Here's a little project that I'm happy with, thought it was worth sharing. When rebuilding my Compact, I changed the two bunk layout to a U-shape, to grab some extra storage. Then came the decision of where to reinstall the table leg - foward to maximize floor space, centered to provide better dining, or fully back to maximize usable table.
I decided to try mounting the table on slides so I could have all three, and it worked pretty well.
Here's what I did: mounted the female tracks on trimmed-up 2 by 2's (poplar, seemed like it warranted more than pine), then mounted them to the bottom of the table. Then I mounted the male slides on the edge of a 3/4 plywood plate, and mounted the top table mount to the bottom of it. Finally, I drilled a guide hole in the plywood for a clevis pin, and used a compression spring and clips to create a plunger, that 'falls' into four holes drilled into the table bottom for stops.
So, when we're not dining, the table is fully retracted...
When there's just two us of seated, we can set it at 'half mast'....
And if four of us are at the table, we can fully extend it, once everyone is seated....
This full extended position also allows access to the forward storage compartments while the table is in place.
There is a little wobble when the table is fully extended, four factors seem to be at play. First, drawer slide quality - I decided to do this late in the rebuild, time was getting short to camping season so I just used off-the-shelf Home Depot slides; a tighter slide set would help minimize this. Secondly, and you'll realize this if and when you start to layout your own version of this project, oversized slides (length) would be necessary to avoid having the minimum and maximum settings being at the 'end of travel' But, you might run out of room under the table with oversized slides...
Thirdly, there is a bit of 'cantilever' effect in full extension. Fortunately, the originial table mount set was 'old school', deep embedment, full taper. I had wanted to replace the table leg and mounts with new shiney ones, but couldn't find new ones of the same quality as the old. This effect is not that bad with the old mounts, full dinner and elbows on the table barely deflect it at all.
Last, the plunger system I used needs some refinement. The guide hole is a tad too big, allowing a bit of front-to-back slack. I'll fix that soon by using a short aluminum sleeve to line the guide hole.
The geometry and layout of the project was somewhat challenging - upside down and backwards, several varibles. As with any thing complicated, I had to draw it out in detail, dry fit it, and use a bit of trial and error. But it worked!
Hope you find this helpful...