Bourton cupboard door under of side bed

I wish AS fitted an access door to the offside bed base from the inside of the van.  There is lot of space under there which we don’t use because it is such a faff removing everything to get to it.  Has anyone fitted one?  If so, was it relatively easy?  Mrs Jimmee

Don't you have gas struts? We have a hatch on the nearside but hardly use it. I'm sure that A/S will fit a hatch for you, at a price.

Hi Mrs Jimmee.

Your Bourton should be the same as mine and under the off side bed I have one of the water tanks and more importantly a hose to the heater outlet on the front of the
bed base, so an access door is not possible without fouling the hose or the water tank.

Yes it is Sparks.  The water tank is in the way and so is the hose but I am not talking about a wide locker.  Probably only the size of the electrics panel flap along the same side so it shouldn’t foul the hose as it would be above it.  Marquis have said they can do it but Mr Jimmee doesn’t trust them.  We don’t fancy traipsing down to Willersey so we will have a re-think.  Mrs Jimmee

Yes Ron we do have struts.  It’s just that it’s a faff taking off the cushions, the back and seat, then standing them out of the way while then reaching into the empty space.  Easier to not bother.  If we do get it done I will post.  Thank you for replying,

On my Nuevo the struts hold up cushion and backrest quite high enough to put stuff in and get it out.  i even keep a 12 bottle wine box with dividers at the back of the locker and can remove a bottle easily. The only time that I remove cushion and backrest is if I want to get the frame as high as posible because I am doing work inside the locker (fitting the Shurflo was one such occasion). But I do find that it is easier to kneel in front of the locker to reach in (which would be necesary with front access as well).  If I do lift the base high with cushions removed it is HELL to push it down again against the gas struts.

We have gas struts fitted too but, following an accident pre- struts, when the whole lot fell down on my shoulder, we also have a wooden prop as belt and braces. AS fitted our struts too but they are not so powerful that I entirely trust them.

It is much easier to lift with cushions in place if you pull out the bed base a few inches and pull the cushions out a bit as well.

I suspect a front opening locker, especially with a small- ish door, would be a bit of a nuisance as you could not easily access things stored in crates or boxes and, in ourcexperience, anything not stored neatly in there tends to finish up in a jumble within days.

Like others, on our 3 AS vans (1 coachbuilt and 2 PVCs) we eased the base forward and lifted it complete with cushions to access the storage. We never needed to remove the cushions unless, like Ron, it was to do work.