We’re weird. We actually use the table/sleeping arrangements (almost) as designed. Every night, the table gets lowered for the oversized bed. We sleep on the stock cushions with only a sheet on top. Every morning the table comes up for day use.
Over time, I tired of lifting the table off the supports, pulling the posts out, and lowering the slab into place. Then, the flange on the bottom of the table grew more attached to the pole it was mounted on than to the table itself. After twice filling the torn-out holes with epoxy and reattaching, I realized it was time for a change.
The new table
Building the table
After researching options online, I went with the Springfield Marine “Gas powered 3-stage pedestal.” I found the best price from a marine supply place, but they couldn’t deliver in time for my week-long trip to West Virginia, so Amazon got even more of my money. The inside is pressured, so the table rises by itself with an advertised 50 pounds of force and is rated for 120 pounds once clamped in place.
The next step was deciding on what to do for a table. After reading about plywood online and consulting with ChatGPT, I went with a 1/4 birch plywood. I bought a sheet at the local building supply place along with iron on edging. Then, it was a matter of careful measurement and cutting the board down to size.
The clamp in the middle picture keeps the board from dropping as I finish the cut, so the last piece doesn’t just snap off. (I bought the aluminum stock for a guide when we lived in Groton in 1986, and I had to think hard about spending $20 on something. It was one of my better purchasing decisions in the long run.)
The next step was to round the corners so they wouldn’t jab us sliding in and out of the table. While I could trace, arc, and cut with a jigsaw, I knew from long experience that I’m just not good at making freehand cuts. I cut the biggest circle I had from my collection of hole saws and used that as a guide for a flush-cut router bit.
The photo shows the guide clamped to the bottom of the board. I flipped the board over to run the router over it.
Next came ironing the edge banding on, trimming with a chisel and utility knife, and three coats of water-based polyurethane on each side. The water-based polyurethane is $10 more a quart, but it is well worth it. I would have had to use a bunch of mineral spirits to repeatedly clean the brush.
Then, I had to figure out how to attach the table to the pedestal. Much to my chagrin, I realized there wasn’t enough thickness to the plywood to securely fasten while keeping the table surface intact. So, I sanded off three coats of polyurethane in a pedestal-sized area and glued some 1/2 plywood to the bottom of the table. The inverted pedestal made for a good clamp while the glue set.
I then broke out the decades-old 120V drill with the drill guide. This allowed me to drill squarely and limit how far the drill went. I used wood inserts and machine screws to attach the table: inevitably, I would need to remove the table from time to time, and repeatedly putting wood screws into wood doesn’t make for a secure connection.
The pedestal
The next step was to securely attach the pedestal. I removed the existing flanges from the floor. They were just wood screwed into the fiberglass wood bottom of the floor.
With the pedestal attached to the table, I lowered the table into the down position and marked the location with 3M Blue table. Then, I raised the table and measured the distance to the back window. Checking under the trailer and measuring, I convinced myself I would not drill into the trailer frame. I marked the lead hole, screwed up my courage, and drilled down with a small installation bit. Success! The bit came down about where I expected, well away from the frame.
From my boating days, I knew the best way to drill through a hull floor with a wood core was to drill oversize holes, fill those with epoxy, and then drill smaller holes through the epoxy. This seals the edges of the wood to keep moisture out. I again used the drill guide with a hole saw. It was tougher than expected, so I switched to a wood spade bit for the middle section and just started and finished the holes with the hole saw. After getting my selection of fillers out — again from the boat days — I went with the adhesive filler, mixed up the two-part epoxy, and filled the holes. I wear disposable gloves during the mixing and filling, so there are no pictures.
While I was epoxying things, I injected a little epoxy into the old holes from the factory flanges with a syringe.
Taking another clue from boat culture, I wanted a backing plate to bolt the pedestal to. This spreads out the load to protect the fiberglass. Although fiberglass is very strong, it is brittle and can crack if too much load is applied to a small area. I used metal plates on the boat, but researching what’s currently available, I purchased a preformed G10 fiberglass rectangle.
After drilling through the floor and backing plate, I removed the backing plate and slightly countersunk the holes to allow space for the butyl bedding tape. The holes in the pedestal were slightly too small to allow the 3/8 – 16 bolts to pass through. This was convenient as I was able to tap threads into the pedestal and then screw the bolts through the bottom with a screwdriver. After wrapping the bolts with butyl, the backing plate was put in place, and the nuts tightened with a socket wrench.
Field test
I then went to test the table. I realized that if I pushed down from the top, I could not reach the latches on the bottom to keep it down. I thought it might have to be a two-person job, but that would be awkward. I decided to brainstorm with no ideas off the table. I realized that was backwards — I needed something heavy on the table. The most convenient heavy thing that I would always have with me was, in fact, me. So I pushed the table down and sat on it. Lying prone, I can reach under the table and flip the latches to lock the table down.
With the table up, the edge toward the front of the trailer flexed when pushed on with some force. Again, turning to ChatGPT, I gave it the parameters to estimate the load capacity at the end of the table. With the caveat: This calculation is based on a conservative estimate of the allowable stress and does not account for potential factors like material imperfections, load distribution, or safety factors. For real-world applications, it is advisable to consult engineering standards or a structural engineer. It came up with just under 120 pounds. (117.19 with ridiculous precision).
The following week was our outing to the New River Gorge National Park. Putting the table down worked. Raising in the morning turned out to be harder as the space is small with the table down. I thought about something to extend my reach and remembered we had a fly swatter hanging in the Casita closest. I could just hook a corner of a latch to pop it open. Once the first latch is open, the table rises enough to make reaching the second one easy. After returning home I tweaked the end of the fly swatter to make it wider than the latch.
The 120-pound load capacity worked for us as a couple because we were careful not to put all our weight on the end, but we decided it would not be good for when the grandkids visit. The next phase will be adding a folding leg to brace the end of the table, at least when we have company.