Dinette Benches or Sofa

805gregg wrote:
Personally I would much rather look at my lovely wife or the view outside than the wall of the bathroom, just add a removable cushion as a sofa arm and you have both

Lol!

Personally I would much rather look at my lovely wife or the view outside than the wall of the bathroom, just add a removable cushion as a sofa arm and you have both

We took out the dinnete in our slide, and replaced it with a Lazyboy reclining loves eat. I have never been happy with the dinnetes in our present or past TC. We rarely stay in one place over a week or so. We did 14000 miles in one summer to Alaska and back. 7000 miles last year to Canada to Noviscotia,down the east coast, and home. When you travel a lot, the difference in recling back in that leather love seat, feet up, food on a tray, tv on looking at the weather on TV, checking email on the IPad, etc....you get the point. I would never want to switch back to the dinnete. When we are camped and it's raining, not much to see, if it's pretty, we are outside in our rockers.

bobndot wrote:
I also wanted something a little more comfortable on those raining days and didn't want to loose my underneath storage so I made a smaller table which allows a lot of elbow room , added a slideout footrest (which slides in under the seat cushion) and a back pillow on both sides. It was simple ( requiring no skill :) ) and inexpensive to do. It might be an option for someone.
It works great allowing me to keep my much needed storage at the same time leave the OEM dinette for the next owner.
I store a 1/4" plank of plywood under the queen mattress to use as added counter space while cooking. When I need extra countertop workspace, I place it on top the bed near the sink. It's stable enough to hold what I need.
This picks up the workspace lost because of changing to a smaller dinette table and could be cut to the same size as the OEM table to fit into the slots to make up the dinette as a sleeper if needed.

I used those same round table tops in my Flair.
bumpy

We use to have an AF 1140 and we ordered it with the sofa in place of the dinette table. It had an long table on slides so you could get into the couch and then pull the table closer to you. I didn't like that long table as if you wanted to take it down you had to store it some place and about the only place for it was on the bed. It had 2 posts for it to set on so I maked up (from butcher block cutting boards) a couple of small tables. One fit on each post so each of us had our own little table that could be used for eating or our computers if we so wished. This way if the other one didn't want the table up they could take theirs down and have a nice lounging area. The little tables were not hard to store when you did want to use them.

We never had a problem with the direction the couch faced as we had a window right behind us plus a window at the end of the sofa to look out of. The thing of having a window at your back would have been the same if we had a dinette as when you were sitting in the one booth the window in the back of the rig was at your back and you couldn't see out of it.

If I ever get another camper it well most likely be a 1140 with a sofa again. I really miss having the sofa. Would have loved to had it on our Alaska trip last summer as there were days when it was cold outside and then we went from that right to 96 to 98* weather in Fairbanks. When we came back from sight seeing all day and were hot and tired it would have been nice to sit in the camper with the AC going and some comfortable seating also.

tooldad1041 wrote:
I have a bronco 1500. I converted the dinette into a couch.

Pictures, please!

I HATE the dinette in my Bronco 1500. It's more comfortable to sit on the stovetop than the dinette.

The dinette bench is too narrow and high to sit on comfortably, period.
With the tabletop in bed position it is too wide to sit at, period.
There aren't enough pillows in the world to make it comfortable, period.

My idea has been to convert the dinette into a futon, but I am having problems finding a decent 68"-72" futon mattress that doesn't cost more than my camper is worth!

I also wanted something a little more comfortable on those raining days and didn't want to loose my underneath storage so I made a smaller table which allows a lot of elbow room , added a slideout footrest (which slides in under the seat cushion) and a back pillow on both sides. It was simple ( requiring no skill :) ) and inexpensive to do. It might be an option for someone.
It works great allowing me to keep my much needed storage at the same time leave the OEM dinette for the next owner.
I store a 1/4" plank of plywood under the queen mattress to use as added counter space while cooking. When I need extra countertop workspace, I place it on top the bed near the sink. It's stable enough to hold what I need.
This picks up the workspace lost because of changing to a smaller dinette table and could be cut to the same size as the OEM table to fit into the slots to make up the dinette as a sleeper if needed.

We love our Dinette & separate sofa in our 2013 Eagle Cap 1160, with dry bath.

But, it is a very heavy Truck Camper, handled very well by 2012 Ram 3500 Laramie 6.7ltr diesel 4.10 rear diff, longbed, regularly getting 13.6-13.8 mpg at 58-60mph.

Doug.

I would love to have a couch.....but only if it were at the back in another slide. We actually love the dinette. Especially with the extra windows we put in the sides of the slide. 180 views from the dinette on the driver side. The couple that took our rig to Argentina and back actually put in a breakfast nook in their remodeled house that was based off of the TC dinette.

I have a bronco 1500. I converted the dinette into a couch. If you are camping, most of time, you will eat outside.

I simply bought a goodwill couch for $25 and used the cushions. All I needed to do was cut a piece of plywood for the base. Makes darn near a twin bed for the 10 year old to sleep on and a lot more comfortable than the dinette cushions.

There is not enough room to sit up in the overhead bunk. So if I am stuck inside camper, I can do what I need on the couch. Really didn't like the short seat and straight backs. Felt like I was in grammar school.

will do a couple of more cabinet relocating this summer to add the arm rests from the old couch, then I (or another adult) can actually lay on the couch to rest if needed.

Also going to figure out how to make recliners for it. I have a couple of 12v linear actuators. I saw in a CMT Trick my truck show, where they used them to make the recliner lift up and down. thinking about going that route, just because!

Now in the bronco, the dinette/couch is across from the stove/sink and I can look out the window, so no I don't stare at the bathroom door. That was actually one of the first things to take out to gain more storage.