Bunk Bed Manual Operation

[Bruce]

Anyone know if there is a manual method to lift the bunk bed should the lift motor fail?

A guy passing through with a relatively new Chateau filled me in how to retract the slideout. He had a slideout motor fail among other diverse warranty issues.

Thanks,

Bruce

[Nursx2]

I do not know but plan on never using the overhead bunk for that exact reason!

[blw2]

I'll bet its a schwintek, so he might search you tube. They have lots of videos about their slide mechanisms, maybe they have something about their lifts.....

I googled
Schwintek Bunk Lift
and
https://www.youtube.com/user/lippertcomponents1/videos

[Bruce]

The Schwintek is for a bunk room slide out.

Bruce

Originally Posted by blw2

I'll bet its a schwintek
I googled
Schwintek Bunk Lift

[Bruce]

Finally, an answer more or less:







Bruce

[FreddieMac]

Originally Posted by Bruce

Anyone know if there is a manual method to lift the bunk bed should the lift motor fail?

A guy passing through with a relatively new Chateau filled me in how to retract the slideout. He had a slideout motor fail among other diverse warranty issues.

Thanks,

Bruce

I talked to the Thor rep at the RV show this weekend about the overhead bunk. He said it uses the exact same slide system as the slides on the RV itself. I bet the procedure for manual operation is very similar. He also said that you do not need to put it all the way down if the ladder is not an issue. So you can drive with the bunk partially down like the ACE.

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by Bruce

The Schwintek is for a bunk room slide out.

Bruce

In my Challenger the bunk motors and controller are the same as the slides. They are Schwintek. The controller is in the left cabinet below the bunk.

[Beacher]

Originally Posted by FreddieMac

.... He also said that you do not need to put it all the way down if the ladder is not an issue. So you can drive with the bunk partially down like the ACE.

That's a salesman for you!!

The biggest warranty repair that I had performed on my shiny new 2014 Hurricane 34E was the overhead bunk.

While breaking camp and getting ready to come home from camping in the Eastern High Sierras of central California, my right side Schwintek slide assembly decided to "pop" and spit out some gear parts.

I wish I had some cell phone/data reception at 9764ft above sea level on that Sunday morning so that I could have contacted a Thor dealership or the Thor Concierge!

I ended up using my shoulder while standing atop a strategically placed cinder block, while my daughter pressed the up button, and my son pushed in the clevis pin. It worked, but my neck and shoulder were in pain three days later!

McMahons RV in Westminster, CA, (now closed due to bankruptcy), replaced the motors, spur gears, and slide rails on both sides. It took them over six weeks to coordinate the authorizations, order the correct parts, confirm the installation with the one technician who knew how to perform the work, and then to call me. I then took in my coach at 7a.m. and left it overnight until 4p.m. the next day. They said it took about 6 hours of labor, and three technicians, (one to work, two to lift).

When I picked it up, I was specifically instructed to NEVER stop mid-way up or down! They said it would mess up the motor synchronization, and perhaps lead to jamming, and another shattered spur gear and chewed-up slide rail.

Since then, I have used the bunk a dozen or so times, heeding the stern warning of the service writer, (Eric Moreno). It works great now!



From the Schwintek Bunk Lift Owner's Manual:

IMPORTANT!!

NOTE: Bed is not to be occupied, loaded or used for cargo storage in any way while being raised or lowered. The dinette/bed setting is not to be occupied during raising or lowering the bunk bed.

[JamieGeek]

I put ours up & down all the time stopping partially. So far so good--it does have a little skip when reaching the bottom though; have to keep an eye on that.
On the Vegas/Axis models with a slide you cannot put the bunk all the way down unless you extend the slide. This is because the bunk will hit the seat tops. The procedure is:

• Extend the slide
• Turn the two front seats to face forward (if they were not already facing forwards)
• Recline the front two seats past the edge of the bunk
• Lower bunk all the way

This procedure would make it impossible to use the bunk if you were someplace that forbade you from extending your slideout and you couldn't partially lower the bunk.

[Beacher]

Originally Posted by JamieGeek

.....This procedure would make it impossible to use the bunk if you were someplace that forbade you from extending your slideout and you couldn't partially lower the bunk.

