Adiebt Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 Any ideas / gizmos / inventions around to prop open the bed whilst rummaging around in the underbed storage area ? 13 Bailey 740 btw ! Cheers ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 The easiest would be a tidy length of wood(2" x1"?),,perhaps with a notch in the ends to locate it on the bed frame? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bounty hunter Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 Buy and fit a gas strut from https://www.sgs-engineering.com/gas-struts John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adiebt Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 bounty hunter - 2018-05-03 7:39 PM Buy and fit a gas strut from https://www.sgs-engineering.com/gas-struts John Thanks for the link , there are 2 gas struts in situ but they are obviously not strong enough . They support the bed without the mattress and bedding but not with them. Ill contact the firm and see if they have a suitable pair of replacement struts , will just have to be careful that the surrounding structures are up to supporting the new struts ! Thanks again . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted May 8, 2018 Share Posted May 8, 2018 Adiebt - 2018-05-03 9:43 PM bounty hunter - 2018-05-03 7:39 PM Buy and fit a gas strut from https://www.sgs-engineering.com/gas-struts John Thanks for the link , there are 2 gas struts in situ but they are obviously not strong enough . They support the bed without the mattress and bedding but not with them. Ill contact the firm and see if they have a suitable pair of replacement struts , will just have to be careful that the surrounding structures are up to supporting the new struts ! Thanks again . Hi I may be a bit late with this and you may've already bought some.. We had exactly the same issue with our last van..the struts were fine, until you put bedding on the bed! The van would've only been around 3-4 years old at the time but I thought that I'd just renew and whilst at it "uprate" the, possibly tired, OE struts. So a pair of nice shiny new "uprated" sgs struts later ...and although WITHOUT any bedding on it certainly "twanged" up quicker and was far firmer to pull down, WITH the bedding on, they still struggled hold the bed raised...so the prop was still required. I can't recall what Nm ours were but they were a couple of "steps up" from the OE items,and I wouldn't have wanted to go any beefier for fear of bending the(already beefed up!) mounting brackets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinM50 Posted May 8, 2018 Share Posted May 8, 2018 If you want to go really OTT, then how about fitting an electric motor same as used on the drop down beds? I'm sure Bailey would suggest a suitable motor though the one on our bed's not really powerful enough, a bit slow to go up. Coming down's easy but going up it struggles and our dealer supposedly fitted a new one, though I doubt he did. If bailey can't suggest anything, then the likes of O'Leary or Conrad Anderson might be able to help - if all else fails try auntie Google. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 8, 2018 Share Posted May 8, 2018 I’m doubtful that (realistically) it would be practicable to convert the standard strut-lifted bed of a Bailey Approach Autograph 740 to electric operation. As was said in the original posting, the 740 has a ‘french’ bed (located at the motorhome’s left rear) with the bed-frame hinging upwards on the outer-wall side, asisted by a gas strut at the bed’s head and foot (as shown in the attached photo). I notice that SGS Engineering offers a bed gas strut for a “Bailey Autograph motorhome” https://www.sgs-engineering.com/nl5831-bailey-motorhome-bed-gas-strut but it would be necessary to check with SGS is this has more ‘oomph’ than the struts originally factory-fitted by Bailey. The attached photo suggests that the struts’ travel from mattress-down to mattress-up is quite short, making it tricky to specify a pair of struts that will hold the bed-frame in its raised postion when the mattress has bedding on it, and still permit the bed-frame to be pulled back down easily. It is possible to obtain adjustable gas struts that allow the strut’s force to be ‘fine tuned’, but these aren’t cheap and, if the force of the struts in Adiebt’s 2013 Bailey can be ascertained, it should be possible to obtain non-adjustable struts with a bit more lifting power. The bed-frame of my Rapido’s ‘island’ bed hinges at its head and is supported by two gas struts. These easily hold the frame in its raised position with the mattress on it, but a little care needs to be taken once the bedding has been added. During Spring/Autumn touring our bedding will comprise a 4.5tog duvet on the mattress, plus a (down) 15.0tog duvet on top of that. The bed-frame won’t quite stay up when that combination of duvets is in the ‘sleeping’ position, but will if the top duvet is well folded back towards the bed’s