bed platform lift, half or whole?

[jimandsuzy]

Has anyone done a queen bed lift where only half of the platform is hinged? The lower (feet) half, not sideways. I want to do this but I know that the matress won't fold at the bend however it might raise up so that I can get at the storage. I have some gas/air struts to hold the weight. Thanks, Jim

[TomC]

Under my queen bed in back is the 130gal water tank, two water pumps, and two 10 gal water heaters.  I have to raise the bed to get to the fill valve.  The entire platform is hinged so the entire bed raises.  Since I have an inner sprung mattress, I wouldn't want to bend it.  If you have a foam mattress, you probably could bend it.  If need be, I can just unscrew the hinges and struts and the whole bed platform can be removed if necessary.  Good Luck, TomC

[captain ron]

I would make it hinge about 10 to 12 inches from the top or head of bed. That way the mattress has a place to sit when in raised position and not bind hinge. also put a prop that would swing down to hold it up safely HTH

[H3Jim]

I did mine where all but about a foot or so of the platform raises.  I have a foam mattress so  bending is not an issue, although I think a mattress and box spring might work ok in this case.

I bought my gas springs from Austin  Hardware.  I told them the weight of the platform, the length, and what angle I wanted it to open to.  They calculated (no extra charge) the placement of both ends of the gas struts.  I'm very pleased with the results.

[Dale MC8]

Check your local S&S dealership, I think you will find both options available. Try 'em there and see if you find any negative reasons for either. My 2cents
Dale

[Stan]

If the mattress is allowed to slide over the foot of the bed when you rase it. the mattress will self support in a straight line and the bed frame will just slide under it I have used both foam and spring filled mattresses and both types could be lifted from one end and they didn't bend in the middle. If you have some kind of raised foot on the bed you will have to lift the end of the mattress to let the foot slide under it. Worst case is that you mess up the bedding so that you have to call your wife to make it up again.

[chris4905]

Our bed platform is hindged with about the top 1/3 stationary and attached to the old rear seat.  I did this so I can easily remove the "stationary" part to access the engine access cover.

The stationary part is screwed to the seat with sheetrock screws and the stainless steel hinge can be unbolted, to allow the upper 1/3 to be removed.

We have only the top mattress portion (no box-spring) and it bends when the bed/storage platform is raised.  The mattress is not damaged and this has worked very well for us for about the past 7 years.  No problems and I would do it this way again if turning the clock back.

I have inserted a picture of it when I was building it.  Hope this helps.

Chris Christensen
1974 GMC 4905
Eagle, Idaho

[jimandsuzy]

In case anyone wants to know how it came out. I hinged my bed platform 4' from the foot end with 34" fixed to the plywood uprights. The mattress doesn't bend, it goes up and touches at the foot and head only. I'm happy with the way it works but I will add some helper gas struts because the bed won't stay fully extended (at 45 degrees) and comes down harder than I like. I used 2 90# (20" extended, 12" compressed) struts because that's the most I could find locally. Thanks for your inputs. Jim

[ChuckMC9]

I recently got some 120lb struts from this ebay seller: http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZohopbob
You can go to some of the major sites to see the calculations involved, then *overestimate* the amount of lift-lbs. req'd.

[jimandsuzy]

Thanks for the info Chuck.