A salesman would never disclose that!

However, an engineer would.

[Bruce]

Only the driver' seat needs to be facing forward. The passenger seat will recline enough when it is facing the living area.

BTW, swiveling the driver's seat to face the living area is a pain.

Bruce

Originally Posted by JamieGeek

The procedure is: Extend the slide
Turn the two front seats to face forward (if they were not already facing forwards)

[Bruce]

None of the Schwintek literature shows the cable system that Thor uses. I've noticed on mine that the tension is less on the passenger side and that the front passenger corner on the bunk seems to be slight lower.

Tomorrow's forecast is for rain so it may be a good day to do some investigative dis-assembly.

Bruce

[JamieGeek]

Originally Posted by Bruce

Tomorrow's forecast is for rain so it may be a good day to do some investigative dis-assembly.

If you do take lots of pictures and post them.

[streamcamper]

Pictures would be great!!!

With the cable system, you may have an adjustment on the forward side of the bunk where you can tighten the bolt attached to the cable in order to tighten the side that is loose.

As for the system, I think it's the same system/components as the slide, just minus the torque shaft.

As for partially raising and lowering... I fully lower the bed for use, and then partially raise it out-of-the-way during the day. Have not had any timing issues. However, I did partially lower it from the top position and it went out of sync. One side stopped at a lower point than the other and it was difficult and nerve racking to get it re-synced. I could see how the system could self destruct when it gets out of sync.

Regards...

[Bruce]

The solution to dropping the bunk with the slide in is to swivel the driver's seat like this:



Bruce

Originally Posted by JamieGeek

This procedure would make it impossible to use the bunk if you were someplace that forbade you from extending your slideout and you couldn't partially lower the bunk.

[JamieGeek]

LOL! I honestly didn't even think of that. Great!

Of course that means you have to remove the table...always something. LOL

[Bruce]

The good news is that disconnecting the motors is easy. On each side of the bunk is an electrical connector probably covered with electrical tape. Remove the tape and disconnect the connector. If you had one motor fail, you could disconnect just the failed motor and you would only have to lift one side of the bunk.



The black/white wire is 12 volt to the cab light. The black cable is power to the bunk bed motor on the driver's side.

The bad new is this:



I was quite surprised to see how chewed up the track is after two months of use.

Here is a view of the motor from the top with the cover removed:


The motor is buried in the corner support. It looks like changing it would be labor intensive.

Here's a picture of the pulley at the bottom of the track. The wire runs down to the pulley and then back up to the motor.



Finally, a picture of the three screws secures the lift track cover:



The third screw is behind the spiral wire warp. You just see the head of the screw.

Bruce

[JamieGeek]

The screw "covers" just look like snaps? Is that all they are? (I've gently pulled on them to see if/how they come off but haven't pulled hard enough to remove them.)

The last time I looked at our racks (both the bunk and the slideouts) neither looked like that. They both had wear marks on them from the gears engaging but they weren't chewed up like yours is. Yours looks like all the weight of the bunk is going onto a small portion of the gear (perhaps due to the bunk not being level?)?

[Bruce]

A small flat blade screw driver will pop the covers off.

Bruce

Originally Posted by JamieGeek

The screw "covers" just look like snaps? Is that all they are? (I've gently pulled on them to see if/how they come off but haven't pulled hard enough to remove them.)

[Beacher]

Originally Posted by Bruce

The bad new is this:



I was quite surprised to see how chewed up the track is after two months of use.

When I heard the "pop" in my right side track, (and small particle parts of the drive gear and aluminum track fell to the floor), that was the very first time I thought to actually look at the rail.

Mine was chewed up much more than that, with many broken missing pieces, (as evident in the very bottom of yours).

If the two, (left and right), motors are synced they do not stress the rail. With normal lube and wear the aluminum just looks dark, (like at the top).

After dozens of complete up and down cycles, (after my warranty replacement of the Schwintek motors and rails), they now just look dark and greasy, without any gouging of the aluminum rail.

The gouging of the aluminum indicates that some out-of-sync operation has already taken place.