Rear beds

[GAH]

We recently rented a Roadtrek simplicity with a front facing rear couch. When reclined into the bed position it wasn’t very comfortable due to the seams in the cushions (I know you can add a topper to provide more comfort)

My question is how the bed is on the other Roadtrek design with the galley couch setup. It seems like that may be better since you aren’t laying across any seams.

I can see some additional benefits of that layout (ability to carry bikes inside).

[Roadtrek Adventuous RS1]

Originally Posted by GAH

We recently rented a Roadtrek simplicity with a front facing rear couch. When reclined into the bed position it wasn’t very comfortable due to the seams in the cushions (I know you can add a topper to provide more comfort)

My question is how the bed is on the other Roadtrek design with the galley couch setup. It seems like that may be better since you aren’t laying across any seams.

I can see some additional benefits of that layout (ability to carry bikes inside).

We use a mattress topper and pin the sheets onto the topper... we roll up the mattress topper and store that above the rear cabinets every night ... we just make up the bed and use the sofa and seats during the day to relax... works fine.

I don't advise carrying bicycles inside.... in an accident, they will be like projectiles inside your coach unless they are tied down securely... we only have a 28 inch aisle... would not work for us.

See picture.

[GAH]

Thanks for the pic. Does anyone have the other layout where the couches face each other? Interested to get opinions on the comfort of those beds.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by GAH

Thanks for the pic. Does anyone have the other layout where the couches face each other? Interested to get opinions on the comfort of those beds.

Our old Airstream Interstate had mid-vehicle facing sofas that folded down to form a queen bed. Our current rig has the famous Great West tri-fold rear sofa (with clear-span storage underneath).

Having slept many nights in both, I can attest that having the "cracks" perpendicular to your body is vastly more comfortable than having them parallel to your body.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by GAH

Thanks for the pic. Does anyone have the other layout where the couches face each other? Interested to get opinions on the comfort of those beds.

We do, and we absolutely love them. Wouldn't have any other kind, and no topper needed. The seam doesn't bother us. In fact, if I position myself in certain ways, it can relieve pressure points (hip and shoulder).

The large table in this pic below was subsequently replaced with a Lagun. Another reason why we like these couches is that they can be raised and lowered one side at a time. One person (my husband) can continue sleeping while the other sits up. (Of course, now I've got a Lagun mount in the front as well as the rear, so I can swivel the passenger seat and also sit up there.)

The bedding stores in the long, narrow cabinetry portions directly beneath each couch. It's an Atwood model couch system. I've got a pic of the label somewhere.

[Davydd]

We have a totally different setup.





Electrically operated and controlled by an iPhone or Android. Infinite positioning from bed to infinite gravity lounge comfort. When I proposed this design in April, 2014 there wasn't a manufactured bed made in the USA that could satisfy the perimeters of my design clearance wise. There were a couple of eastern Europe companies but they would not or could not sell in the USA that might have satisfied the design. Advanced RV took on the challenge anyway but it was not until Legget and Platt came out with a new model bed in July, 2014 that didn't have a bulky box spring base that it became feasible. Even so the base frame had to be rebuilt to size and custom mattress sections had to be made. The operation of separately controlled foot, back and pillow was maintained. It is basically a hospital bed or increasingly luxury home bed. The bonus that I didn't design or request was the beds vibrate by default.

Advanced RV has since marketed this design with custom improvements for each customer. My beds are 29" off the floor to optimize underneath storage. For instance some taller customers could not accommodate that design without hitting their heads on the upper cabinets when flopping down on the bed. Some have joined the back and pillow operation to join instead of having a separate fixed spacer mattress. One customer had one side with an articulated bed and the other side a custom Lazy-Boy type chair that you could sit with feet on the floor and sleep in. To this day other converters to my knowledge have not created beds to this sophistication other than manually propping up the backs.

This was spurred on because one thing Class Bs lacked was comforts of home where you could sit with total back and neck support. It wore on me on long trips. Every bed, seat or sofa was designed without neck support. They usually had low bolster pads for infilling for beds that presented awkward comfort and I previously had in my Class Bs both the bi-fold with ottomans and tri-fold sofa/beds. Neither satisfied.

[InterBlog]

Personally I would not want Davydd's style of bed. Not only does that kind of apparatus remind me of my dentist's chair, some of my best van memories are with other people, family and friends, gathered on our couches and having a conflab over one earth-shaking topic or another. For that scenario to occur, the couches have to act like actual couches, facing each other and with back rests for people to slouch on.

It's very possible that my opinions will evolve as I get older and various parts of my body hurt more on a regular basis. The pains of age could inspire me to have a change of heart in that regard.

