What is plywood under dinette seats for

[ChrisParise]

There is understandably a lot of speculation here in the thread because the OP did not post any photos. My 2020 Sunseeker, built in 2019, seems to have the same hinged panels as the OP described. They do not seem to have anything to do with under-seat storage access (ours has large drawers under the seat anyway). In the up or down position, the hinged panels seem to serve no purpose. They are apparently meant to be used mainly in the up position as that is where the cushion Velcro was attached by the factory. The only remote possibility I can come up with is they have something to do installing a child car seat. See photos attached.

With your picture in mind, my thought is with the plywood in the "up" position and the dinette seat back cushions attached to the velcro, this may help to isolate movement between dinette seated passengers from the driver seated in the cab.

Your dinette is directly behind the drivers seat? (My Sunseeker dinnette is directly behind the passenger cab seat and solid as a rock bolted to the floor)

Not sure how effective this works in practice but another layer of wood (in addition to the decorative divider wall of the dinnette from the cab) might help from disturbing or annoying the driver.

 

[BehindBars]

With your picture in mind, my thought is with the plywood in the "up" position and the dinette seat back cushions attached to the velcro, this may help to isolate movement between dinette seated passengers from the driver seated in the cab.

Your dinette is directly behind the drivers seat? (My Sunseeker dinnette is directly behind the passenger cab seat and solid as a rock bolted to the floor)

Not sure how effective this works in practice but another layer of wood (in addition to the decorative divider wall of the dinnette from the cab) might help from disturbing or annoying the driver.

Good thought, but why hinge it? We made the dinette into a bed without a need to flip the board down. The dinette on my unit is on a slide out, behind the cab driver’s seat. If movement isolation was a concern (likely unimportant to an RV manufacturer), I think the slide out would offer some isolation.

 

[ChrisParise]

Good thought, but why hinge it? We made the dinette into a bed without a need to flip the board down. The dinette on my unit is on a slide out, behind the cab driver’s seat. If movement isolation was a concern (likely unimportant to an RV manufacturer), I think the slide out would offer some isolation.

It's one of life's mysteries.

The dinnette being in the slideout sort of knocks my theory out. My slideout behind the drivers seat has dual recliners ipo the factory jack knife torture rack - and there's no interference between a passenger there and the driver.

Only FR knows, but I can see how hinges (piano hinge right?) may have been shown to tie the upright to the base more solidly when it comes to seating comfort.

I only sit occasionally in my dinette and FR designed my seat back cushion to sit on top of the lower seat cushion and the seat back is only wedged between the lower seat cushion on the bottom and the other 3 sides (sides and top) are the dinnette frame itself.

This all holds the cushions in place reasonably well but they need repositioning often.

There's no velcro on my seat back cushions and I could add them I guess but since it's only me traveling most of the time I can live with it.