bed will not lower

[BillyBob58]

Hi Folks,
Hope I am not putting this in the wrong place. But any one else had this happen: My bed is stuck up in the air!

I have a Flagstaff Super light 26DS TT. The foot end of the bed raises to reveal storage under neath it. It is supported by a hydraulic thingie on left and right at the head end. Normally, with the mattress on the plywood bed, they are not strong enough to hold the bed up unless I brace it some how. But I have had the mattress out side to dry after a spill, and then put it back in the front of the camper for a month or 2 now. So today I go to put the mattress back on the bed, and the plywood bed will not lower!

I can't put much pressure on it because it looks like the hydraulic wands might pull out of the plywood pretty easy. I have been searching in vain for some sort of lock that I did not know existed. The only thing I can think of to do is unscrew the hydraulic brackets and see if I can free them up.

Any thoughts? One extreme to the other: used to would not stay up, now won't go down!
Thanks much in advance for any ideas.
Bill

[Dave_Monica]

With the weight of the mattress removed, it's a lot harder to retract the gas cylinders. If you have a person on each side of the bed and apply pressure directly over the upper mount, you should be able to get the bed frame down. Worse case you could remove the cylinder off the lower mount (there's clip that you pry up with a screwdriver to release it from the ball) and remount after the mattress is back on top of the bed frame. Picture of the lower mount is attached.

Dave

[BillyBob58]

Originally Posted by Dave_Monica

With the weight of the mattress removed, it's a lot harder to retract the gas cylinders. If you have a person on each side of the bed and apply pressure directly over the upper mount, you should be able to get the bed frame down. Worse case you could remove the cylinder off the lower mount (there's clip that you pry up with a screwdriver to release it from the ball) and remount after the mattress is back on top of the bed frame. Picture of the lower mount is attached.

Dave

Thanks Dave! that makes good sense and I will try it soon as someone else gets home! I had considered removing the cylinder, but I thought I would have to take all of the screws out, as i did not know about the clip. But if getting 2 folks to push from the other side works, that will be much preferred.
Bill

[BillyBob58]

Dave,
Worked like a charm! Thanks again!

[Slinks]

Is there any way to add them to a forester 3011DS bed? It's wasted storage, I can't lift the bed at all.