Drop down bed

[richguess]

My ACE 27.2 has the over the driver area electric drop down bed. We use that bed like a class C’s storage area, put our junk and suitcases up there when we arrive at our destination unless it will be occupied. Leaving Borrego Springs, it wouldn’t lift up and made some weird buzzing noises. The bed was off track, and it turned out the motor over the driver area crapped out. I was able to get it disconnected from the bed (sheared off the bolt when I did it), get it raised up semi in position, and drove home. At home we got the bed lowered, found the access panel next to the motor, and removed it. It was toast, tested it with 12v from my battery, took I it apart, etc. I figured I was looking at a 3-4 week wait and a $700 repair bill. I found the motor on Amazon for $45, got new bolts, spliced the wires and BINGO I’m back in business. Good fortune. I don’t know if t’s a common failure, but it’s fixable for low cost.

Rich

[GVP-The Boxcar Children]

Nice work Rich! I would caution that those bunks only hold so much weight, and one can easily overload them without realizing it. Overloading too much on one side also spells trouble.
Gary
GVP

[TurnerFam]

we use ours for storage, too, but when you have the bed all the way down, there is no concern of weight - it's designed for someone, or two, to sleep up there, so no worries.

I did have a problem with ours the other day, when I went to raise it back up to it's 'ride' height. When it reached the desired height, I let go of the switch and walked around under it to put in the ride 'pins'. While doing so, the passenger side started to 'creep' down before I could get the pin in. By the time I get back around to the switch, which is in a upper cabinet, it had creeped down far enough that now the two sides would not go up or down 'together', or otherwise easily 'sync' up with each other.

While this is actually fairly common, it's a little unnerving since it 'feels' like a motor issue when the two sides won't sync. But, the ultimate answer is to continue to 'up' and 'down' a little each time until one side eventually gets in 'line' with the other - it WILL happen, but it takes quite a few goes before it does. When you take it either all the way then to the top, or the bottom, that's when the two motors will 'sync' together - then you should be good to go.

[richguess]

We don’t put anything up there that weighs all that much, maybe 20 or 30 lbs total. Way less than a human. A friend slept up there a couple of times, wasn’t all that uncomfortable she said. Those motors that raise it up and down are pitifully small. I’d rather have it on some type of springs, like the pull down door to an attic.

I‘ve wondered if anybody has tried to retrofit an older class A with some kind of bed/storageli,e these. I’d like to restore one would want to have the bed/storage.

[richguess]

Ours doesn’t have pins, there are magnets on the ceiling that keep it in position once it’s fully up.

[Bob Denman]

Rich,
Glad to see that you got it fixed for a very reasonable amount of cash and effort!

[Down South]

Originally Posted by richguess

Ours doesn’t have pins, there are magnets on the ceiling that keep it in position once it’s fully up.

Mine is held by magnets that won't hold it in place but for short periods of time. I wish that I had locking pins.