We decided to turn part of our under bed storage into a cat box to free up space from our closet. As a result, we'd need to get under the bed often to freshen up the box and with a couple of memory foam toppers, bedding and pillows it was getting heavy. Enter linear actuators, a car entry remote and about 2 days of tinkering.
I installed the cat door on the back side of the bed so it couldn't be seen as you walk up into the bedroom. I tapped in to the 12v light wiring that runs behind the bed and up to the overheads for power and installed a switch on the right side of the bed. You can use one of two car remotes to lift or lower. These pictures were from before I installed the upper and lower limit switches to prevent the actuators from moving the bed too low or too high. I also added heavy metal gate hinges where the two pieces of plywood meet to prevent the stress of the actuators from ripping out the smaller hinges that came with the unit. I chose to leave but reposition the gas springs to give the actuators a little more lift and support on the way up. The actuators + car remote controller that wires to them can easily be found on amazon but the sizing is the trick, it took a bit of time and effort figuring out the perfect mounting spots to lift the bed with the throw length of the actuators I bought.
I installed the cat door on the back side of the bed so it couldn't be seen as you walk up into the bedroom. I tapped in to the 12v light wiring that runs behind the bed and up to the overheads for power and installed a switch on the right side of the bed. You can use one of two car remotes to lift or lower. These pictures were from before I installed the upper and lower limit switches to prevent the actuators from moving the bed too low or too high. I also added heavy metal gate hinges where the two pieces of plywood meet to prevent the stress of the actuators from ripping out the smaller hinges that came with the unit. I chose to leave but reposition the gas springs to give the actuators a little more lift and support on the way up. The actuators + car remote controller that wires to them can easily be found on amazon but the sizing is the trick, it took a bit of time and effort figuring out the perfect mounting spots to lift the bed with the throw length of the actuators I bought.
