Symbol ES- Bed make up

Does anyone else own a Symbol ES? The reason I ask is that when we got our van from Marquis, Preston last year they had to repair one of the panels which make up the bed. as it had snapped in half. This was due to the minimal support under the middle of the bed, in case your not aware,the es stands for extra seat, and means that both of the settees can be made into single seat-belted seat (or visa versa, as the case may be).
Because of this the bed is made up of the 2 settees and 3 other pieces of upholstery. There are just 2 pieces of metal which extend out to support the middle of the bed. which left a large unsupported gap, which must have broken the panel. In the 1st picture the leg on the left was the only support leg.

So we had a blacksmith make us another which fitted on the other end of the pull out bar. This with the solid metal bar you pull out on the other end make it far more supportive
Did anyone else have a similar problem, and have to make a 2nd leg or was ours just missing? plattypus

Plattypus,
I too have a Symbol ES.
I know exaclty what you mean about the unsupported part of the bed support.

There was no support under the middle of the bed so your van was not missing anything. I made up a wooden leg to fit under the unsupported part when the bed is in use and like you feel that this is much safer than the original arrangement. Your welded leg is probably more sophisticated than my wooden one but both serve the same purpose.

squip

Hi Squip

Thanks for your comments. It's good to know we weren't missing anything.

Considering how well thought out everything else is in the van, the bed frame is quite a bad design.

Many thanks for replying
Plattypus

plattypus wrote:Hi Squip

Thanks for your comments. It's good to know we weren't missing anything.

Considering how well thought out everything else is in the van, the bed frame is quite a bad design.

Many thanks for replying
Plattypus

Hi Plattypus, & Squip.
Ours is the same, I noticed this after a couple of times after we had made the bed up.
I don't pull the front part of the frame out to it's fullest extent, if you do this the bed base is unsuported in the middle.
Like you say it does seem a bit of bad design. But this is what this forum is for. I'll do the mod of welding
another leg into the frame..cheers for the tip.

Tim.

hi dogseal

Don't know about you but we sleep widthwise always have since we got the van. But just been away for a few days in the Dales & tried sleeping lengthways,couldn't get on with it changed back about 2 in the morning!!! makes far too wide a bed quilt wouldn't reach us both

I have a Marquis Dorset ES which I think is the same van. Looks like AS liked you idea as my van has 2 legs factory fitted on the slider towards front of van - it works fine. We have tried sleeping all ways and prefer sleeping across van .It saves carrying extra bit to put between front seats and suits me fine although I an 6 foot 2.

alan wrote:I have a Marquis Dorset ES which I think is the same van. Looks like AS liked you idea as my van has 2 legs factory fitted on the slider towards front of van - it works fine. We have tried sleeping all ways and prefer sleeping across van .It saves carrying extra bit to put between front seats and suits me fine although I an 6 foot 2.

Hi alan
Just noticed that the sliding bar towards front end(with original leg) is Badly bent and welding starting to crack open. Got onto Auto Sleepers and they no longer stock this part!!! can't believe this, as only a 2006 model. But they can kindly repair it for £120 inc post. Bet the original part would cost less than half of that So its back to our friendly local blacksmith.
cheers Roger

Whilst not the 'ES' model, we had to cut short our holiday by a week when nearside seat that slides forward to make up the bed jammed. It would come just a short way before stopping dead. At the time we were on the stellplatz in Trier, Germany. I unscrewed the cushions from the base to get a better look and found that something was stopping the nearside runner from fully extending. No amount of prizing or hammering could budge it. In essence, we were in deep do do.

Luckily we were on a days drive from Calais, so we phoned Eurotunnel amended the booking then packed ith our chin on the floor and headed home. That night in Calais we managed to make up the bed by placing a number of boxes in the door way to lay the cushion across and worked rather well. We were lucky to be near home, dread to think about it happening when we were in Poland, Slovakia, or Eastern Austria.

Finally got it home and booked it into Spinney's who managed to realease it, saying be carefull it needs a new runner as that will take about three weeks to arrive.

So be aware, the runners on the nearside seat can jam at anytime without warning.

They are a great van, the Symbol but these bed problems do seem to be growing. I'd like to see the new models to see how they overcame them. It seems The ES is the main problem
plattypus