head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve928 Posted May 8, 2018 Share Posted May 8, 2018 Not much help to the OP but I can confirm that the pair of gas struts factory-fitted to my 2015 Bailey AA740's French bed support it perfectly with the mattress and all bedding in place. I can take photos of the struts and/or read off the part nos.if that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveandlisa Posted May 8, 2018 Share Posted May 8, 2018 Hi, We had exactly the same problem with our 740 se. I found that only one of the struts had lost its pressure and the other one was not strong enough to support the bed alone. Decided to replace both and sourced them from Bailey (Prima Leisure Accessories) £14.98 each. When we don't use the m/home now, we leave the bed raised and then add extra support via a long piece of 1"x1.5" timber propt between the bed and base frame so as to relieve the weight ;-) Regards Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geeco Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 This must be a common problem with French bed layouts. My AT Tracker FB bed will not stay up with all the bedding in place. I have solved the problem by using my shoulder to support the bed frame whilst I retrieve the stored items needed. Works for me. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 steveandlisa - 2018-05-08 9:51 PM Hi, We had exactly the same problem with our 740 se. I found that only one of the struts had lost its pressure and the other one was not strong enough to support the bed alone. Decided to replace both and sourced them from Bailey (Prima Leisure Accessories) £14.98 each. When we don't use the m/home now, we leave the bed raised and then add extra support via a long piece of 1"x1.5" timber propt between the bed and base frame so as to relieve the weight ;-) Regards Steve I’m guessing this is the strut you are referring to https://www.primaleisure.com/product/1190241 That strut’s ‘force’ is quoted as 350N, so any replacement’s force should be at least as high. There does not seem to be any information about this on the SGS webpage for their NitroLift Bailey Autograph bed replacement strut and it would be worth confirming what its “N” value is before ordering. There is a fair amount of on-line complaining about inadequate bed struts (mainly relating to caravans) where the cure can often involve simple like-for-like replacement. It should be possible to obtain an acceptable balance (as on Steve928’s Autograph) where the struts can hold up the bed when the mattress and a reasonable amount of bedding is in place, without needing Herculean muscles to pull down the bed when the mattress and bedding has been removed. (SGS advertise a strut specifically for Bailey Autograph beds at a price that’s significantly higher than the original Bailey strut. This suggests to me that there have been sufficient failures/problems with the original Bailey struts to make it worthwhile for SGS to offer a ’superior’ replacement.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adiebt Posted May 9, 2018 Author Share Posted May 9, 2018 Derek Uzzell - 2018-05-09 8:41 AM steveandlisa - 2018-05-08 9:51 PM Hi, We had exactly the same problem with our 740 se. I found that only one of the struts had lost its pressure and the other one was not strong enough to support the bed alone. Decided to replace both and sourced them from Bailey (Prima Leisure Accessories) £14.98 each. When we don't use the m/home now, we leave the bed raised and then add extra support via a long piece of 1"x1.5" timber propt between the bed and base frame so as to relieve the weight ;-) Regards Steve I’m guessing this is the strut you are referring to https://www.primaleisure.com/product/1190241 That strut’s ‘force’ is quoted as 350N, so any replacement’s force should be at least as high. There does not seem to be any information about this on the SGS webpage for their NitroLift Bailey Autograph bed replacement strut and it would be worth confirming what its “N” value is before ordering. There is a fair amount of on-line complaining about inadequate bed struts (mainly relating to caravans) where the cure can often involve simple like-for-like replacement. It should be possible to obtain an acceptable balance (as on Steve928’s Autograph) where the struts can hold up the bed when the mattress and a reasonable amount of bedding is in place, without needing Herculean muscles to pull down the bed when the mattress and bedding has been removed. (SGS advertise a strut specifically for Bailey Autograph beds at a price that’s significantly higher than the original Bailey strut. This suggests to me that there have been sufficient failures/problems with the original Bailey struts to make it worthwhile for SGS to offer a ’superior’ replacement.) I’ll give em a ring and post the feedback , many thanks for all your help people ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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