Tri-fold sofa reinstallation

[Mildred]

Pistons. Attach to frame to lift latches so sofa may open. Blue and green wires. Blue wire appears to have been grounded to sofa frame.

[parkgt]

Mildred,

Don't think those with newer than 2005 will be able to help much. Your pictures show something much different than the latter models.

Good luck,

[avanti]

Yeah, it is pretty different. I can see the evolution, though. Those solenoids are the same, though. On the modern ones, they were controlled by big silver limit switches at both ends of the run, which also prevented the motor from running past the limits.

Do you have the floor rails, or will you have to replace them? Does the mechanism ride on wheels, or is there some kind of slide mechanism?

[Mildred]

Thank you for your reply.

Yes I have the floor rails. The rails themselves are ball bearing devices which allow the frame, which has two rolling casters on the front of the sofa, to slide forward.

At this point I'm thinking I need to permenantly bolt the sofa frame to the floor so I can use the three seatbelted seating positions to transport my small grandchildren and then, as I'm the only one sleeping in the van, manually disconnect the 3rd piece of the sofa from the backside and place it in front of the upright sofa to form a double, rather than a King size bed when I want to camp. That way I just do away w the issue of power, movement, slides and pistons. The 3rd piece of the sofa unbolts easily and when I'm not camping in the RV it can be stored in the garage to give me more storage space in the back for the kids sports gear.

I like a challenge, so I'm sure I'll come up with a most versatile way to creatively make the best use of the sofa.

Thank you again, for your reply.

[parkgt]

Hard to offer solid advice without a better understanding of how it all works.

Are you sure you can re-position the rather heavy rear sofa section in the confined space available?

Would it be possible to use just the front two sections? The front piece would only need to slide forward enough to let the middle section hinge down for sleeping.

That would require that the middle section could be securely fastened in the upright position for seat-belted travel.

No matter what configuration you end up using it is important that the attachment to the floor is robust.

[Mildred]

The sofa is light as a feather, frame and all. It's a little awkward carrying and lifting it myself but I've had it in and out of the van twice no problem lifting it and there is 3" to either side of the sofa for manouvering it.

The reason I want only to remove the rear 1/3 of the sofa is bc that's the only piece that isn't attached to the frame itself. As to the robustness of the attachment to the floor, there is 3" angle iron bolted to the floor which then bolts to the slides which then bolts to the sofa frame. It's plenty solid.

[Mildred]

It's this lever that raises and lowers to allow the sofa frame to slide that I can't figure out. I'm thinking perhaps just to drill for a pin to manually lock and unlock the latch.