# De-bunking The 29fbhs



## Wolfpackers (May 31, 2007)

We bought the 29FBHS 5'er because it has the 2-bunk bedroom in the rear so we could use it for "da cat's" litter box, food and water, plus it gives us extra storage.

Now that we've had the 5'er a year and do use the bunk-room for those purposes, it has occured to me that if I remove the mattresses, plywood support and unscrew the aluminum frames of both bunks, I could add some shelves on the "street" side of that area and do a lot of other things that I can't with the bunks in there, like bike storage..maybe. I hope to be able to attach the shelf supports to the area currently used for the bunks so that if I ever put the bunks back in, you'd never know that shelves had been in there...no new holes in the wall.

Click here to see floorplan I may even do away with the "pull-out" electrical cord as it requires a box on the far right side at the floor. Water connections are in that area also, so won't know what's actually hidden by the box until I remove it and look.

Anyone done this in this model? 
Anyone see any reasons not to do it ?

I plan to keep the bunk frames, etc. to re-install if I ever sell it and the new owner wants the bunks.


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## wolfwood (Sep 19, 2005)

I don't know the model so can't know what you might encounter but it does sound like great idea. We actually had the same thoughts (for the dogs) when we had the 25rss TT ... but, for us, trading up to the Roo made more sense. It was particular sweet that the 28krs is, essentially the floorplan of our beloved 25rss...but the (for us) virtually wasted space of the bunks became the garage (plus footage)! PERFECT!


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## tdvffjohn (Mar 10, 2005)

The only downside would be reasale and that depends on how long you plan on keeping it. The longer, the less of an issue.

I had once removed a mattress and used rubbermaid containers up there for extra storage. Removing the mattress makes the bed edge all you need to keep the containers in there.

If you do the mod, we would love to see pics

John


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

Just a few weeks ago I removed the lower bunk (door side) on our 28RSS. Opens up a ton of space and allows a good nook space for the kids to read/play. I don't have pictures of this, but will soon.

I kept all the part and could put it back together in about 15 minutes...so no issue with resell (lke I'm ever going to sell)

I say go for it...you will be happy with all the extra space you have.


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## Wolfpackers (May 31, 2007)

Read post #1 for orientation prior to reading further.

OK, time to do this thing. Woulda already been done if I had a place to keep OB at home. Neighbor is gone for a week and letting me use his FLAT driveway to do mods & wash 'er up.

Day one of debunking:

Pulled both mattresses off 
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Removed plywood under lower bunk mattress 
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Dropped eight screws holding hinges to wall on lower bunk, rotated up 90*, angled it and out it comes. 
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Attempt to flip plywood from top bunk and remove from bunkroom...no go, not enough clearance. 
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Look in awe at Gilligan's work, two screws never screwed into wall, one screwed completely thru aluminum frame, one screw head broken off (will prove to be major headache on day 2), construction debris still lying in frame area. 
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Remember that I forgot to take "before" pics, so here are pics of this stage.
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view from exterior doorway








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broken screw head









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view of top bunk frame & wiring to light for lower bunk with me holding plywood up








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one of Gilligan's presents, two screws had never been screwed into wall..or did they just back themselves out ?








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And just how do I reach those screws way down at the end of the frame? That's 3 different bit holders put together.
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Remove screws holding upper bunk to walls and adjacent closet. 
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Bunk will not budge...what the ??? (remember that screw with the broken head so it can't be removed) plus the wiring for a light under the top bunk goes thru the frame & into the wall sort of resists bunk movement. 
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Take bottle jack and lift near edge, frame goes up a couple inches...sounds of wood doing something you don't want. YIKES. Oh, it's just the trim piece in the corner. Gotta hand it to Keystone on one thing...the top bunk has no slop in the fit to the walls...it's tight. 
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Stop for the evening before I really tear up something.


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

Love the play-by-play commentary....

Can't wait for tomorrow nights update.


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## Rollrs45 (May 7, 2007)

Wolfpackers said:


> Read post #1 for orientation prior to reading further.
> 
> OK, time to do this thing. Woulda already been done if I had a place to keep OB at home. Neighbor is gone for a week and letting me use his FLAT driveway to do mods & wash 'er up.
> 
> ...


You forgot this step......

"Sit back while drinking several beers and wondering what the hell I've done????"

LOL.... Sounds like fun! Can't wait to see it at the next rally!

Mike

p.s. Go Heels!!!


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## Wolfpackers (May 31, 2007)

So, let's see, we now have a top bunk that is unattached, but doesn't want to come down. Got 3 cups of coffee in me, so let's see what we can do today.

1. From yesterday's experience, I could see that I needed to remove the thin trim strips above the bunk on the near side and below the bunk on the far side so that I could hopefully get the bunk frame to rotate. You won't believe how they are attached...itty bitty nails, more like pins, shot with a gun....into the aluminum studs inside the wall.

