Master Lift Gas Springs

[ElliotA]

This a problem with the 2006 28' Safari S/O that I am buying.

As a background it has basically been sitting in storage, unused since 2007

It has the walk around queen bed and when I lifted up the bottom to check out the storage, I could not get the bed to go back down afterwards. It is like both gas springs locked up in the extended position. I pushed down reasonably hard with no affect. I was afraid to push down harder and damage the mechanism.

Does it take a lot of pressure/force to get the bed back down or do I need to buy new gas springs?

[Phoenix]

I am unfamiliar with your model Airstream, but the gas-filled lifts on a previous car's rear-window louvers had locks that prevented the louvers from falling after they were opened. Look for a spring-loaded washer-looking device near the body of the gas shock, or perhaps an arm that lays alongside the shaft that fell into place when the shock was fully extended. One of these items may be what's preventing the bed from lowering.

The gas lifts are probably not defective, from what you describe. You probably just need to figure out what's preventing them from closing. Close-up photos of the gas lifts would help others provide suggestions.

[Scott J-24]

When we got our 2009 27' FB it had the original trailer queen mattress. When showing a friend all of the storage under the bed, I lifted the end of the bed and when I tried to lower it, I had the same problem you did, it just would not close. I thought I was using reasonable pressure to close it but thought it was stuck open and thought there might be some kind of "trick" to get it closed (and really didn't want to break our new AS). After calling the PO, he assured me if I really leaned on it, I wouldn't break anything. He was correct! A couple of days later we replaced the original mattress with a FULL sized queen mattress and with its extra weight we never had that problem again. As an added bonus, we have a much more comfortable nights sleep.