Broken bed slat

[Harby]

Day 1 of the holiday last week and I came to put away the main bed in our Bailey Pegasus Palermo to find one of the slats had broken. I gorilla-taped it to see us through the holiday (which made it difficult to put away / pull out the slats from within the front drawer cabinet) and am now wondering whether I need to buy just a new slat (where from?) or whether it's better to have a piece of ply-wood to use as the bed support instead?

Any advice appreciated

 

[otherclive]

A good timber merchant or somewhere like Wickes will have planed timber. Then trim it to lenthgh, sand the edges smooth and staple in place of the broken one. Borrow a staple gun or you can get cheap hand staplers on eBay or amazon.

Followed by subscription to Slimming World?

 

[Gabsgrandad]

I've made them before out of a suitable piece of timber, as method similar to 'Otherclive' (Ps --- Also lost 2 & 1/2 stones!)

 

[otherclive]

I've made them before out of a suitable piece of timber, as method similar to 'Otherclive' (Ps --- Also lost 2 & 1/2 stones!)

I have no problems with the DIY carpentry, but as regards weight its more difficult than giving up smoking, which I did in a day some 20 years ago. Problem being my wife didn't smoke, but she is a good cook!

 

[Harby]

Thanks both. Appreciate the weight loss advice. I'm just worried about this as we're going away for 4 weeks this summer, wasn't planning on taking a staple gun etc with us but it's clearly not a very sturdy bed... I only weigh 9 stone!

 

[Raywood]

I would think Bailey will charge the earth for a slat, so I would buy a piece of timber of the same size and make a new slat up that way. Slats do break sometimes but it is fairly rare, so I would not worry about more going.

 

[Thingy]

I only weigh 9 stone!

Can only guess as to how you broke it then, I really cant imagine

As the others have said, a timber merchant will do fine, its not as if its on view. When we use the slats, we tend to try to get on the bed from the sides and spread weight, like many others have broken them before.

 

[woodsieboy]

On a previous van we made bed support from plywood, cut to shape needed then cut into 3 pieces and drilled rows of 2" diamaeter holes to cut down weight and avoid condensation, dropped in place each night and stored under the near side bed when not in use, never had a problem with it,did not have slats on that van, supposed to use the table to make the bed.

 

[DaveA1]

Beech is ideal for the slats.

 

[thosoneill]

We too had a broken slat in our previous caravan - now taking more care going in and out of bed - and yes we are both a tad overweight

 

[Harby]

I like the idea of a plywood sheet as I think it would make the bed much stronger, but have just checked the caravan and the runner that the slats pull out along has a 'U' shaped holder at each side (to ensure they flow smoothly) so I'm not sure we could do that without removing those runners on each side - unless anyone has any ideas?

On a previous van we made bed support from plywood, cut to shape needed then cut into 3 pieces and drilled rows of 2" diamaeter holes to cut down weight and avoid condensation, dropped in place each night and stored under the near side bed when not in use, never had a problem with it,did not have slats on that van, supposed to use the table to make the bed.

 

[ProfJohnL]

You also need to consider the additional weight of using solid pieces of wood over the slats as this will start to eat into your payload allowance.

 

[otherclive]

There are two main types of ply board. Birch and Poplar. It is the latter that is used in campervan and marine conversions as it is lighter and stronger than birch plyboard. If you google you will see suppliers websites and they generally give weight per square meter of the various thicknesses.

 

[Hutch]

You also need to consider the additional weight of using solid pieces of wood over the slats as this will start to eat into your payload allowance.

Prof I don't think this weight gain is enough to worry about, A full bottle of gas, against a half bottle.

 

[otherclive]

If the OP weighs the broken slat which will be solid wood then works out the total weight of existing slats he can then compare it to a solid base of poplar plyboard. Using plyboard of equal depth to the slats would give an good estimate of the difference. Given plyboard strength it might even be realistic to reduce the depth too.

 

[Raywood]

The idea of the slats is to prevent condensation under the mattress. If you use a solid base then you can get damp issues under the mattress, although we never had any real problem with this on our older caravans.
A thin piece of ply over the slats should not weight a lot and the slats would prevent any problems with the strength of the ply if that appeals.

