Dinette table fix-beware!

[Jay2504]

The DW and I play a lot of cards in the camper. (She beats me on a regular basis). The dinette table is now completely unstable and wobbles a lot. So I come up with a plan to both make more leg room and make the table solid. I. Had to also make it easy to take apart, because without bunks, we sometimes use the U shaped dinette as an extra bed. So I bought 2 solid TV mounts that are capable of holding 80 pounds and went to work. 80 pounds is enough to hold anything that we might put on the table, except the DW can’t dance on it. (Not enough head room anyway). First I reinforced the side of the rear seat to hold the weight. Jay

[Jay2504]

As you can see, I had a friend weld the small part of the brackets to a 2” square tube. Then I mounted the big ends of the TV brackets to the bottom of the table and to the side of the rear seat base. First beware! Make sure that the brackets are turned the correct way so that you lift up the tube to remove it. This is upside down from the way it would be used for a television! I then put it together, and found out that the table wobbled as bad as before! Second beware! The TV brackets are not thick enough not to wobble! If anyone else does this mod, plates must be welded to the TV brackets or new brackets made from scratch with thicker metal! What I did was to add a brace at the top of the rear bench, and add a brace to the bottom of the table. While the ultimate outcome was a totally stable table with a huge amount of leg room, I felt it was important to show that not all mods go as well as planned! I hope this helps someone. Jay

[Jagiven]

Looks good! But your bracket looks beefy, did you add any wood behind the lower dinette bench to mount it to?

Been a few posts about your old OEM bracket. Biggest issue I have heard, there is not enough wood behind it, and undersized screws to fully support it.

[Jay2504]

It doesn’t show in the pictures, but last year, I stole an idea from another member about the rear section under seat access panel. I trimmed it and put on hinges so you only had to remove 2 seat cushions to get to the storage under the rear bench. In order to have support for the now shortened plywood that the cushion goes on, I had screwed 2 2x2 pieces to the sides. When I started this project, I put 4 “L” brackets on the 2x2s in all 4 corners. Then I ran 3” construction screws from the side benches the opposite way I has run the original attaching screws into the 2x2s. This helped tie the benches together. I then cut a piece of 3/4” plywood I had and inserted it behind the luan that the table bracket bolted to. I used 8 corner braces to tie the plywood to the top, bottom and sides of the frame for the bench. All bolts used fender washers going through the plywood. I hope this helps. The problem I had with the OEM table bracket was the rivets that let the legs fold had gotten sloppy letting the table wobble. On our old camper the same thing happened, so I drilled them out and replaced them with 5/16” bolts and locknuts. That fixed the table but it took 2 wrenches to convert it to a bed. Not only will this be easier to convert but the added legroom is a huge benefit. To really make this work better, heavier gauge brackets should be used. Jay.