sofa cabinet modification

[livinthelife]

A while back someone posted about changing the cabinets on the ends of the sofa in the rear of their rig. They made it so the top opens on a hinge, making access to the whole cabinet better.

Can someone point me to that thread, please?

[Travel with a ‘Tude]

A while back someone posted about changing the cabinets on the ends of the sofa in the rear of their rig. They made it so the top opens on a hinge, making access to the whole cabinet better.

Can someone point me to that thread, please?

While I can’t direct you any previous thread on this topic, but I can tell that I just started to modify my 2018 Solitude 310’s sofa compartments yesterday to make for additional storage and to install some USB ports below the existing duplex electrical outlet along the front panel. I’ll tell you, it wasn’t easy to get the top board detached from the compartment’s front, side panels and wall-mounted connection strip. But if you take it slow, the top board can be removed to gain access to the storage area. I installed a two USB outlet on each side and am now waiting for some wire and connectors so I can tap into RV’s DC power currently being provide to the propane? detector mounted at the bottom of the driver’s side compartment’s front panel. Once I complete that task, I’m considering installing concealed hinges onto the top board, but now that I got the top board out, I’ve notice a few potential issues. First, the top board’s width is over 6 inches and the height between the top board a the side window valances is less than 6 inches.

So, I have two options. Install the hinges knowing the top board (lid) won’t be able to fully open. This is somewhat problematic since the compartment’s opening width is less than 6 inches due to the 1”x 1” frame, combined with a lid that can’t fully open, the ability for storage is significantly limited and getting your hand/arm into the compartment gets a little tight. It might be possible to modify (shorten) the valances by about 2 inches, but that might create another issue in that the valance’s light blocking capacity might be significantly reduced since the fully extended blind would be longer than the valance.

The other option would be to simply install some blocking on the underside of the lid to stop it from sliding off the top of the compartment, but I’m worried that this method wouldn’t stop the lid from bouncing off the compartment since it’s located at the very back of the trailer and any significant trailer bouncing could catapult the free-standing lid right off the compartment. The tough part was getting the lid off. Now I just have to figure where to go from here.