Villa J Sofa - Fold Out Air Mattress REVELATION

[Tom Cherry]

What is the old adage about a visually challenged swine and the propensity or odds or encountering a seedling from a large tree that rhymes with SPOKE....?

We have the sectional Villa J Sofa with the pullout air mattress.  We rarely used it as our GK's would sleep on a blowup air mattress or when they were young, bunk on the folding Jack Knife sofa.  We are spending several days and the blow up air mattress was punctured beyond repair.

Over the years, I had used two hand towels and some zip ties and put them on the sides of the mechanism to prevent damage to the arms.....primarily the FLAT arm.  Today....it hit me.  I had pulled out the arm once before, but it was a PITA as I was in a hurry.  SO, I started looking at the design and how it worked.  The flat arm IS designed to be lifted UP, canted slightly to the front, slid forward and then canted down.....so it is removable.  Monaco DID leave sufficient clearance under the side window valance for that to happen.  Not too much, but enough.

NOW the sofa pops out easily.  No scratching or abrading the arm and you do NOT have to  "REALLY YANK ON IT".  Curiosity got to me.  I called Villa.  Why of COURSE, you SHOULD be able to open with the arm in place....but sometimes when the sofas are installed, they are bolted down and the frame will be a bit warped.

THEN, the guy said, "BUT MOST FOLKS find that popping off the arm and stowing it while they are using the bed is a SIMPLER solution.",  DUH.....NO LIE.

SO, unless the bed is perfectly mounted or PUSHED away from the wall for a little clearance, most customers will remove it.

SO SIMPLE.  The Dealer's "set up guy",  never mentioned that and I don't think there is an instruction manual.

SO... I am posting this for general information.   The things one learns after using a product or something for years.  It is NOT like I have rarely used it.  This trip will be our 683 day....or 594 nights.  That is 1.87 YEARS.....  Live and learn.

Hope this will benefit someone else if they have the J Sofa with the fold out air mattress....

DUH.....