Mod report - removed the head-banger cabinets

Tommy

On the first night sleeping in our Tab last month I slammed my head into the bottom of the cabinets 12 times ... yes I counted them. One drew blood and I still have the scar on top of my head. Not wanting to turn around and sleep with nothing to stop pillows from falling into the walkway - and being a bit too tall to turn sideways - we vowed with much sadness that the cabinets had to go. At the same time storage is at a premium and we liked using the cabinets for our clothes etc. 

So the following solution was implemented - it's probably been done here before but I didn't find anything on search. After removing the cabinet doors, I very carefully sawed through the lower cross board with a hand saw then finished sawing across the lower shelf board with a jigsaw. 





After carefully sawing and banging out the infrastructure of the cabinet, we sanded the jigsaw cut lower board of the speaker cabinet and glued several areas that needed it due to loose paneling or veneer. We then very carefully stripped the birch veneer off of the lower cross board and used it to fashion two new panels to cover the rough side of the speaker boxes. I have to say that our panels (shown in the last photos) fit the curve of the ceiling a LOT better than the factory sloppy panels that can be seen inside the cabinets in the first picture.

After wife, sons, family, and a large dog showed up and put their foot down and demanded my attention on Father's Day we came back to it later and finished it off with a new soft shelf guaranteed to be head friendly. We experimented with net materials before going in an unexpected direction and installing a 12" wide table runner stretched tight. I suspect we will try a few more variations before arriving at a final solution for the shelf material. I have a little more trim work to do including covering the exposed gap between the two ceiling panels and fixing an ugly chip in the top cross piece from the cabinets that we decided to leave in place for cosmetic reasons - but we are hitting the road again day after tomorrow and it will have to wait. 






Thanks for looking!

Tommy

Spruce1

Nice work!

ScottG

My head (which offers zero hair protection) has suffered the indignity of many bumps on those cabinets. However, conditioning from sustained negative reinforcement has reduced these incidents to a tolerable minimum. (Going pee at 3:00am now involves chanting don'tbumpyourheaddon'tbumpyourheaddon'tbumpyourhead until I'm safely back under the covers.)

I don't think I'd deep six my cabinets, but twelve whacks in one night is a lot...  Good thinking and nice work!

ericnliz

ScottG, being 6' tall, I have that same chant down pat! Tommy, nice work and good solution, I feel for the head bumps, been there also!

Floridaloha

What about just mounting a padded surface under the cabinets? 

ericnliz

Tried it, just "softens" the initial BANG a little!

Floridaloha

Sleeping with a helmet on? 

ericnliz

Had that thought too, question is, visor, or no visor, sit straight up and the nose could take a nasty hit!

Tommy

Apparently I have a bad habit of (while sound asleep) sitting up as part of the process of rolling over - and also apparently I do it a lot   

ericnliz

Tommy, I hope your solution solves the problem, if not, I also thought of "bubble wrap"

Photomom

Has anyone actually mounted something under the cabinets to soften the impact? DH has slept in the camper 3 nights and banged his head all 3 nights. (He's tall.)

ericnliz

Photomom, I tried a piece of foam I had left over from another project [used double sided tape to attach], 3" thick. Problem was it cut down on the space between the pillow and the cabinets even more, so now I use the "duck and roll" method. Have since removed the foam. I don't want to remove the cabinets, we use them for clothes. Still in search mode for a solution. I'll let you know if I come up with something viable. By the way, tell your hubby I can totally relate, makes for a really rude wake up call!

Tommy

As I said this was our maiden voyage so we haven't had time to become emotionally attached to the cabinets. We liked them a lot but it's such a bad design to have everyone cracking their heads on them it is surprising to me that it became such a standard feature for the tab. I didn't even mention that my wife clocked herself several times too. The second and third nights I was able to scoot down so my feet were up against the bathroom wall or hanging off and I was able to reduce the surprises to just a couple - definitely not an option for taller people - I'm 5-8.

