Roll over couch construction questions

[forrestthorniley]

Hi guys,

I have finally entered the 30 day countdown for my Hawk shell delivery! I am building and mounting the roll over couch along the back wall myself (ordered the roll over couch brackets). I had a couple questions for those with the couch:

1) what are the dimensions of the seat and back ? (length, width, height with cushions)

2) What is the material used for the cushion backing? Is it plywood, single sheet or supported in some way, aluminum, etc.

3) How is the couch cushion backing attached to the roll over brackets?

3) How are the couch brackets attached to the camper? Screws, bolts etc.


Thanks for any info you can provide.

Forrest

 

[Alley-Kat]

I did my own seat cushions (not a rollover, I used boat seat hinges, just to be able to fold them up and store them), so, not the official FWC method (at least that I know of). And, thus I can only mention possible answers to your questions #2 & #3 (the first #3).

I used 5/8" plywood (plenty stiff, no other support needed) cut 1/2" smaller than the size of the foam for the support next to the foam, then sewed the cover 1/2" smaller than the dimensions of the plywood and 1/2" smaller than the thickness of the foam to make a nice tight or taught fit of the cover on the foam & plywood. Don't forget to do a velcro or zipper opening along one side and slightly around both corners so the cover can be removed and cleaned.

For attachment, I used Wood style T-Nuts. Drilled the correct size hole in the plywood, and hammered the T-Nut into the plywood from the foam side of the plywood, so that when the machine screw is tightened the T-Nut and the screw will be on opposite sides of the plywood. Assemble the plywood and cover, then insert the round head machine screws into the T-Nuts by finding the T-Nut hole through the fabric and working an opening between the threads (easy to do as the cover threads are large - upholstery fabric has large threads).

Here's a photo that shows the finished seat. You can just barely see the velcro overlap / opening on the far right side of the photo (little black edge of the velcro).

Also, notice the bias direction of the side pieces. The fabric will stretch in one direction and not in the other direction. You want the non-stretch direction to go between the top and bottom (or front and back). Do it the other way and the cover will not be tight on the foam.

 

[forrestthorniley]

Wow, nice job on the chair. I was guessing it was 5/8 plywood, but not sure. Good idea with the t-nuts. What kind of foam did you go with, and did you glue the foam to the plywood?

 

[Alley-Kat]

Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate that.

For foam, I just go to my "Foam Guy" and tell him what I want to do and he picks out the density for me. He has been in the business with his father for many, many years. Wish I could give you more specifics. In this case I do remember that the seat was 1" thicker than the back. Makes sense for a chair, however, maybe not for the roll over that you'll want to sleep on.

If you can find a "Foam Guy" near you, tell him you want to sleep on it. And, try sleeping on the FWC factory overcab bed to see if; 1) that will work for you and then show your "Foam Guy" one of the cushions, or, 2) if the FWC bed won't work for you, get new foam all at the same time.

No glue, just in case I wanted to change the foam out sometime in the future (old age, compression, fluid intrusion, etc.). The tightness of the cover holds it all together, no movement at all. Now that I'm remembering things... I did put one coat of a polyurethane to seal the wood after drilling the T-Nut holes and before installing the T-Nuts. Sand lightly.

 

[GroovyDad]

I built my own rollover hinge because I could not find them for sale on the market. I had an upholsterer make the cushions and I did the metal work, using dimensions I got from a guy in my neighborhood who has a rollover couch.

MY BUILD