The "Lif-Table" is a great little kit that can return a p.i.t.a. dinette table back into a dual-function piece of versatile Airstream furniture. I bought the kit from Vintage Trailer Supply but if it included any instructions I must've lost 'em. (but your average 10 year old could probably figure it out). The VTS site does have a small photo of the installed kit, which helped. After a brief Google search yielded zero results I sat down and took a few shots of how to install this kit. Descriptions below each photo:
Here's my original table support. I have no idea if this is standard OEM from the factory or a previous-owner renovation. It is a very well made support, but the design made changing the table from bed to dinette VERY difficult. You had to lift the (heavy) plywood table up and place it on the upper shelf then put in two large hook screws to secure it. Consequently, we left it as a bed when camping and tried to eat outside. Nice, except when it rained...
After removing the screws that held it on I discovered two MORE screws installed from BEHIND the interior wall. This added to the stability of the assembly, no doubt, but suggests to me a factory item...??... I used a hacksaw blade holder to get behind the table support and cut the two screws loose...with a bit of trepidation as I do have great respect for the original Airstream design/build..
After getting the support loose I decided to add my own plywood beef-up inside the wall and to give the Lif-Table something to grab on to. I slipped a sheet of plywood inside the wall cavity and supported it just a bit to keep it off the 7-pin wiring in the wall. I screwed the Lif-table supports through the interior wall and drove the screws home into the plywood...
The L-shaped parts go onto the table edge as shown above. I installed these as wide as possible to fit into the LifTable bar, which is captured by the L part...
Here you can see the assembly mounted onto the table bottom...
This picture shows the other Lif-Table components mounted on the interior wall. You'll want to place the table in the bed position with the bar up against the wall. Snap the bar into the bar holders (parts in the middle) then mark their positions on the wall, drill holes and install with sheet metal screws. I drove the screws into the plywood support I added inside the wall. The two upper pieces receive the L-shaped parts attached to the table edge. The table tabs slip under and into the slots on upper wall supports when raised into the dinette position...
After I had it all put together it was still a bit wobbly because the plywood I added in the wall was only attached to the interior wall. I took a deep breath and decided to add four exterior screws for stability...
AIR-PORN WARNING. Purists, don't look at the following picture ;-)
While my wife pushed on the interior wall from inside I screwed in four 2-inch screws from the outside which grabbed the plywood support and pulled it against the exterior wall greatly beefing up the assembly. (The trailer is so far from cherry that I don't feel too bad about doing stuff like this..hey, at least I used stainless and Vulkem)
This added a lot of stability (fortunately) and now moving the table from bed to dinette position is a snap, plus we re-gained the under-bed storage which was very hard to reach with the bed down...
Linear Mode
