Trouble with .3DS and jBullet-JME

Im not sure if im just doing something wrong, but i have been messing around with loading 3d models for a while now but i have hit a snag… When i load a .obj everything is fine, my code is…

 URL model = MainGameState.class.getClassLoader().getResource("org/src/level.obj");
         FormatConverter converter = new ObjToJme();
         ByteArrayOutputStream BO = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
         BinaryImporter jbr = new BinaryImporter();
         TriMesh level = null;
         ts1 = DisplaySystem.getDisplaySystem().getRenderer().createTextureState();
         ts1.setEnabled(true);
         ts1.setTexture(TextureManager.loadTexture(MainGameState.class.getClassLoader() .getResource("org/src/stone.jpg")));
         for(int x=0;x<1;x++ ) {
            try { converter.convert(model.openStream(), BO);
               level = (TriMesh) jbr.load(new ByteArrayInputStream(BO.toByteArray()));
            }
               catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); System.exit(0); } level.setLocalScale(.1f); level.setRenderState(ts1);

            level.setLocalTranslation(new Vector3f(0,-100,0));
            level.setModelBound(new BoundingBox());
            level.updateModelBound();
         }



and this works great, i add it to a physicsNode and all is well. however when i try and load a .3DS file i have some trouble. I cant seem to find a way to load such a file type into a YriMesh format. Every way i can find loads it into a Node. When i try and attach this to a physicsNode it yells at me saying there is no TriMesh to be used.  is there anyway to load a 3ds in a way that would work with Jbullet, or in the end get me int he right format? just for reference this is some of the code i was trying to use to load the 3ds.

public Node getModel3ds(File file) {
      
      FormatConverter converter = new MaxToJme();   
      Node model = null;
      ByteArrayOutputStream bo = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
      File input = new File("cache/"+file.getName() + ".jme");
      
      // check if there is a cached jme format model for the requested file
      if(input.isFile()) {
         
         try {
            
            ResourceLocatorTool.addResourceLocator(ResourceLocatorTool.TYPE_TEXTURE,
                  new SimpleResourceLocator(file.getParentFile().toURI()));
            
            model = (Node)BinaryImporter.getInstance().load(input);
            
            ResourceLocatorTool.removeResourceLocator(ResourceLocatorTool.TYPE_TEXTURE,
                  new SimpleResourceLocator(file.getParentFile().toURI()));
            
            return model;
         } catch(IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
         }         
         
      }
      
      // no cached model found -> convert the 3ds file and cache it
      try {                              
         
         ResourceLocatorTool.addResourceLocator(ResourceLocatorTool.TYPE_TEXTURE,
            new SimpleResourceLocator(file.getParentFile().toURI()));
         
         converter.convert(new FileInputStream(file), bo);
         model = (Node)BinaryImporter.getInstance().load(new ByteArrayInputStream(bo.toByteArray()));

         bo.writeTo(new FileOutputStream("cache/"+file.getName()+".jme"));
         
         ResourceLocatorTool.removeResourceLocator(ResourceLocatorTool.TYPE_TEXTURE,
            new SimpleResourceLocator(file.getParentFile().toURI()));
      
      } catch(IOException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
      
      return model;
   }


i tried a few other ways, but in the end they all do the same thing.. any help would be great.