The Coachmen Crossfit/Beyond 22C comes with a not-too-useful 12″ by 28″ dining table – not even big enough to hold a couple of plates. Apparently Coachmen thinks that people don’t eat in campervans. Or don’t eat off plates.
The dining table doubles as a filler piece to fill in the foot of the bed when the couch is converted for sleeping. The space that needs to be filled is 24″d x 28″w, so Coachmen supplies another 12″ x 28″ board that makes up the missing 12″. The boards have to be strong enough to support a persons weight, as you have to crawl over that board to get situated in bed. The dining table is affixed on a post that fits into a socket on the floor and a socket attached to the bottom of the table.
The second thing I did when we bought the campervan was to replace the two 12″ x 28″ boards, one of which doubles as the table, with a single 24″ x 28″ edge glued piece of alder. We’ve used that table and the original floor socket for the past year and a half. It’s not very friendly though. The post and socket setup is wobbly, the table location and height are fixed, and skootching around the table to get back to the couch requires a bit of gymnastics.
A company in the UK has an alternative table mount (Lagun) that allows the table to be easily repositioned. The mount can by adjusted in a few different directions and is easily disassembled and stored. The $169 mount and $36 spare bracket shipped FedEx from the UK and arrived in about three days.
We played around with mount locations and decided two allow for two mounting locations, one on each side of the isle. We picked mounting locations on the frame of the two ottomans, which though made of 1/2″ plywood, are stapled together and probably not strong enough for the table. I decided to re-enforce the ottoman so that the table doesn’t lever the ottoman structure to the point that it loosens or fails.
To re-enforce the ottomans I backed the mount points with a glued and screwed stack of high quality plywood that ties the ottoman structure together, and added a couple of screws to the removable ottoman covers.
The plywood stack ties the plywood skin of the ottoman to the ottoman’s stapled 3/4″ wood frame.
The additional screws through the cover tie the four sides of the ottoman to each other and indirectly to the inside skin of the Transit body structure. Leverage on the table mount will be carried through the cover to the inside skin campervan. The table seems rigid enough for normal use. It’s not rigid enough to use as a dance floor or engine stand though.
When mounted on the drivers side, the table is usable by one person and can be moved out of the way under the pantry cabinet. When mounted on the passenger side the table is usable by two and as a counter extension for meal preparation.
While traveling, we’ll either dismount and store the table and mount somewhere, or leave it assembled and lock it down onto the ottoman cushion.
I’m keeping my eyes open for a table that’s 24″ x 28″, strong enough to stand on, but lighter than the one I made last fall. The super light-weight foam-filled tables that RV manufactures use are available in custom sizes at $200 and a month lead time. I’ll probably figure out how to make something out of light-weight plywood or some other material.
Michael Janke 
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