Damaged seat frame - sequel to the tap saga

[Christhecaravanner84]

Whilst I set about half dismantling my seats in order to retrieve an item which had dropped into oblivion, I noticed some damage to my seats.



It's not completely obvious from the picture but the long piece of timber which detached from the upright on the left is split. I'm mulling whether to reinforce it with some metal bar or replace it entirely. I plan to replace that upright support with some 2x2 and maybe install an extra support. The general seat assembly is quite flimsey and doesn't seem designed to accomodate a lard**** larger gentleman like me!

 

[ProfJohnL]

With all the repairs you are doing, do be careful about all the extra weight you are adding. You could be quite surprised how it all adds up and eats away your payload capacity.

 

[Buckman]

To stop the issue happening again use some plastic mesh which can be bought off eBay. A metre will probably be enough as you can cut it up into strips. We also learnt the "hard" way. LOL! 😆

 

[Christhecaravanner84]

mission accomplished.

Now sat having a celebratory cup of tea . No more ominous creaks and cracks.

 

[Sam Vimes]

We had our first caravan in 2001 and it was a three or four year old one then. Nothing ever stopped working or broke. Then we got a brand new Motorhome in 2006 and lots of things never worked or broke. (Had to nag them hard to agree to fix things under warranty, which they did at my home)

Now we have a 2021 caravan and same again things break or stop working. Mostly fixed under warranty but some things are down to bad design so just repairing them doesn't fix the problems.

On both our motorhome and current caravan the bed slats broke as soon as I knelt on them to make up the bed. Bad design in both cases and I made changes to prevent it happening again.

These days I wonder with every trip what's going to break this time. Never had that thought with our first caravan in 2001. What does that tell us?

 

[Hutch]

We had our first caravan in 2001 and it was a three or four year old one then. Nothing ever stopped working or broke. Then we got a brand new Motorhome in 2006 and lots of things never worked or broke. (Had to nag them hard to agree to fix things under warranty, which they did at my home)

Now we have a 2021 caravan and same again things break or stop working. Mostly fixed under warranty but some things are down to bad design so just repairing them doesn't fix the problems.

On both our motorhome and current caravan the bed slats broke as soon as I knelt on them to make up the bed. Bad design in both cases and I made changes to prevent it happening again.

These days I wonder with every trip what's going to break this time. Never had that thought with our first caravan in 2001. What does that tell us?

Sam I /we have only had three caravans, a Sterling Eccles Jewel, and two Coachman's, both brad new, with the Coachman's we only had two Warranty repairs, Just a rear end on the last one at three years old, CM took it straight into Hull, and produced it totally resealed a week later so I am Very PRO CM.
But I would be very wary about buying a new van nowadays.
But being An Engineer, I look at problems inside the van and say to myself, shall I take that to a caravan Technician or do it myself.
Answer to myself. Toolbox out, fix it ,toolbox away, Walk the dog to the pub.

 

[Christhecaravanner84]

It amazes me how flimsy the general construction of the seats are. Bolser wood would be a good description. Even for someone less roomy than me the timbers seem quite small. The top framework was hanging quite low and it was only a matter of time before it completely caved in.

 

[Sam Vimes]

In 1947 Thor Heyerdahl sailed 4300 miles in a Balsa Wood raft. Not sure he'd have been so successful had it been made by one of our Caravan Companies.