NLAVW rock-and-roll bed hinges

Discussion in 'Internal' started by Fonant, Jul 10, 2015.

  1. A pair of very nice rock-and-roll bed hinges have just arrived from NLAVW:

    http://nlavw.com/gb/interior/168-a-pair-of-rock-and-roll-hinges-for-t2-bay.html

    [Note: the price has gone up dramatically since I ordered mine yesterday!]

    They appear to be well-made from strong steel. They also have longer straps at the back/top, with a handy kink for the rear edge of the seat back panel to sit in when in bed mode. The springy click thing that forces the back to lift when you push the base down, when converting from bed to seat, seems to work nicely.

    Will report back once we've actually built a rock-and-roll bed with them. It'll be a full-width one using 18mm marine ply.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2015
    NLAVWParts likes this.
  2. NLAVWParts

    NLAVWParts Sponsor

    Thanks for the kind words, the price is not a true reflection of the price of the hinges now. When the item goes out of stock the system puts up the price. We will attempt to correct this as soon as possible (thanks for drawing our attention to it)

    We are hoping to receive the new batch in August
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2015
  3. Moons

    Moons Supporter

    Why would a stock control system default to putting the price up? Surely it would default to a null value?
     
  4. So far so good. The hinges are nice and strong and their geometry is very good.

    With the end of the rear strap in a recess in the engine bay top, I found that the main lower fixing to the bodywork needs to be about 15mm away from the wheel arch. Easy to make a packing piece out of 2x1 wood, which fills the gap and supports the angled "foot" too.

    Has taken two half days to build and adjust a template/prototype for the woodwork supporting the hinge, but it's now pretty-well spot on for height and angle :)

    We've decided to go for a "fouth-fifths" width bed, so the seat is 1220mm wide. Means we can build the whole structure from a single sheet of 18mm marine ply, and we get some nice arm rests for the rear seat passengers. The arm rests will be at the same height as the top of the cushions in bed mode, and will hopefully not be noticed at the foot end of the bed.
     
  5. Bloody hell £300 for bed hinges???
    Is that right?
     
  6. Baysearcher

    Baysearcher [secret moderator]

    No, it's explained up there ^^^
    ( although still makes little sense!)
     
    Spacecowboyuk and volkswombat like this.
  7. NLAVWParts

    NLAVWParts Sponsor

    I may have misunderstood what Adam was saying, computers are powered by little elves running around with bits of information as far as I am aware lol. Ask me about port velocities in a single port head and I'm in my element though

    Seriously though, it appears that there was an error in the pricing and I can assure you they are not close to £300, sorry for the confussion
     
  8. @NLAVWParts - Did you ever make any progress with resolving the issues with the springs and catches for these bed hinges as per the discussion in the thread linked below? I still have a pretty much unusable bed/seat due to a) the springs being to weak, and b) the catches not sitting in to place correctly resulting in the seat back not being secure.

    http://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/nlavwparts-saying-hello.42852/page-3#post-867518

    Would love to have the issues resolved so that it is usable, especially considering you claim them to be identical to the original ones and i purchased them assuming this to be true.

    Thanks
     
  9. Interesting about the springs. My findings are:
    • The springs aren't very springy steel, so if they get accidentally caught (I fitted one wrongly when it came off) they get stretched very easily. Since they aren't springy steel it's however quite easy to cut the stretched end off and re-form a hook.
    • The spring seems to come off rather too easily when fiddling with cushions and/or seat belt. Perhaps only because my bed is still being built, but perhaps a hole rather than a slot for the top end of the spring would be more secure? Or an angled slot?
    • The issue of the seat not going back down when lifted in seat mode is not due to spring length, but the position/diameter of the pin that bends the spring in seat mode.
    I found that if you fine-tune the position of the seat in the seat position so that it is as low as possible at the back, this holds the seat back more tightly and also means the spring/catch sits in the correct position for the seat to be lifted and put back down to access the storage underneath.

    I think that the spring problem could also perhaps be solved by adding to the diameter of the pin that bends the spring, perhaps by pushing a suitable rubber or plastic tube over it. This would bend the spring a bit more in seat mode, and thus position the catch better.

    A more proper solution would be to re-design the hinge so that the pin is moved a few millimetres in the direction that will bend the spring in seat mode a little more. It might need some experimentation to find the best pin location to bend the spring enough, but not too much. But this is the pin's only function, so at least moving it won't upset anything else!

    Other than that I've been extremely pleased with the NLAVW hinges. They're nice and strong, the perfect geometry, and generally well-made.
     
    Dicky likes this.
  10. Having to deploy the seat into bed mode every time you lift the seat to get someting out of the locker is a complete pain, particularly if you have to move stuff each time you have to do it. It wasnt so bad at first but now its really getting on my nads.
     
  11. Even that doesn't work for me most of the time as I'm still trying to use the springs that came with the hinges - I have to manually tweak the little catches with my fingers to try and get the seat back down - total pain in the ass, especially when the van is full with wife, kids and dog :(
     
  12. That's what I was having to do. Then I ground a little off the pivoting arm with the cutout that sits in the pin and it was a slight improvement, still not right though. the issue is that if you lift up the seat withouit disturbing the backrest (at all, which is nigh on impossible) then the seat base will drop back down. Any movement backwards with the backrest and the lever arm doesn't locate indeed it get stuck on the high part of the pin rather than the cutout sliding over it. Difficult to explain.
     
  13. NLAVWParts

    NLAVWParts Sponsor

    Sorry for the slow reply, I've been away on holiday so missed this.

    The springs are not here yet but we have them on the way, we are expecting them in to us hopefully in a couple of weeks (customs and favourable seas permitting)
     

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