reinforcing bunk beds?

does your fix need to be purty and permanent?
bumpy

Can you post some pics of the bed structure? There's different things that can be done for this sort of thing.

The one bunk on top of the cabinets would be easy to reinforce; hide bracing inside the cabinets (pull out the drawers, put in some 1x4 or 2x4 jack studs, more maybe bracing across the bed first, and then jack studs under that, running down to the floor. perhaps put a piece of wood under the jack studs as well, in case the plywood floor is thin.

The bunk that appears to just be floating on the wall (on the right), no pretty way to reinforce that one... can't imagine it holding anyone but a baby or small toddler.

I'll try to get some pictures up tonight but it's the "floating" style like in your picture. I would want it to look like it came with the camper or at least close to that. I was wondering if I could run 1x2's under the outsides of it securing those to the studs if that would be enough. I would paint them to match so they wouldn't stick out. Not sure how they get their ratings or what differences there are in how they mount to increase the ratings. We had looked at some before buying this one that were rated to 250. That would be ideal....I'm just not sure what the differences are in how they're mounted. I may try to send another email to KZ but I really wouldn't expect much in the way of information. Maybe though they have a higher rated bunk and I could ask what the differences were.

I borrowed that picture from KZ, I own a sportsman classic myself, not a spree :)

Biggest problem I see, there's no real studs in the walls, there's probably a 1x3 in there supporting the floating bunk with a screw or two. And a couple wood 1x2 won't support a grown man. a frame made from 1" box section of steel (maaaaybe aluminum but I wouldn't be so sure) would support the weight, but where do you anchor it... if your KZ is like mine, there's nothing in the roof, or some chain or cable stays would work.

If it had to be done, to support the steel frame for the upper bunk, I'm thinking a 3/4" piece of veneer faced plywood would fill the entire area where the little headboard currently is, and the opposite end for the foot board. By entire area, I mean from under the frame for the bunk all the way down to resting on the storage bay / bunk below. Then, in the storage bay under that lower bunk, place a few pieces of 2x4 to transfer the load from the plywood down to the floor.

I wonder if KZ would sell you a few yards of that crazy pattern fabric, you could upholster the bracing ply with some thin foam and that fabric, making it look like headboard. it would look stock to anyone that hadn't seen a before picture.

GordonThree wrote:
I borrowed that picture from KZ, I own a sportsman classic myself, not a spree :)

Biggest problem I see, there's no real studs in the walls, there's probably a 1x3 in there supporting the floating bunk with a screw or two. And a couple wood 1x2 won't support a grown man.

Correct.

Typical RV construction works a bit like this..

Bed frame is nothing more that 1 x 2s (if you can call 3/4 x 1 3/4 a 1 x 2 :S ).

Bed frame is held to the walls via staples or small nails or if lucky a couple of screws from the inside of the wall paneling, through the paneling and into the bed frame. There will not be any reinforcements in the walls and the fasteners are depending on the thin 1/8" paneling to hold the whole mess up..

Then the top and underside of the frame is glued and stapled to the bed frame.

In a nutshell, short of building a outside frame and adding additional bulk to the actual bed or removing the bunk and wall paneling and starting over with proper reinforcements AND a new heavier bunk you can not improve the weight rating.

Just not anything substantial in the walls to increase the holding power without removing all including the paneling and doing it correctly..

I would not trust the bunk as is over the rating even if you were able to locate a stud..

I have took the upper bunk out of a TT and it is built just like (Gdetralier) said. Mine were only rated for 150lbs and I would not trust them for over 100 lbs. The only way I know to get an Adult weight rating is to tear out what you have and build.