Murphy Beds- opinions?

We looked at them before but decided against one because we didn't want to make the bed every time we use it and its just the two of us so there is enough room in that area. One of the big reasons I didn't want one is that in our price range the way they are built made me feel like it wouldn't hold up that well..That being said I build cabinets and furniture for a living and see how everything is built but also understand they need to keep the weight down. No offence to anyone and maybe some TT models are built different that mine.

We love the murphy bed in our minilite 2504S. I couldn't imaging the trailer without it. We have an enormous amount of floor space, a couch and a bed all in a 25' bunk camper. The amount of open floor space was very important, as we had a new born and a three year old. It gave them tons of floor area to play on, crawl on, fight on, roll around on etc. In the evening we read the boys books on the couch, tuck them into bed and then fold down our bed. It does lose the pass through feature of the storage, but 80% of that storage is still there, it is just broken up into smaller pieces. Our camper has tons of storage, to the point that it even impresses others that do have larger trailers with the front pass through under the queen bed. We actually have so much storage that it isn't all used, and we go on 10-14 day long mountain trips that have had -10'C to +33'C in the same trip and we have had clothes, toys and everything we could possibly want for us and the two boys, with storage to spare, and I don't pack light.

We never had a pass thru so the remodel didn't lose anything. We went from seating we hated to a comfortable couch. Added a regular clothes dresser like you would have in a house plus a table/desk.

Our Murphy stays made up all the time except for the pillows which are stowed behind the couch. Remove pillows, flip down the couch back, and flip down bed. The whole process takes less than 30 seconds.

Of course this is a one off custom install.

We looked at them at RV shows when shopping for a new TT last spring. I didn't want to lose the pass thru storage, and DW didn't want to have to make up the bed every day and then pull it out at night. All you get out of the deal is a somewhat shorter TT, and a couch. The tradeoff didn't seem worth it for us. Those who really need a smaller unit, i.e. boondockers and those with less capable TVs might find it to be an advantage.

A few years ago I looked at some at the RV show. The idea did intrigue me. Certainly made for a much shorter trailer but still had a full size "island" bed.

However several things tended to go against it. For one, the models they had then all lost the pass through storage. That's not a good thing. Another was if your partner wanted to go to bed before you, you'd lose the sofa to sit on.

So ultimately, we decided against it, that it wasn't a really great idea for us.

ColoNative wrote:
For those who have or have had them, what do you think? Are they comfortable, or no? I know they cost some storage, but it seems you gain floor space in a smaller trailer.

SidecarFlip wrote:
Never slept with Mr. Murphy, I'll have to ask my wife if she has.....

So, how did that conversation go? LOL

BizmarksMom wrote:
I decided against one because I really like having the bed all ready for me to crawl into without any set up. I had spent years car camping - literally sleeping in the back of the car - and was tired of folding out the mattress, unrolling the sleeping bag, finding the pillows, and undoing it all again in the morning.

But, that's me and my preferences.

It's easily done with the Lance - leave it made up and flop it down whenever you're ready! Or get a nice warm "Bed Maid" (Lance mfg) or Travasak"

I decided against one because I really like having the bed all ready for me to crawl into without any set up. I had spent years car camping - literally sleeping in the back of the car - and was tired of folding out the mattress, unrolling the sleeping bag, finding the pillows, and undoing it all again in the morning.

But, that's me and my preferences.

I had one and while the concept of conversion sounds good on paper, I left mine set up as a bed almost all the time. That plus the loss of storage space made it easy to decide against one next time. It "may" be that I am lazier than most folks and conversion might work well for them.

ColoNative wrote:
I know they cost some storage, but it seems you gain floor space in a smaller trailer.

Not "some" storage but a lot of storage - very little to no front pass through cargo compartment storage space, no under bed storage. Compare that to any trailer with a conventional front queen bed and front pass through cargo compartment and there's no comparison. :(