 

[Gafferbill]

I had this problem where the slats break when subjected to a point load.......usually this occurs when the bed is stood on in order to get to the far side.
I solved this weak point by removing the broken slat completely and replacing with a piece of laminate flooring cut to length.
I use the type that is 10mm thick and 150mm wide......this is immensely strong and will not break.
This new wide slat is stored on top of the other slats of the side seating when the bed is not made up and simply placed in position when it is. The slat is undetectable when the side seating is being used.
I can just drop this wide slat in the runners on my caravan because I don't have a U channel.......you would have to modify your channel to accept the wider slat.

 

[Anseo]

I had this problem where the slats break when subjected to a point load.......usually this occurs when the bed is stood on in order to get to the far side.
I solved this weak point by removing the broken slat completely and replacing with a piece of laminate flooring cut to length.
I use the type that is 10mm thick and 150mm wide......this is immensely strong and will not break.
This new wide slat is stored on top of the other slats of the side seating when the bed is not made up and simply placed in position when it is. The slat is undetectable when the side seating is being used.
I can just drop this wide slat in the runners on my caravan because I don't have a U channel.......you would have to modify your channel to accept the wider slat.

Good tip, laminate flooring is so very strong and lightweight. B)

 

[otherclive]

The idea of the slats is to prevent condensation under the mattress. If you use a solid base then you can get damp issues under the mattress, although we never had any real problem with this on our older caravans.
A thin piece of ply over the slats should not weight a lot and the slats would prevent any problems with the strength of the ply if that appeals.

I don’t think that condensation would be a problem. Our rear dinette converts to a single or double. For both the table forms part of the bed and the lockers with slats are under your head/chest and legs. As a double the extra width is provided by a poplar plywood pull out section. We use the end beds every time we are out and even in winter without heating on I’ve never noticed any sign of condensation.

 

[Woodentop]

I can go one better than you lot.

We have a brand new Unicorn 4 Seville and the bed collapsed under me on our second trip out. Look under the offside bed and it has two wooden (for want of a better word) arches of timber at either end of the slatted lifting section: the nearside (mine!) has something similar at the leg (rear of caravan) end but only three screws (two of which we less than 1inch in length) holding the front end up. The dealer made a temporary repair so that we could use it again. I now hear that Bailey's have authorised supply and fit of a new bed assembly but have asked the dealer to find a way of providing the missing support and then letting them know.

I was at another dealers place yesterday and looked in one of their Sevilles. Surprise surprise one side of the bed support (central drawer set side) has a piece of maybe 36mm sq timber holding it up but still nothing on the outer wall where the main failure of our bed occurred! Does c**p quality control come to mind, or is it just poor design?

 

[Raywood]

The idea of the slats is to prevent condensation under the mattress. If you use a solid base then you can get damp issues under the mattress, although we never had any real problem with this on our older caravans.
A thin piece of ply over the slats should not weight a lot and the slats would prevent any problems with the strength of the ply if that appeals.

I don’t think that condensation would be a problem. Our rear dinette converts to a single or double. For both the table forms part of the bed and the lockers with slats are under your head/chest and legs. As a double the extra width is provided by a poplar plywood pull out section. We use the end beds every time we are out and even in winter without heating on I’ve never noticed any sign of condensation.

As I said we have never had a serious problem with damp under the beds in our older caravans before slats came in, but that is the reason they were introduced and I thought it best to mention that.

 

[DaveA1]

I had real problems with damp in my old caravans, had to put a blanket/s underneath the mattress to keep it down.

 

[otherclive]

I can go one better than you lot.

We have a brand new Unicorn 4 Seville and the bed collapsed under me on our second trip out. Look under the offside bed and it has two wooden (for want of a better word) arches of timber at either end of the slatted lifting section: the nearside (mine!) has something similar at the leg (rear of caravan) end but only three screws (two of which we less than 1inch in length) holding the front end up. The dealer made a temporary repair so that we could use it again. I now hear that Bailey's have authorised supply and fit of a new bed assembly but have asked the dealer to find a way of providing the missing support and then letting them know.

I was at another dealers place yesterday and looked in one of their Sevilles. Surprise surprise one side of the bed support (central drawer set side) has a piece of maybe 36mm sq timber holding it up but still nothing on the outer wall where the main failure of our bed occurred! Does c**p quality control come to mind, or is it just poor design?

Both