Best floor plan for 6 sleepers

matthewjscott,

I don't know what's available since 2014 that will fit your needs, but I can just relate our rig & family experience.

We bought our gas Class A new in 2004 after doing about 2+ years of research on different options. This was our first (and only) RV purchase and we wanted to get it right the first time. At the time we purchased, we had 4 kids (ages of about 1, 3, 4 & 8). We started looking at hybrids to tow behind our Honday Odyssey and ended up with a 36' dual slide gas class A and we tow the Odyssey behind. We looked at all options in between, but that looked to be the best option for us. Here we are almost 17 years later and it's STILL the most functional floorplan we've seen for our crew. Back in 2004, there were NOT that many bunk model class A's, and I never liked most of them anyway because the majority put the bunks right near the rear bedroom. NOT good for privacy.

Anyway, our rig has dual sofas and a dinette upfront which always gave us sufficient sleeping space. I've heard people complain about how much trouble it is to setup and put away the bedding every night & morning. I'm not really sure what the issue is. When the kids were younger, my wife and I did it in about 5 minutes for both sofas & dinette. The trick is to stow the bedding/pillows in the cabinets right above where they're sleeping. Easy peasy! :-)

Also, our rig came with 12 factory installed seatbelt positions (3 on each sofa, 4 on the dinette, passenger & driver), so the kids always had options as to where to sit. For the first 3 or 4 years we were using 1 or 2 car seats as well. This worked out well as they could change their seating positions on longer trips depending upon whether they needed the dinette, or were watching a movie, or whatever.

We decided that living space was more important the sleeping space. Kids can sleep anyway, especially younger ones, so there was no problem with that. Now that they're "full sized" they still make it work. Note, over the years, we also had 1 or two medium sized dogs travelling with us.

The problem is dual-sofa layouts seem to have fallen out of favor with the advent of the bunk units. Too bad. The kids had the front of the rig, mommy & daddy had reasonable privacy in the back. The AC or heater blower masked any sounds coming from the rear bedroom and the jacks keep the rig pretty stable. So wifey and I could watch whatever we wanted on our TV and not worry about their "little ears" listening in. Or we could do our cuddle time and even get a little "frisky" as Howard Cunningham used to put it on "Happy Days". :-) It worked great and would NOT have been possible with bunks on the other side of our door. Plus, without the bunks, we had a decent sized bathroom AND a good size closet and storage drawers midship which is needed when you've got a crew of 6 people travelling.

One thing you might consider is to widen your scope. You might be able to pick up a mid-2000 era higher-end Diesel Pusher with a dual sofa floorplan for less money than the new rigs you're looking at. When (or IF?) I ever replace our rig, I'll most likely be looking for a well cared for, early to mid 2000's high-end DP, which probably sold for over 1/2 million. I'll get all of that high end quality in a rig that's just broken in. My budget will probably be in the $100k range or so.

Well, I just wanted to give you another solution, which worked well for us. My best advice is to take your time and leave no stone unturned!

Good Luck!!!

~Rick