2. Since there was no clearance between the wall and frame (where the broken headed screw was) in order to cut the screw, I focused on where the light wiring was resisting movement. Could not get wires loose from lamp socket, so had to cut the wires in order to get them to go back thru the bunk frame. It felt as if the wire was preventing me from raising the near side of the bunk, so I taped the ends up and put a string in there so I could eventually pull the wires back out of the wall. Well, the wire would not go completely back into the wall, but got most of it in there.










3. I decided to "go for it" and pushed upward on the frame many times and finally got the frame up off of the wire. Unfortunately, Gilligan did not put a rubber grommet on the wall side of the frame as he did on the bed side, so there were some nasty nicks on the wire when it was done. Gotta figure out if I want to put the light on the wall or just not use the wires. Will probably be a late task in this project.










4. Now I have the bunk frame hanging in the air, suspended only by friction and that one )&*%%) broken screw. I have a very small area where I can cut the screw, but do not want to mess up the wall in doing so. I tried the hacksaw, but the limited area just wasn't enough to be able to cut it. I had a recip saw, but no metal blades and it probably woulda messed up the wall by time it was over. I also needed to have enough of the screw left to get it out of the wall.

Yes folks, this bunk is just hanging in mid air. 
















Had a hard time getting a pic of the screw. You're seeing the wall in lower part of pic and the bottom of bunk in upper part. Screw is barely showing in between the two. Photo was shot pretty much straight up the wall.









5. Only one thing left to do, keep pushing up on the frame until something gives, and finally it did. Ya woulda thought that screw would have been pointing at the ceiling, but no, it was now pointing straight out...still haven't figured out what went on inside of that wall.










6. You can see the frame in this pic and I'm thinking I can use the two frames as the front/back of the new cabinet, after all, the frames are the width of the future cabinet. We'll see.










7. OK, both bunks are now out of the area, I pull all of those little "nails" out from where they pulled thru the trim strips I removed. Takes a good effort to get those suckers out. I take the frames outside and remove the luan plywood from the bottoms...and they are glued also, very well in some spots. Was able to get the glue to turn loose without damaging the plywood. This part took way too long, but it's all part of the job.

8. Now I can get a good look at the power & water inlet area. There is a carpeted "step" covering this area, but four screws are all that's keeping me from seeing what the mess is under there. Four screws out, carpeted step pulled away, and ....Oh, that's what it looks like under there. Seems there should be a lot neater way to do it, but of course not as CHEAPLY. I just love how they separate the water side from the electricity side...like it would hold water back. I want to install one of the Marinco conversion kits for the plug, but don't want to pay $100 bucks or so for the kit. Must think about that one.










Here's the carpeted step, front and back...pretty interesting way they do that. With no wood in the bend area, they can prefab this up and it just bends easy and goes into place.

















Guess I've exceeded the # of images per post. Continued in a minute with next post.


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## Wolfpackers (May 31, 2007)

9. Wow, now that all that stuff is out of there, I have a nice little room back here....DW said she was going to put a lounge chair in there...LOL... The first pic shows where the cabinet will go. The fabric wall pockets have been taken down. Will probably have the top half as a wardrobe, since the one near the door in the bunk room has the rod going side-to-side and the hangers all flip themselves off the rod during travel. Second pic is with lower bunk removed, upper bunk still in place.

















10. That's all for today...my days aren't that long if you haven't figured that out yet. Must go to Home Depot and see the doors others have said are close to the ones in our OB's. Looked at Rockler's....about $190 for doors for cabinet, whether it's two large ones or 4 smaller ones...seems they charge by the square inch.


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## Wolfpackers (May 31, 2007)

Seems like I never start a project but what 6 more projects get done before the first one gets finished. Since I posted day 2 pics, I've removed and reinstalled a front clearance light that had a gap under it, washed the roof and sides, used a whole tube of dicor on the roof seams where needed, installed a ParkPower conversion kit, sanitized and rinsed the fresh water tank, lines and hoses and PM'd the electrical panel connections.

I did manage to get a partial day to work on the "bunks to cabinet" mod, so here is what I'm calling day 3's work.

I decided to screw 1x2 strips to the floor to distribute the weight of the cabinet/contents around the perimeter, but had to cut away some of the trim that was in place. Here you see the strips and the trim that I cut away. Notice the missing 30 feet of cord in this pic? Think I'm going to like that mod.










Next, I took some 1x3's, cut them to the proper height (left side of cabinet is 1" shorter than right side due to slope of roof), and screwed two of them together to make the rear corners of the cabinet. I am planning to only have holes going into the wall where the bunks would cover the holes if I ever decide to put them back in for resale, hence the need for vertical pieces in the corners. Here are the 1x3's screwed together and.....

















sitting in place where they will be attached to the walls.
















With my upcoming first trip of the year in a few days, it may be a while before day 4 gets here, but I'll let you know when it does.

Brent


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## Sayonara (Jul 23, 2007)

Well, any progress ??


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