Strengthening bunk for heavier kid?

[PattiMurphy]

I have a 13' and two kids who are way too heavy to be sleeping up there. Anyone have any ideas how to make it more solid? Thanks for sharing.

[Donna D.]

I saw in another thread where you were asking about maximum weight for the Scamp. Whatever it may be, I wouldn't want to be the one on the bottom if it fell! The entire setup is a bit shaking (IMHO). I'd put legs in all four corners of the top bunk to make it solid and no fear of falling. It may mean leaving the bunk in the up position, rather than taking it down to goucho mode, but it would be solid. You could use something like this: Shop Waddell 15-1/4"L x 2-1/3"Dia. Ash Parsons Traditional Wood Table Leg at Lowes.com= and this hardware: Shop Waddell Straight Top Plate at Lowes.com

Since the legs screw in and screw off, you wouldn't be making a permanent change.

[PattiMurphy]

That's an idea. I thought about legs, but I didn't think about pre-made ones. Oh, and it appears that I'm right that the weight is 80 pounds. Thanks for the idea.

Originally Posted by Donna D.

I saw in another thread where you were asking about maximum weight for the Scamp. Whatever it may be, I wouldn't want to be the one on the bottom if it fell! The entire setup is a bit shaking (IMHO). I'd put legs in all four corners of the top bunk to make it solid and no fear of falling. It may mean leaving the bunk in the up position, rather than taking it down to goucho mode, but it would be solid. You could use something like this: Shop Waddell 15-1/4"L x 2-1/3"Dia. Ash Parsons Traditional Wood Table Leg at Lowes.com= and this hardware: Shop Waddell Straight Top Plate at Lowes.com

Since the legs screw in and screw off, you wouldn't be making a permanent change.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by PattiMurphy

I have a 13' and two kids who are way too heavy to be sleeping up there. Anyone have any ideas how to make it more solid? Thanks for sharing.

I would think children that big would prefer to sleep in a tent away from mom and dad.

[Kevin K]

Buy them a tent like this (Vee-Dub Camper Tent) and they will be the talk of the camp ground.

[PattiMurphy]

Originally Posted by Kevin K

Buy them a tent like this (Vee-Dub Camper Tent) and they will be the talk of the camp ground.
Attachment 36700
Attachment 36701

That's pretty wild looking!

[melissab]

Well my 8 1/2 y/o daughter is 70 lbs and no way is she sleeping outside. So if she hit 80 lbs in the next couple of years she'd still be in a bunk so I'd have to re-enforce too. My nearly 15 y/o is 105 lbs so she will fit in the bottom bunk probably indefinately at only 5'1" tall. Me at 5' dont grow 'em too tall, lol. My girls are very close to us and have no interest (I actually tease them with it and they get upset) in sleeping alone in a tent outside. When Dad works night they like sleeping with me. Depending on climate they need the A/C to be able to sleep too. They are happy with the TAB in that the 3 of us girls can sleep in the one giant king bed. So not all kids want to be alone in a tent.

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

I would think children that big would prefer to sleep in a tent away from mom and dad.

[John Carter]

Hope this helps -

Here is the mod that I did to add support to the front bunk for an adult.

http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...lts-45787.html

John

[Steve BP]

I've personally been sleeping on my stock Boler bunk - at 160 lbs! No one told me anything about 80 lbs!!! Seems to hold through my tossing and turning, anyway. So far... I do want to change it up though. My thoughts have been to suspend the bunk on chains to eyebolts in the roof. Crazy to put holes in up there? Well, there's plenty of other ones already! I've been on trains in India with the suspended design, and I like it. Really quick to set up - just click it in with carabiners. I stood up top with all my weight on tiptoes at the potential bolt spots, and then jumped up and down a bit. No flex. I haven't done this modification yet, but just throwing the alternative out there.

[Donna D.]

Humm, train roofs are built totally different than a molded trailer with no inner frame. If the roof isn't (typically) strong enough to hold an A/C, I wouldn't trust it to hold the weight of an adult. Not unless you want a skylight there. YMMV

[KeithA]

Hi Patti,

We have an 85 17' Bigfoot that had the cabinet that folds down into a bed. We have 3 children as well, so needed that fold down bunk for our oldest (now 9, but 7 when we started this).

I initially started off by cutting a sheet of plywood to fit on the fixed side of the bunk, and another piece to fit over the fold down side. I tried to strengthen the straps that hold the fold down side, but there is just so little to fasten to.

In the end though, the bunk is too close to the ceiling. My daughter couldn't sit up at all. It was designed that way so the couch below would be usable. However, with our other 2 younger kids sleeping down there, couch space is secondary. At any rate, there was no way to set it up so that my daughter could get in or out of bed herself (rather annoying for the middle of the night pee breaks) and then she fell out of bed one night while sleeping and we thought there has to be a better way.

I ended up tearing out that cabinet all together and built a self supporting bunk with a ladder up there. Renders the couch below unusable for adults, but fine for the kids. It's lower down now so has more space up top. The frame near the door is built from just 2x4s with the ladder steps built from 3/4" birch plywood. The far end (wall end) is resting upon a frame built of 1x4 to sit close to the wall. The bunk is built out of a sandwich of 3/4" birch to make it very stiff. I could have built it lighter, but I wanted it to be very sturdy.

May be more than you want to tackle, but one viewpoint from someone who's "been there, done that".

Cheers,
Keith

[KeithA]

Here's a picture of the finished bunk