I fixed my overhead bed lift issue! (For Thor owners)
One of the main reasons that I bought a Thor product was for the extra sleeping capacity, including the drop down bunk over the front seats. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to mess with or sleep on the air mattress that Thor provided and after putting in a real mattress the lift mechanism struggled to go up. After all, it is only rated for 150lbs and this is a full size bed with storage cabinets underneath. Just for the record, the current version of my coach has a 500lb lift mechanism so Thor is improving their product.
My solution was to purchase 4 struts (nitrogen gas springs) from Strut-Your-Stuff on Ebay (or direct) with end brackets for a cost of around $100. Each strut is 36" fully extended with about 15" of stroke so is not long enough by itself. I combined two for each for each side by purchasing some 1" OD tubing with .045 wall from McMaster.com, cutting it 44" long and putting a strut in each end back to back with a 6" piece of wood dowel in between. The assembly has a working range of about 46" to about 74". I put one assembly on each side by the bed lift track. The struts come in a wide range of strengths but I used 80lb struts on the idea that this should just about lift the bed by themselves and the motors just have to overcome friction and regulate the height. The initial tests are that it works great plus it should be strong enough that I won't have to worry with locking the bed in the up position anymore, just run it up for travel and down to use it.
I did splurge on the tubing and bought seamless stainless steel that I new would like nice and be smooth on the inside. The tubing actually cost more than the struts did, about $120. Anyway, this makes the bed a lot easier to use and it was easy to do. I hope that it helps someone else. Mike at Strut-Your-Stuff spent a ridiculous amount of time helping me with a $100 order and has a huge selection.
My solution was to purchase 4 struts (nitrogen gas springs) from Strut-Your-Stuff on Ebay (or direct) with end brackets for a cost of around $100. Each strut is 36" fully extended with about 15" of stroke so is not long enough by itself. I combined two for each for each side by purchasing some 1" OD tubing with .045 wall from McMaster.com, cutting it 44" long and putting a strut in each end back to back with a 6" piece of wood dowel in between. The assembly has a working range of about 46" to about 74". I put one assembly on each side by the bed lift track. The struts come in a wide range of strengths but I used 80lb struts on the idea that this should just about lift the bed by themselves and the motors just have to overcome friction and regulate the height. The initial tests are that it works great plus it should be strong enough that I won't have to worry with locking the bed in the up position anymore, just run it up for travel and down to use it.
I did splurge on the tubing and bought seamless stainless steel that I new would like nice and be smooth on the inside. The tubing actually cost more than the struts did, about $120. Anyway, this makes the bed a lot easier to use and it was easy to do. I hope that it helps someone else. Mike at Strut-Your-Stuff spent a ridiculous amount of time helping me with a $100 order and has a huge selection.
