Conversion of Sofa in 210 WBS

[alstude]

I would like to remove the sofa in my 2009 210 WBS and replace it with 2 rocker/recliner chairs. Has anyone tried to do that?

[webslave]

I'm not sure what slide mechanism is in the '09s, on an '08 or older model, the slide mechanism is attached to the bottom of the board that the goucho sofa sits on. Any modification to that area would require a complete re-engineering of the slide mechanism.

We have some friends that have a '10 244RBS that has the slide mechanism down both sidewalls, but, that seems to be over-engineered for the smaller slide of the 210WBS. Not sure what slide mechanism is in the newer 210WBS models, but, if it is still under the couch mounting board, you are severely limited in what can be done to that area... The pictures of the '11 models look like they are using the same sidewall slide mechanism as the 244RBS (full to floor slide) and that sofa looks like it could be easily replaced as you want. You'll need to investigate as to what type of slide mechanism your '09 has...

[Jim T]

I saw some place that some one modified the sofa for storage under it by taking off the front and making the front so it can snap off and on. Has anyone take off the front of the sofa on the 210? I see what looks like a "button" on both sides, but it tha a nail that can be removed?

[webslave]

I'm the one that modified the sofa front on my '08 210WBS so that it "snaps" on and off

If you pry those two cloth covered buttons off, you'll find two screws under them. The covers just pop off and back on. Remove the screws and the front will then be hanging from the gaucho sofa's front metal beam. If you raise the front of the sofa a couple of inches, the front panel can be lifted off the metal beam.

I braced and reinforced both ends of the box that the sofa sits on and installed furniture door clips down both sides along with a hinge across the top, instead of the hanger strips across the top. The front now pops open and swings up and the bracing and reinforcing on the ends keeps the sides "solid" so that flexing isn't an issue with the door clips becoming disconnected while going down the road. I put in "short" screws (I actually cut the original screws off so that they don't protrude through the front) and re-installed the covered buttons...just looking at it you'd never know the front opened.

[M&M]

We also modified the sofa, but took a slightly different approach. We removed the fabric covered chipboard on all 3 sides and replaced it with a skirt, much like is found on a house sofa. My wife found material that closely matched the sofa, and made the skirt. We attached it to the plywood sofa platform with Velcro. We think it has the advantages of looking better, it is easier to clean under the sofa, nothing can behind the chipboard to bind the slide, and we gained some shoe storage. However, the biggest advantage is the table can be pushed much closer to the couch as the table feet now slide under the sofa skirt. We also found it necessary to reinforce the sofa structure as it was badly sagged. We attached a 2x4 under the plywood platform the full length of the sofa.

[Jim T]

A big THANKs for the replies on the 210 sofa modification.
Thanks for the detail on the reinforcement suggestion.