Question about rear Dining/Living/Bed

[fulltimin]

Those of you who have no permanent bed in your rig, but have the rear living arrangement where the Dining table turns into a bed, and is also used as a living arrangement, do you like it?

Do you find it to be a pain to change to a bed and then back to a dining table?

What would you change about it if you could, or would you leave it as is?

What's the good, bad, or indifferent?

Thanks.

[Dusty_R]

One thing about using the crows nest. Be sure that the rungs/steps on the ladder are about 2 inches wide not just pipe rungs even if they are flattened some they are hard on bare feet.

Dusty

[4x4van]

My last C, a 26' Jamboree, was what was known as the "party plan". It had a couch, two swivel chairs (with a pull out table between them), and a dinette, along with a full width rear bath; the only dedicated bed was the overhead. The layout gave us tons of living/seating area (could easily seat 9 even without the swivel cab seats) for the "party", yet still had a dedicated bed (the crow's nest, as some have called it). The dinette made into a bed (albeit for short people) and the couch pulled into a bed, so we could sleep 6.

DW & I slept up top, and when our kids came along they would use the couch and dinette. It took only a minute to set up/take down those beds, but it was kind of a pain to make sure everyone was up in order to make breakfast, and of course the party had to move outside if they wanted to go to bed early.

Overall, we loved the layout, since the dedicated floor space for "living" was larger than with a floor level bed. Although we now have an A, I believe that one of the advantages of a C is that the overhead bed allows more of the floorspace to be used for "living" as opposed to sleeping, as long as you are physically able to climb up & down every night.

[Katy19]

Hi, Just a little highjack of this thread as we have the same question while trying to stay 25ft or less.. For those that use the convertible sofa bed , how comfortable is it? We will be in our RV more than half the yr.

[fulltimin]

LOG wrote:
Our 25ft class C/B+ does not have a bed, cabover, or dinette. But it does have a 76" sofa, two lounge chairs, rear galley, and full bathroom. It is like having the living space of a 36ft diesel pusher without the bedroom and washer/dryer. Between the two lounge chairs is a fold out table and the sofa converts to a bed. It is not for everyone but we love it.

Thanks!

[LOG]

Our 25ft class C/B+ does not have a bed, cabover, or dinette. But it does have a 76" sofa, two lounge chairs, rear galley, and full bathroom. It is like having the living space of a 36ft diesel pusher without the bedroom and washer/dryer. Between the two lounge chairs is a fold out table and the sofa converts to a bed. It is not for everyone but we love it.

[fulltimin]

Anybody else want to chime in here?

[fulltimin]

ron.dittmer wrote:
Here is a typical Phoenix Cruiser scenario.

Here is the floor plan of Phoenix Cruiser model 2350 with the sofa and fridge inside the slide out.


Here is the same model 2350 with the dinette and NO slide out. Notice how the dinette is utilizes the angled transition wall space between the house and cab. CLICK HERE to see actual pictures. The last picture shows how the front bench utilizes the transition wall to help achieve a comfortable size dinette.


Not only does the dinette utilize more wall space, it provides lots of bench storage and large over-head storage as seen with our 2350 HERE. Having a couch inside a slide out sacrifices a lot of cabin storage. It also has you setting up a table of one sort or another. Another issue is that with the couch, the person sitting on the forward position can't see the TV unless you have a customized method to swing out the TV.

Great pictures. Nice to see the differences between slide outs, and no slide outs.

Thank you so much!

[ron_dittmer]

Here is a typical Phoenix Cruiser scenario.

Here is the floor plan of Phoenix Cruiser model 2350 with the sofa and fridge inside the slide out.


Here is the same model 2350 with the dinette and NO slide out. Notice how the dinette is utilizes the angled transition wall space between the house and cab. CLICK HERE to see actual pictures. The last picture shows how the front bench utilizes the transition wall to help achieve a comfortable size dinette.


Not only does the dinette utilize more wall space, it provides lots of bench storage and large over-head storage as seen with our 2350 HERE. Having a couch inside a slide out sacrifices a lot of cabin storage. It also has you setting up a table of one sort or another. Another issue is that with the couch, the person sitting on the forward position can't see the TV unless you have a customized method to swing out the TV.

[fulltimin]

garmp wrote:
How about a full time bed, when slide is out, in the rear. Look at this 24 foot-ish and you can have the sofa replaced with a dinette if you wish.

We've got no slide outs on our rig. I'm in the middle of a remodel, and considering my options for floor plan since it's empty inside.

Seems to me that by not having a full time bed, gives us a lot of other options, provided that it's not too much of a pain to go back and forth.

Thanks for the input and link, though!

[garmp]

How about a full time bed, when slide is out, in the rear. Look at this 24 foot-ish and you can have the sofa replaced with a dinette if you wish.

[fulltimin]

toedtoes wrote:
Yep. It's finding what works best for you. With the cabover bed, I can have two large dogs and four adults (and a parrot) inside for an evening of chatting during a rain and we are all pretty comfy. And I am able stay with a 20.5ft length.

Wow, nice full rig.

Thanks!

[fulltimin]

winnietrey wrote:

toedtoes wrote:

Dusty R wrote:
I've always figured that as long as you are able and willing to climb up into the crows nest, bed over the cab, a full time bed down is wasted floor space.

I think it's about having a layout that fits.

Above a poster mentioned they have no problem using the dinette and the cabover. But if they didn't have the cabover - just the dinette - would it still work?

I love having the cabover because it allows me a dedicated bed. The TT I had before had the dinette and a couch only. Fortunately, the couch was positioned so that I could leave it as a bed and still be able to get around. I've seen other layouts where that would not be doable.

Toad Toes, no it would not work just to have the dinette
As far as the " crows nest as folks call it" my suggestion, buy a better ladder. We have one of those collapsible ladders, wide rungs very stable. I hope to continue to be able to climb four stair rungs for a very long time.

This is what I do not get, lets say you have been married 20, 30 40 years like us (44 years) Why do you have to sleep in the same bed? Don't get it. We have the same bed at home and would not change that.
But for 2 weeks on vacation? And BTW if one wants some romance the dinette works fine.

And as I said above, we are on vacation, DW wants to stay up and read, cool, I want to turn in early cool, one has to get up to use the facilities cool. Kind of nice in a lot of ways

We're looking at this for fulltiming, not just a vacation. That pretty much changes everything.

Thanks!

[fulltimin]

toedtoes wrote:

Dusty R wrote:
I've always figured that as long as you are able and willing to climb up into the crows nest, bed over the cab, a full time bed down is wasted floor space.

I think it's about having a layout that fits.

Above a poster mentioned they have no problem using the dinette and the cabover. But if they didn't have the cabover - just the dinette - would it still work?

I love having the cabover because it allows me a dedicated bed. The TT I had before had the dinette and a couch only. Fortunately, the couch was positioned so that I could leave it as a bed and still be able to get around. I've seen other layouts where that would not be doable.

Agreed on the proper layout. Also, how much effort it takes to go from one to the other will also dictate whether or not it is a workable solution.

Thanks!

[fulltimin]

Dusty R wrote:
I've always figured that as long as you are able and willing to climb up into the crows nest, bed over the cab, a full time bed down is wasted floor space.

Not sure I want to climb up and down a ladder at 3.00 am for a nature call though.

I like the idea of reclaiming bed space during the daytime though.

Thanks!