24SS: Improved dinette comfort and storage
Our 2005 24SS came with a comfortable dinette with very good storage, but the seats seemed a bit low to get up from easily, the huge steel frame inside (for seat belts) got in the way of my wife's sewing boxes, and some wine bottles were too tall to store upright.
I removed both steel frames (25 lbs each!), screwed 1" boards to the top of the seat lip to raise the seat, and hinged the seat platform to make it easier to get into the storage. It's more comfortable now, the wine bottles can sit upright, the sewing boxes fit perfectly, and it's easier to get stuff out of the seat storage.
The photos in order:
1) the original condition of a dinette seat interior
2) this shows the 1"x3" board along the front of the seat, the 1"x2" boards along the sides, and the original rear board now screwed to the top of the 1"x2" boards
3) with seat platform closed, you can see the hinges on it.
4) the appearance is unchanged, but the seat height is 3/4" higher (1" boards are really 3/4" thick)
Not shown is the 12"x15" or so piece of carpet that was removed from the far end. The 12 bottle cardboard wine box has to sit directly on the floor, or it's just a bit too high for the wine bottles to fit in upright.
With the seat higher, the table is lower (relatively speaking), which is more comfortable for us, especially when using the laptop on it.
|