In my 2001 36U I had an L-shaped sofa bed. I have to say that initially, I thought it was so attractive and it was one of the features that drew me to this particular model.
2001 36U “sectional”
However, after purchasing the coach (which I do not regret), I quickly realized just how uncomfortable it really was! Sleeping on it would be inpossible, even with a foam topper added.
So, I decided, that sucker’s coming out! Many, many bolts later, it was out. BUT, what to do with the sticky outy bit? I didn’t want to replace this couch with a similar couch, though I did search for one as a possible option.
Then I decided I would just chop the sticky outy bit off. I consulted my FB Bounder group for advice and though no one had actually done this, everyone encouraged me to just go for it and deal with whatever issues presented themselves.
I enlisted the help of a friend who brought over his saw with a new tungsten carbide blade and we set out to cut it off.
Cutting this off
First, we took the slide all the way out and removed all the carpeting and flooring. We made an assessnent that under the slide there were two tracks which we would need to remove.
The first step was to cut the sticky outy bit off the slide. Tim removed a small section of the plywood to reveal what we would be cutting through. It revealed a nice maze of aluminum tube, all welded together. Easy peasy to cut through with a good blade.
So, we moved the slide back IN so that we could cut through it without touching the track. Because at this point, I still didn’t know what the track was made of.
We cut it
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Next, we moved the back OUT again, which then revealed that the track was also aluminum.
We stripped the slippery plastic pieces that sat on the tracks, cut through the aluminum and then unscrewed the track and that was that. Success!
I haven’t yet decided if I will fill in the gap so that the slide is completely flush but either way, it’s an accomplishment! Now for the flooring. I’m excited!