[GAH]

Are those Atwood couches electric?

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by Davydd

We have a totally different setup.

Electrically operated and controlled by an iPhone or Android. Infinite positioning from bed to infinite gravity lounge comfort. When I proposed this design in April, 2014 there wasn't a manufactured bed made in the USA that could satisfy the perimeters of my design clearance wise. There were a couple of eastern Europe companies but they would not or could not sell in the USA that might have satisfied the design. Advanced RV took on the challenge anyway but it was not until Legget and Platt came out with a new model bed in July, 2014 that didn't have a bulky box spring base that it became feasible. Even so the base frame had to be rebuilt to size and custom mattress sections had to be made. The operation of separately controlled foot, back and pillow was maintained. It is basically a hospital bed or increasingly luxury home bed. The bonus that I didn't design or request was the beds vibrate by default.

Advanced RV has since marketed this design with custom improvements for each customer. My beds are 29" off the floor to optimize underneath storage. For instance some taller customers could not accommodate that design without hitting their heads on the upper cabinets when flopping down on the bed. Some have joined the back and pillow operation to join instead of having a separate fixed spacer mattress. One customer had one side with an articulated bed and the other side a custom Lazy-Boy type chair that you could sit with feet on the floor and sleep in. To this day other converters to my knowledge have not created beds to this sophistication other than manually propping up the backs.

This was spurred on because one thing Class Bs lacked was comforts of home where you could sit with total back and neck support. It wore on me on long trips. Every bed, seat or sofa was designed without neck support. They usually had low bolster pads for infilling for beds that presented awkward comfort and I previously had in my Class Bs both the bi-fold with ottomans and tri-fold sofa/beds. Neither satisfied.

At 29” high bed how do you manage sitting. My sofa bed is 22.5” which was the highest we were willing to accommodate for storage and still sit at the table reasonably comfortably.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by GeorgeRa

At 29” high bed how do you manage sitting. My sofa bed is 22.5” which was the highest we were willing to accommodate for storage and still sit at the table reasonably comfortably.

We don't sit. We lounge as you would in a zero-gravity lounger or Lazy-boy chair. I think of our Class B interior as akin to a master bedroom in a house. The 29" height is identical to our home bed which I find comfortable to get in and out of, and the maximum height so we can flop down in the bed without fear of bumping our heads on the overhead cabinets. It is totally private space as we do not entertain inside. The sitting is done with the two turned around cab seats. There is just the two of us. We've gone through the phase with back couches with two previous vans. As I mentioned they were uncomfortable to sit in mainly because they don't support your neck and head as most of our home furniture does.

[MsNomer]

How do you make them up and get sheets to stay on?

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by GAH

Are those Atwood couches electric?

Ours are not electric, and I would not have electric. It's just one more thing to break. They release manually via a spring mechanism by lifting up on the bottom edge, then folding flat.

This design has been around for years, but I'm willing to bet that it was discontinued for home use because of the tipping potential with a free-standing unit. We had a jack-knife sofa in a rec room back in the 1970's when I was a kid. Same mechanism, but if someone made the mistake of sitting on the outer edge when it was opened up, it would tip over. There's unlimited potential for injury with that configuration, but the issue was resolved via the anchoring of the mechanism to a cabinetry frame in an RV.

Here below is a modern-day equivalent of our. One thing I would recommend if you go for this type: Get Ultraleather. It's an amazing product (expensive to match), and I think much of our comfort derives from the Ultraleather, rather than the couch it's covering.

https://www.lci1.com/jack-knife-sofas

[GAH]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

We do, and we absolutely love them. Wouldn't have any other kind, and no topper needed. The seam doesn't bother us. In fact, if I position myself in certain ways, it can relieve pressure points (hip and shoulder).

The large table in this pic below was subsequently replaced with a Lagun. Another reason why we like these couches is that they can be raised and lowered one side at a time. One person (my husband) can continue sleeping while the other sits up. (Of course, now I've got a Lagun mount in the front as well as the rear, so I can swivel the passenger seat and also sit up there.)

The bedding stores in the long, narrow cabinetry portions directly beneath each couch. It's an Atwood model couch system. I've got a pic of the label somewhere.

What type of van are those couches in? I haven’t seen anything like that in a promaster. We are also looking at a custom build and may explore those couches for it. That is the reason I ask.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by GAH

What type of van are those couches in? I haven’t seen anything like that in a promaster. We are also looking at a custom build and may explore those couches for it. That is the reason I ask.

