have had one too many camper disasters lately (burned water tank, dead running lights, broken rock shield, etc etc) so it would be swell if this could go somewhat smoothly

Thanks in advance, Elizabeth
(will post photos in next post)

[medora]

Here are the photos - the first two are of the extension we currently have, the third is where we wedge her in, and the final one is of the rail/slider that I don't know the name of, but think could do the trick (if I got two larger ones capable of holding more weight).

[PleinAirCedar]

Those look like drawer slider rails. Try Harbor Freight. I think they have those for people who make storage unit drawers for the back end of pickup trucks. Really big drawers for tools, etc. Good luck

[Ron in BC]

Look up full extension drawer slides and see if those will work for you.

Ron