H340 Saloon Table operation?

[markymac1961]

Hi Folks,
All a bit new to me as I purchased the boat 2 weeks before Christmas, but the 'convertable' Saloon table/bed has me scratching my head.

There appears to be a single, built in 'clamp' with a nut and bolt operation. This required crawling around on the floor with spanners and a torch, and was a bit of a PITA to unscrew enough to allow the table to be dropped to put into 'bed' mode. It then required considerable 'swiveling; to get it to drop to the floor, even though the clamp bolt was completely loose.

Next morn, putting it back into 'table' mode required 2 people 'swiveling and lifting' to get it back up.
Are there bits missing? Am I doing something wrong? Is there a smarter system?

Also there's a short halyard affair coming over a sheave near the top of the comp strut. Can pull this all you like... but its locked off and does nothing.
I've attached pics to show what I'm working with. Thanks in advance for any tips and tricks - Mark Mac / Brisbane Australia.

 

[sailcapt340]

I agree completely……By far, the second heaviest thing on the 340 is the saloon table. The first being the engine. Hunter discontinued the halyard system for the table on the 2000 340. I always liked that design on my friends 99 340, just for the sheer weight of the table itself.
On mine, I have to get my legs under the table and lift it up slightly to remove the pin underneath and then slowly lower the table down (I’ll post pictures of mine). Along with being the second heaviest thing on the boat, it is hardest thing on the boat to do. So there is no really easy way to get this done.
The halyard system allowed him to lift the table up just enough to be able to remove the pin underneath and then lower it down to the bed position it turns into.
He doesn’t have his boat any longer, so I can’t go look in it to see. But inside the built in storage box on the table top isn’t there an access panel that would show how the halyard is connected to the table?
You say you can get the table up and down, albeit hard to do, when you do does the halyard slacken off at all? It has to be broken and jammed up inside there, because when working properly it really does work well.
Look in and under the table there has to be an access point for the other end of the halyard system.
Sorry I can only offer moral support but maybe another 340 owner has what you have as well and can guide you better.
From my photos you can see a tube welded on the bracket. This was where the halyard fed through when Hunter used that system. They used the same bracket going forward in years, but not the same halyard system. Probably because they had a lot of left over brackets to use up.

 

[Ed Caldwell]

From the factory, the "halyard" went over the pulley and down inside the mast support tube to a very heavy counterbalance weight. There was a T-handle to lock the table in the table height you desired. To make a bed you remove the lower cushions, loosen the T-handle and push the table down until it sits on indentations on the seats surrounding the table. Then replace the cushions and add an additional cushion supplied from the factory to complete the bed.

Over the years, some owners discovered their counterbalance weight had rusted in place or other parts were twisted off or broke or ? Then all kinds of things were done to try to make it work as evidenced in some of the photos. On my fresh water 99 model, everything works as designed ;-)