New Table Leg

With two of us in the van, the original table was more than we needed. It was hard to get around, and had a tendency to loosen in its mount when we turned it to squeeze past. Seeing a picture of a Lagun Table leg posted in the Pleasure-Way facebook group, we decided to give that a try.  We installed the leg and are using a bed-board as the table top. We've left the original table and leg at home, freeing up room in the wardrobe closet.

For anyone contemplating a similar installation, here is our approach.

Making the Table Top

Pick the best looking side of one of the two bed-boards. Lightly sand the surface, clean it with a tack cloth, then apply several coats of varnish.

Four coats of Spar Varnish made a shiny, hard surface. We waited 24 hours and lightly sanded the board between coats.

Luckily, we have a sailing friend who had an open can of quality varnish. He even applied the final two coats. Thank you Jim!

The table mount came with proper size screws. After measuring and marking the holes, we drilled the screw holes using an adjustable counter-sink on our electric drill. The goal was to make it easy to thread the screws, but avoid drilling all the way through the table.

We attached the table mount off-center deliberately so the table can be closer to, or farther away from, you depending on which way it is rotated. We didn't bother to varnish the bottom of the board.

The board still fits in-between the seats for forming the queen-sized bed. The mounting hardware hangs down underneath.

Installing the Mounting Bracket

The rail that the bed boards sit on prevented us from installing the mount as delivered. We needed to get it out beyond the rail, otherwise the leg wouldn't be able to slide into the track.

We purchased a piece of oak at Lowe's from which to make a spacer. Since one piece wasn't thick enough, we cut two the same size and screwed them together. Also applied some wood glue to insure they would never separate.

Drilling holes for the bolts made assembly in the van easy.
We used a couple of coats of stain around the edges to help the spacer blend in with the color of the wood in the van.

A c-clamp held the spacer while we used it as a template to drill four holes in the settee.

A backer board came with the table leg kit. We did need to trim it along one side to clear the brackets in the settee.

Although nuts and bolts ship with the Lagun kit, they weren't long enough after adding the spacer. Another trip to Lowe's and we found longer bolts. Of course we couldn't find long enough metric bolts, so we had to buy new lock nuts too.

We ran four bolts through the mount, spacer board, settee, and backing plate. We added washers and lock-nuts and the project was complete.

Here's the view of the assembly from the top. The spacer boards have the mount for the leg so that the leg can slide into the slot. The rounded aluminum corners should prevent anything, and anyone, from snagging on the mount.

The handles that tighten the leg are ingenious. By pushing in on the button, the handle can be rotated without turning the related nut. This allows for tightening the table into the desired position and then moving the handle out of the way.

Switching from Table to Bed
The table can stay up all day, and doesn't move at all when we are driving.

When we're ready to convert the area to a bed, we just remove the table top and put the leg on the floor where it will be under the bed.

The table top then resumes it's original purpose as a bed-board.

Here's a short video showing the different locations this mounting method allows.

After a couple of trips now, we really like the versatility of the new table.

The mount was $169 ($138 + $31 for shipping from England.) Aluminum with plastic handles, it is very sturdy and doesn't have any rough edges. We think it is a very good value. Here's a link to the web-site if you want to investigate it more: Lagun Table Leg.