Third Seat Repair in the Roadtrek 210P

Third Seat after Repair

I discovered a problem with the third seat of our 2013 210P.  It wasn't obvious  and came to my attention when it began to shift the side fabric material of the coach.  The seat is a complicated wooden structure which houses the Suburban Propane Furnace.

I removed the rear cushion and lifted the bottom cushion out of the way. This was an easy task; the bottom cushion in my Roadtrek is on a special hinge and the rear lifts out of position. After doing this I discovered that two screws in the wooden support structure had given way, and a thin side member had split at a joint.  That allowed the entire seat base to tip forward. This problem occurred because the seat is on a cantilevered base. That overhang puts a lot of stress on some of the wooden base components.

This structure is also compromised because the Suburban furnace goes through the base from left side to right side.  You can see the furnace in the photos.  All of the weight of a passenger is on the cantilever front which is only partly supported on the front, and the rear with two screws.

Swinging the base cushion forward (it is on a special hinge) exposed the top of the seat base. I then removed the screws holding the top surface of the wooden seat base. That revealed the entire problem.

The wooden support had pulled free of the two screws that attach it to the rear. That allowed the entire seat to slip forward about 5/8 inch.

Rear wooden attachment support pulled free.

This is how far the seat slid forward.  The failure of the rear attachment put additional stress
on the side bracket, and those screws had shifted, too.

I decided to screw and glue the wooden supports back in place. I could not access the heads of the  two rear screws unless I completely removed the seat base. I decided not to do that.



Instead I added two aluminum "L" brackets from rear to front. This would provide additional support. I had the light weight aluminum angle, screws and "gorilla glue" in my spare parts, so this repair cost nothing additional out of pocket.  

I did it in six steps:

1. Glue rear support and clamp with vice-grips overnight.
2. Glue left rear support and clamp with vice grips.
3. Cut two pieces of light weight aluminum angle using a small hack saw.
4. Raise the seat base by wedging a wonder-bar on a piece of carpet.
5. Trim the left angle so it could be mounted from above. 
6. Re-assemble the seat stop and put the cushions back in place.

Fabricated aluminum bracket prior to installation.

Rear support screwed and glued after removing clamp

Left support panel glued and clamped with vice-grip to dry

I drilled and installed the aluminum angles, one on the left and one on the right.I decided that cutting an indentation for the left would not be necessary.  

 

Two aluminum angles installed from rear to front
The left was screwed from the top

The right screwed from the side

Seat fully reassembled

Original material:  https://roadtrek210.blogspot.com/