It's a 2006 T1N Sprinter, upfit by Airstream. The model is called an Interstate RS, which anecdotally we consider to be the rarest of the Airstream Interstate models (it wasn't offered at all in subsequent model years, and I only see one or two per year in the national resale market). Airstream did use the same couches in one other older Interstate model where they were located in the center of the van rather than at the rear.

If you do your own custom build, odds are good that you'll consider a Lagun table for it. These couches also work well with this kind of table, which can be swiveled around if one side is down because someone is still sleeping there. I have a Lagun receiver at the front of our van (the passenger seat swivels around to face it) and this other one in the back of our van. Versatility is everything in a Class B.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by GAH

What type of van are those couches in? I haven’t seen anything like that in a promaster. We are also looking at a custom build and may explore those couches for it. That is the reason I ask.

Those are the same couches that I was describing (in our erstwhile 2005 Interstate), except that ours were mid-coach, not rear. As InterBlog says, the ease of use and the flexibility of flipping down only one side for a rest-stop nap was really great.

However, I have to repeat that we found these beds with their huge longitudinal seams to be horrendously uncomfortable, compared to our current bed with its crosswise cracks. A bed like this COULD be made very comfortable, if they were optimized for the "bed" configuration. This would mean squared-off padding that produced tight, flat sleeping surfaces. But, they are designed more to look like (and be) comfortable sofas, at the expense of being good beds. Lots of European designs take the "square and flat" approach, as do some American "erector set" designs where you have to manually assemble your bed out of numerous square cushions. With proper foam, they make fine beds, but awful seats. In a B-van, I myself value a comfortable bed far more than a nice-looking sofa.

Despite their advantages, these beds were one of the major reasons we upgraded to our Legend. I strongly recommend that anybody considering such a design find a way to spend a night on one first.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

If you do your own custom build, odds are good that you'll consider a Lagun table for it. These couches also work well with this kind of table, which can be swiveled around if one side is down because someone is still sleeping there. I have a Lagun receiver at the front of our van (the passenger seat swivels around to face it) and this other one in the back of our van. Versatility is everything in a Class B.

Upgrading to the Lagun table was a great idea. Those huge, heavy double-receiver tables were a real bear to set up and take down. I do not have fond memories of ours.

[InterBlog]

Bed preference is a wildly individual thing and I don't understand the factors that go into it. I'm about 136 pounds, 5'6", female, athletic build, and mid-50's in age. I have often wondered if my relatively low mass causes me to achieve comfort more easily, as compared to many other people who seem to struggle with it.

My husband and I have a custom mattress at home. My side is almost as firm as a concrete floor and I'm perfectly pleased with it. The seller noted to me that the only customers who order that kind of mattress are natives of certain Asian cultures which do not use conventional mattresses (I'm not Asian). When they come here, they want something similar to what they had at home, and that's the main reason they stock that kind of mattress (Houston has a large Asian immigrant population).

I don't like soft mattresses, or soft jack-knife couches. The human species evolved over several million years in the absence of Tempur-Pedic and similar technologies. Sometimes when people fuss because they find their beds to be too hard, I wonder if the problem is that they are really too soft and they just don't realize it yet. I dunno.

[GeorgeRa]

I spent some time designing our sofa/bed to speed up converting it to bed or to sofa including bedding. It takes less than a minute to convert to sofa or bed. The mattress topper is permanently attached at the rear of the bed rolled and strapped to the headboard prior to sliding bed back to the sofa position. For the bed position there is an internal latch with front release keeping bed down with air-spring compressed. For sofa position there are 2 spring loaded dead bolts on each side of the sofa.

I added the headboard which height can be adjusted but it seems as one height is good for sleeping and provides sufficient clearance to rear doors at sofa position.

The bed was done by the great local upholstery shop, it is European style firm, foam is 6”-7” thick, the front of the sitting area is raised about an inch for sitting comfort.

If I would be doing another conversion (not planned) I would change 8020 construction to a welded aluminum tubing structure in order to decrease the weight, all dimensions would stay the same or just get a good rock & roll one from EU with seat belts, crash tested with TUV rating like fore example Reimo.

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by Davydd

We don't sit. We lounge as you would in a zero-gravity lounger or Lazy-boy chair. I think of our Class B interior as akin to a master bedroom in a house. The 29" height is identical to our home bed which I find comfortable to get in and out of, and the maximum height so we can flop down in the bed without fear of bumping our heads on the overhead cabinets. It is totally private space as we do not entertain inside. The sitting is done with the two turned around cab seats. There is just the two of us. We've gone through the phase with back couches with two previous vans. As I mentioned they were uncomfortable to sit in mainly because they don't support your neck and head as most of our home furniture does.

Thank you, a good example how a different "camping" style requires a different design.