Jack Knife Couch Mod.

[CenOhio]

Great mod!

Thanks for sharing.

Unfortunately, I have the very uncomfortable single pad seat over my outside storage. Gotta figure out how to make that more comfortable!

Maybe try putting a piece of memory foam under that existing pad? Heck even some sheet foam might help some. The question is how to conceal it, and not make it so much thicker that it them becomes to high to serve as a comfortable seat, or run your knees into a table.

[jcarlilesiu]

Great mod!

Thanks for sharing.

Unfortunately, I have the very uncomfortable single pad seat over my outside storage. Gotta figure out how to make that more comfortable!

[CenOhio]

Ok this is probably the most boring mod of all time...

I have the plain "JackKnife" couch in my unit. After purchase I soon discovered that under this couch was a vast amount of potential storage. It's not that we really needed a lot of extra storage, but knowing it's there with no really easy way to get at it started to bother me. During last years long trip to Florida I used the space to store extra drinks and bottled water that wouldn't fit in the fridge. It was a pain trying to hold up the seat of the couch in order to get at the contents stored underneath.

Here's my solution. It's not pretty, but it seems to have worked for a start.

We start with the standard - umm... couch - LOL:


Under said couch is a lot of empty space begging to have crap/important stuff stored there:


The problem is that you have to lift the couch seat to get to any of this space, this makes it harder to access, and may even limit what will fit.

So, being the super genious that I am I thought I could make it better. The plan was to make this front part easily removable (and replaceable.)

It turns out that removing this front section was a bit more complicated than I had at first thought. Beware hidden screws driven in from directions that you can not get at without completely removing the couch! Oopsy! I did a little, um... lets call it tactical creative disassembly, and here we are with the front removed:


Next, we will fast forward past the part where I took this front piece home to repair the... uh... damage, and re stapled the fabric back down after fixing a few minor disassembly issues...

Then I tried to work out how to make this front piece removable. It's not elegant, and time will tell how well it holds up, but here's what I did for better or worse:

Purchased these brackets, and four of these solid (not the springy kind) door stops - cost about $12-15 in total:



Attached the brackets with the provided screws, and then carefully bent these to form a "V"(ish) shape without ripping the screws out of the wood:


Then I test fitted the front of the couch, marked and mounted the doorstops:


(Notice I still have a little cleanup to do, either sawing off or putting some silicone on that left over, now exposed screw protruding from the foot of the couch.)

Finally I "hang" the front of the couch on these four "posts", and, presto! It's back to looking like I never messed with it:


Now I can simply lift the seat of the couch about two inches, and the front will easily lift up and off, allowing full access to all of the space underneath. The brackets are bent such that gravity should hold them in place for travel... Time will tell.

Notes:
If they don't last (and I'm worried they won't) these door stops I used could/may be replaced with pretty much any sufficiently sized screw long enough that the brackets can rest on them when you put the front on.

Since the fit is snug, I should not need to worry about it falling off due to side to side motion, time will tell how well it holds up if say a 32 pack of bottled water or a case of - uh - Pepsi sides over against it during travel.

I'll be taking this on a 2,000+ Mile test run over the next few weeks - stay tuned for updates if it completely succeeds, or if it fails in a hot mess - LOL.

Questions or comments are welcome. I'd also like to see how others may have done this same modification in a different way - I imagine others may have just discarded the front completely and used baskets? Or prehaps others may have made doors or used hinges in some other way. Let me know - maybe I'll have a phase two down the road.