Herewith the beginnings of the table. The table is made from 17mm plywood with a 19mm pine edging and went together without too much trouble. I glued and nailed the edging onto the plywood, so it should hold. I've also fittted the table supports on the fronts of the dinette seats. The pic that follow show the table being constructed and also it in place on the supports making it into a bed.
I have the fittings for the table but don't yet have the pole for it. (still on order). The table as it stands fits in between the seats really well to make the bed, but it's too big to leave set up all of the time. Getting onto the dinette seat from the side the fridge is on is almost impossible. The table is 940mm long and 600mm wide, so to make it more serviceable, I'm going to cut it into three sections, the middle section with the holder for the pole will be 300mm wide x 600mm, then the other two will be 340mm x 600mm wide each side.
I will hinge the side sections onto the middle section so they drop down. This means that I can get past the table to the cab, have the middle section alone as a table, or either or both of the side sections up as a table. I am going to hinge it across the 940mm length so that the hinges won't be supporting any weight when it is being used in bed mode. I haven't worked out how I'm going to hold the sides up yet, but I am hatching an idea about using two sliding bolts on each side underneath. Trial and error, we'll see how it goes. Of course there is Laminex to go on the top yet to match the kitchen bench.
The Table top just after the edging had been added.
View of table top from the cab (note the supports rails on the dinette seats).
Another view from behind the driver's seat. The table is way too big in its present form but if I didn't do it this way, I would have had to have loose pieces of ply to fill in the bed area. I think the hinged idea will work. Here's hoping. For those of you who know me and are wondering, the answer is yes, I've tried it out and it holds my weight!!
