2016 WINNEBAGO VIEW - RECLINER CHAIR PULL HANDLE REPLACEMENT

 

While we were on our trip over the summer, both of the pull rings from our Williamsburg loveseat recliners had broken. Yep, first Steve's broke and then mine. They broke right at the cable where it reaches the handle.

We did a temporary fix while we were on the road just so they would operate. We extended the cable as far as we could and bent it over and crimped it down over a ring to pull on with our fingers. But this was not the end-all "fix" that we wanted.

Here's the blog post where I talked about our fix with the temporary repair:

https://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2025/08/north-to-alaska-2025-days-82-84-mcbride.html

Once we got home, we needed to dismantle the seats from the base of the slide so we could get out the original cables. We needed to measure the original cables to know which ones to order. 

We ordered them from: 

https://recliner-handles.com/recliner-handles-cables/d-pull-d-ring-style/?page=3

They have a large variety of different handles and cables. You have to measure the exact length and have the exact right tip, as well as the distance between the handle and the first bracket. We found the ones that we needed and they shipped them out quickly. We got them within a few days.

Since we had to disassemble the love seats by taking the backs off and then unscrewing them off the base of the slide, this was now the perfect opportunity to make a correction to the wooden base of our slide.

The love seat is the type that is called "wallhugger" design, just like Lazy Boy. It means if you go to recline, the seat portion scoots forward so it takes less space behind the loveseat against the wall. That works out fine except in our case, when we mounted the love seat into the very outer edge of the platform base, we still didn't get a lot of clearance behind to the wall. That meant we couldn't recline in the love seats fully because it hit the wall. 

In the photo below you can see how much space we only have.

If we could scoot it out an additional three to four inches, we would be able to then recline more fully. That was kind of important to us, and something we haven't been able to do over the last 2 years.

In this photo below, we shoved the base frame forward in the slide and now we can get a full recline. But that means we need to extend the platform bottom of the slide 3 inches further into the room. It was already extended 2 inches into the room with a piece of angle iron metal that we put on when we first installed the love seat.  

Steve determined that if we put a new platform down, we could increase the depth of the slide and move the entire love seat forward about 3 more inches. That was our goal. 

Some slide mechanisms in RVs are more complicated and need to slide out and nestle down flat to the floor or roll on rollers. It makes it much more complicated to extend the platform floor of a slide in those types of applications. Fortunately, ours is very simple and stays at one level whether it's in or out.

So, now that everything is torn apart, is the perfect time to extend this platform floor. We decided to only extend the platform in 2/3 of the area and leave the original seat belt attachments where they are. That is a safety feature we did not want to mess with. 

Steve purchased a 3/4-inch piece of sturdy plywood and cut access holes for the slide motor and wiring that needed to go through. He created divot spots for the bottom bolts of that stuck out from the underside of the loveseat bases. Now it would nest in perfectly, and not be riding on the exposed nuts and bolts on the frame like it was before.

We painted the outer edge of it black, that's the only spot where you're going to see it if you look down from underneath while it's attached back in the slide. Notice how we left the original seat belt fastening features in the back 12 inches or so of the slide.

Steve fastened the plywood board down in multiple areas using 2 dozen self tapper screws that attach directly into the frame of the slide, not just into the previous wood, which was very thin. When he was done, he said "That ain't going nowhere..."

Now that the plywood was secure, he was able to bring back in each of the seat bases to install them into the slide. He had them in the garage so he could transfer accurate measurements onto the plywood. Look at that guy, how happy he is to be carrying his seat back into the motorhome. They easily fit through the door, and I grabbed them on the inside. It's quite easy to install one of these loveseats through the narrow door of an RV.

First thing was to hook back up the electrical connections. These are wires that go up to the speakers and the light in the slide overhead in the cabinet. Once that wire connector was safely into place he was able to start fastening down the base frame of his side of the loveseat.

We pulled the seat belts forward up through the back access areas of the seat.

Once the upper back portions are snapped into place, the buckled seat belt can be tucked down in between the cushions. It's easier to leave it buckled so it's easier to access it in the event of a passenger needing to sit there.

In the photo below, you can see the black platform of the plywood extending out beyond the box of the slide itself. This has now enabled us to scoot the entire love seat forward and fasten it down securely to the board. Now the recliners will work better!

Steve went around the entire base frame with many heavy duty screws to attach it to the plywood board. The little recessed holes he drilled were perfectly matched up to the nuts and bolts on the bottoms of the frames. 

We decided that even with the screws in the base on each side, we would also add eight of these pipe brackets (4 for each chair). They fit perfectly over the front and the rear support bars of the seat bases. It can't hurt to have extra insurance, and we already had them on hand in the garage.

He decided to try his out... Before he even got my side done. Look at that--- Now he can recline all the way and not hit the wall!!!

Now that his half of the seats were fastened down, it was time for him to bring in mine.

It was a little snug to get back there and attach these things. But Steve was able to squeeze his legs down in between and try to kneel on the board to get to where he needed to get. Pretty soon, he had everything attached!

It took some contortionist positions to get down underneath to fasten it with the leg rests raised out of the way.

Finally it was time to snap on the last backrest on my side. They just snap down into place on two levers. Click click and it was done.  See how we have the seat belts pulled forward and latched together? Now we will tuck that down in between the cushions and save it for the event if we ever have a passenger along.

As Steve would say "So there you have it"... It's all done! Yayyyyyyyy

Of course, we had to try them out. It is really nice to have them extend all of the way back and not hit the wall partway. This is how we should have installed them in the first place 2 years ago.

DID YOU KNOW 

 THAT LOVE SEATS 

ARE FOR LOVERS?

And now for a little motorhome modification that we had done. This is a beautiful acacia wood tray from Aldi. But you could really use any nice tray that you would find to do this...

We had removed the original large rectangular table that came with our motorhome. In it's place we decided to do a smaller circular cocktail tray when seated at the loveseat. It is much easier to get in and out of the chair with the circle table in place then the original rectangular one.

We bought an extra table bracket from The Boat Seat Store: 

https://www.boatseatstore.com/products/sure-fit-pontoon-table-mount?_pos=1&_sid=fbc4f3b61&_ss=r

The reason why it is offset to one side is so the table can be rotated to either be closer in, or further away from our seats.

We also needed a little taller post than the original one that came in our motorhome. The boat seat store also carried those called a Sure Fit pontoon boat post. We ordered it in the 27-in length: 

https://www.boatseatstore.com/products/sure-fit-27-pontoon-table-leg?pr_prod_strat=e5_desc&pr_rec_id=46b9b49f2&pr_rec_pid=6535525498953&pr_ref_pid=6535525531721&pr_seq=uniform

There is a secondary floor mounting location in our motorhome, up near the two cockpit seats. They can swivel around and become part of the living room area as well. So the cocktail table can go over there too.

The table can be swiveled closer or further away, and works all quite well if we're playing cards or Yahtzee or just setting a big bowl of popcorn on while we watch a movie.

The best part is, that because it's positioned exactly in the middle. It can stay situated between our two leg rests when they are raised.  Perfect!

Here is the YouTube that goes along with today's blog post: 

So that was our motorhome modification / repair for the day. We only have a couple more to do before we post about our upcoming camping trip. I might put those out of order and work on our camping trip on the next blog post. 

We will see...