We are leaving at the crack of dawn (no pun intended) tomorrow for a five nighter so I'll report back how the kindler-gentler shelf worked out. I hope I can avoid that sharp corner of the speaker enclosure haha.

Floridaloha

What about sleeping in the opposite direction? I just think it's sad to lose what little storage is in the camper. 

Tommy

Floridaloha said:

What about sleeping in the opposite direction? I just think it's sad to lose what little storage is in the camper. 

Actually we gained more storage by having the open "soft" shelf. We can fit more clothes now than we could with the cabinet inner walls, face, and doors. It might not look as tidy but who cares right? 

Floridaloha

I'd be concerned about resale value myself, but I imagine others would not. You could also put up a curtain or something if you wanted to hide the shelf. 

bgualtieri

We sleep wheel to wheel 

Photomom

bgualtieri said:

We sleep wheel to wheel 

We are both too tall!

ChanW

We sleep sideways too. I'm 6'2 or 6'3, DW is 5'8 or 5'9.

When I need to straighten out, I go a bit kitty corner. The bed's so big the DW still has plenty of room.

Ratkity

I try to sleep wheel-to-wheel, but end up sleeping at an angle because Harvey is a bed hog!

ericnliz

Oh, blame it on Harvey! REALLY?

DougandMia

It's probably an automatic response when his snoring gets too loud to "bear".

Tommy

I tried laying wheel to wheel and did NOT like the feeling of my feet pressed against the wall. I get claustrophobic easy and that feeling triggers it ... reason #13 for ripping out the cabinets  

Seriously though we are completely thrilled with the result - more storage for our clothes - soft connection with the head ... why not. I'll worry about resale value in a few years after we get over the joy this little camper has brought into our lives did I mention we are thrilled? heehee

Ratkity

ericnliz said:

Oh, blame it on Harvey! REALLY?

DougandMia said:

It's probably an automatic response when his snoring gets too loud to "bear".

B.b.bb.bbbut, um... Don't Believe The CUTE!! I know he's adorable, but don't even get me started if he has beans for supper.

Great mod, Tommy!! I do like the side panels you fashioned. They look very professional!

BlueJay

Hi! I'm new (first comment, even). We're very interested in T@Bs, and I've been reading some great info here. We have gone to see them, too, at a dealer. That being said, when I saw this thread, I couldn't remember if the mattress (website says 70" x 73") is longer in the wheel-to-wheel or back-to-front direction? Can anyone let me know that?  Thank you!

Photomom

Longer back to front.

BlueJay

I'm also a little puzzled by the two skinny horizontal openings in the wood at the back of the T@B (so, at the head of the bed or foot of the bed, depending on how you're oriented). If those are for the heating system (to draw in air, perhaps?) then how do you avoid blocking that with linens and covers during the cold season? Thanks!

Photomom

If you get a new tab you likely won't have those two slits. Mine was built in March and the back area is quite different.

ScottG

Photomom said:

Longer back to front.

Dang. I've had this backwards for over year (which a quick measurement just confirmed).

I'm happy though--I'll sleep better now that I have a longer bed!  ;-)

ScottG

BlueJay said:

I'm also a little puzzled by the two skinny horizontal openings in the wood at the back of the T@B (so, at the head of the bed or foot of the bed, depending on how you're oriented). If those are for the heating system (to draw in air, perhaps?) then how do you avoid blocking that with linens and covers during the cold season? Thanks!

Those are for the heat to get out of. Just like many houses, the T@b uses fin-tube convectors that draw cool air in from the bottom (you'll see slots there, too), warm it, and let it rise out the upper slots. And yes, they do get blocked by bedding. Poke around here and you'll find several creative solutions folks have come up with (some of which are quite artistic).

Photomom

In the newest campers, heat rises from the very back of the area in my photo. Will not be blocked by bedding. There are also heat fins tender the passenger side bench and heat comes from cutouts at the bottom of the bench.