Major Dinette Upgrade - Telescopic Pedestal

[peislander]

In our small but mighty Camplite 11-FDB there is a front dinette/bed. The cheap folding table legs provided with the stock table were failing almost immediately. They were falling apart, rattled, wobbly, and difficult to fold & unfold. Having traveled almost halfway across the continent to pick-up the trailer at the factory and with no local dealer we were left to find a suitable upgrade. We were happy with the lightweight table top but the legs had to go! Our first replacement was an experiment. We took an old steel ironing board and mounted the table to the top. The idea was that we'd be able to use the ironing board's collapsible leg system to support it as a table and also be able to quickly & easily raised and lowered. From the underside, after removing the original legs, we found it was pretty easy to tell where Livinlite's table manufacturer had sandwiched wood blocking inside the table. (The areas of the table that aren't blocking are EPS foam). We sorted out where the ironing board would need to be screwed to the blocking. Before attaching it we also found it necessary to shorten the ironing board deck and shorten the legs. That was noisy work with a hacksaw & power jig saw with a metal-cutting blade. After the cutting and a spray with flat black paint we mounted the tabletop to its new base. It was a thing of beauty! It almost worked too! Problem was it was quite wobbly (and some of the cut metal edges were sharp even after being filed). It raised & lowered with ease but just wasn't as stable as it needed to be to be used as a dining table. Back to the drawing board...

I started thinking about what would be the ideal system. I remembered that like RV's, yachts often have convertible dinette/berths. I knew the (rich) yacht crowd would never accept the cheap folding leg approach offered by budget-conscious rv manufacturers. I figured the yacht people likely figured out a better system. I checked out the catalogue of a local marine parts distributor ([a href="http://http://www.mermaidmarine.com/index.cfm"]Mermaid Marine Products[/a]) and besides all kinds of things interesting to owners of aluminum camping trailers they did indeed have a solution to the dinette/berth problem. It is a 3-stage telescopic pedestal built for the purpose. The three stages means it can lower enough to allow the table to limbo down to bed height. The internal opposing gas cylinders smoothly allow infinite height adjustment with ease. It doesn't spring up --- not much force is required to raise or lower.


[img style="max-width:100%;" style="telescopic table pedestal" src="http://s21.postimg.org/ofxgtalzr/DSCF3206.jpg"]

First thing you can see is it is made of anodized aluminum -- perfect for an aluminum trailer! The base has a 12-inch diameter that seems just right for mounting to the Camplite's aluminum floor system. I screwed it to the floor by predrilling and then using the stainless screws that came with the pedestal. (Before drilling the holes I confirmed there is in our trailer at least no tanks or wiring under that part of the floor). We actually mounted to the table to the pedestal first. To make it easier to reach the pedestal's clamps we decided to offset the pedestal towards the outer edge of the table. To avoid overstressing the table we first installed a strip of 3/4" fibre board (melamine shelf board from Home Depot) to reinforce the table top. It was able to be screwed to all the tabletop's internal blocking. The pedestal's 11" x 11" x 1/4" top plate was then screwed to that. To finish off the cut edge of the 3/4" board we applied a strip of aluminum tape -- the kind used to seal sheet metal ductwork. When the job was finished I had a Coors and then I had another.

The mounted table is very stable and easy to raise & lower. I have not tried putting excessive forces on it (like sitting on it) because I don't want to break it. Treated with respect it seems it will work for a good long time. An unexpected bonus is that the table top can be rotated. We find if we are prepping for a big meal the turning helps. The kitchen grows into an large L-shape arrangement of counters although the table only goes up to table and not counter height.

I should also note it is not difficult to get the table down into the bed position. There is still a risk of a pinched finger but less of that risk than the original table had.

I just did a look and found the pedestal I used is sold at BassPro -- see the link below. Their price is less expensive than I paid. I know some will think this is a really expensive mod and I can see that. It was indeed expensive. I however was in desperate need of a workable solution since we had already removed & chucked the original folding legs. This does seem to be a long term solution. We do not miss being able to take the original non-fixed table outside.

[a href="http://www.basspro.com/Springfield-Marine-3Stage-Pedestal/product/1502241216/"]Springfield Marine 3-Stage Pedestal at Basspro.com[/a]

[farmboy]

Sometimes, you do get what you pay for.  A really nice, functional modification.  I am sure you will get years of use out of it.   Looks great.  And thanks for sharing the details of the 'process' involved.  Enjoy your camper.  

[daplumbr]

That is a wonderful mod. What a great idea.

We went in a slightly different direction, but with the same idea of borrowing useful things from the boating industry. This pedestal system can use multiple bases fastened to the floor so that it's useable in more than one location. For the table part, we used the spacer that comes with the 16TBS to fill the space between the twin beds. There will be a pedestal base installed in that location to make the twin beds into a dinette and another base installed for a table in front of the sofa. When neither is needed, we'll stow it in the pass through storage. Pics to follow when I figure out how to use Flickr.

http://www.amazon.com/Garelick-EEz--75640-Release-Pedestal/dp/B00144732Y/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1429665315&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=garelick+quickrelease

[peislander]

Thanks for the comments Farmboy & Merlin. I note Garelick have a telescoping pedestal that is similar in operation to the Springfield Marine Co. one I used. The Garelick one is even more expensive. There are also european ones that likely cost in the thousands, made for luxury mega-yachts.

Merlin I'd like to see pics of your system. I find this upload site to be really easy to use: http://postimage.org/  Try it you might like it too. You don't need to set up an account.

[pinstriper]

That whole thing just screams like something from Dr. Evil's secret island base with the robotic chair. Awesome.

[leslie]

What I like about your picture is that you reupholstered the cushions in black and red. Very neat-looking, and such an improvement over the original drab color. Now, where did my husband go? Time to add to the "honey do list".

[pinstriper]

[quote timestamp="1429673040" author="@leslie" source="/post/9742/thread"]What I like about your picture is that you reupholstered the cushions in black and red. Very neat-looking, and such an improvement over the original drab color. Now, where did my husband go? Time to add to the "honey do list".[/quote][p]That's why we disappear. You think we LIKE fishing ? It's cold, wet, no restroom, and worm and fish guts. Yuck.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Beats honey-do's every day.[/p][p]
[/p]

[peislander]

Pinstriper - it does have that vintage aerospace look Dr. Evil is fond of. He could keep Minime in the storage compartment under the seat.

Leslie - The seat bottoms are the original brown. We had red covers made for the seat backs. You might also notice we don't have adzel on the interior walls. Although adzel was standard at the time we ordered, we had them do the interior walls with aluminum like the pre-2012 Camplites. We also didn't get the carpet but may put down some vinyl plank someday.

[tincan]

Just found this thread, Super nice mod!  Now I wish I had a dinette.