Re: Tips & Tricks for the Winnie ERA: 2018 70A - Storage under the cabin couch! VOILA
We have had our coach for about 1 1/2 years (bought new) and the biggest thing that bugged me was the poor access to all the storage under the settee/couch/bed in the cabin. You had to lift the seat and stick your head under there and try NOT to get stuck accessing the area. We decided to DO something about it finally - we took it all apart, built a drawer and small door for the speaker and storage of manuals and a large drawer that pulls out from under the sofa!
It took about a day for the build and 2 weeks to argue and engineer it - but here is the final product...
The drawer is between the supporting legs:
The door is next to the fridge, at a slant with the speaker relocated. Just enough space for the manuals and maybe some wine bottles!
More pics that might be of interest:
General directions:
Carefully take the front cover off and unplug/pull the speaker out of the cover, putting it aside. This took some physical maneuvering to get in there, but not too difficult - be careful with the speaker and wires.
Cut off the bolts that are sticking out on the floor (they hold the seat to the floor) to allow the drawer to slide in. Don't REMOVE the bolts - you are just cutting them down to the nut level so you can slide the drawer into the area without interference.
Measure the distance between the legs (ours were about 22") and to the rear (ours was about 27") and build yourself a drawer the width and length you want - happy to send my specs and pictures if you want them. We wanted the drawer snug to the back wall (we put foam on it to protect the wall) and snug to the legs of the bench so it doesn't move around.
We used pocket screws and pine to make the drawer - using this video as a pattern:
https://youtu.be/sKVo-rLv-W8 We covered the front with a piece of shelving from Home Depot that matches our cabinets pretty nicely - I put clear coat on it.
We used furniture sliders and build a groove system on the bottom of the drawer and the floor for sliding - it may not hold up to the time test, but it was easy - basically we put two strips of wood on the bottom of the drawer about 6" apart and 18" long and then 1 6" x 18" piece on the floor of the rig. This creates a "groove" of sorts that holds the drawer in place and lets you slide it. The piece on the floor is the locator. The furniture sliders are on the 2 pieces on the drawer to keep from damaging the floor and to raise it up just a bit.
We made the side door out of the same shelving and used the cutout from the front cover as a pattern for the speaker - easy mount with some hinges next to the fridge. Our manual is in a big binder so it slides in there nicely and have some room for a few wine bottles.
That's it.....HUGE add-on for storing maps, picnic blankets, whatever.
We are really happy with this much-thought out modification. Don't know why Winnebago didn't do this....too expensive I guess. But that's a lot of storage space that was hard to access.
Please feel free to contact us if you want more specs/have questions. It's hard to put all the construction info in here - we could do a video if you need it.
Thanks and hope this helps!
Lizt@arizona.edu
