Sleep Configurations

We wanted, a bed you could exit without crawling over your spouse, big bath, pantry, linen closet, 25 ft or less, 5000 lbs dry and most important the floor plan we liked.

We rented what we thought we wanted first to check out our choices before we spent the big bucks.

my dinette didn't last the first season before I tore it out and replaced it with two swivel rockers.
we have an E/W queen bed that works fine for us, as long as I sleep in the lower bunk bed.

Thanks to all that weighed in. North to south is really the best way to go without the Murphy bed. |I was trying to keep the trailer short, around 16-17 ft but I think the best way to go would be the N/S bed configuration and a sofa. The two tray table idea is a definite possibility. Just looking at the dinettes hurts my back!

When "we" decided to buy a camper my wife jumped on the first one she saw, a Coleman 192RD. It is a basic camper but it does have a dinette as well as a sofa without a slide. The bed is an East West bed and a pain for me to get out of. Guess who has to climb over who. If I could go back I would definitely go for the 1 foot longer and get the walk around North South bed.

theoldwizard1 wrote:
Murphy beds sure look like a good solution to me ! A decent place to sit in the day and a decent place to sleep.

As mentioned previously, the Murphy bed requires the sacrifice of a significant chunk of the front storage compartment, which on these smaller TTs is the only outside storage available. If you don't mind that, a Murphy bed might work for you.

Murphy beds sure look like a good solution to me ! A decent place to sit in the day and a decent place to sleep.

We have twin beds in a rear bedroom,gives us room to dress, not disturb one anotherat night or morning We are older and no one has called us skinney for years

We have a corner bed and have made it work. But when we finally get a new one, it will have a walk around queen bed FOR SURE!

Agree with SoundGuy on the couch, stand alone furniture and using small folding tables, as we did the same thing.

On thing to consider on bed space ... stay away from corner beds or beds along a wall. Climbing over your (sleeping partner) is a real pain after a while. It's just no fun if your the one on the wall, and it's no fun if your the one on the open side having someone crawl over you when your in a dead sleep.

bobndot wrote:
East to West beds are more difficult to make up.
If sleeping 2 people in it, one person has to climb over the other in order to get out of the bed.

Which is one of many reasons we ditched our hybrid after just one season - couldn't wait to get rid of it and replace it with a travel trailer with no tenting and a real bed that each of us could get in/out of without annoying the other. :B



One caution: While more and more manufacturers are now installing a full length 80" queen bed there are still quite a few models fitted with just a short queen. Ours was like that so I extended it 6" myself, current versions of my same trailer now have a full length queen. :B

North to South beds are usually island beds that offer walk around bed making as well as under the bed storage. Its also easier to reach overhead cabinets and side closets and night stands are normally used for more storage.

As you can see North to south island beds are convenient to use plus more storage.

Unfortunately, some manufacturers in an effort to provide both a queen bed and sofa in a shorter trailer will install a Murphy bed, the downside being the mechanism in many cases eliminates or drastically reduces any storage under it and usually severely limits any front pass through cargo storage space. This may work for some but certainly not for us as we make great use of that massive front storage compartment. :(

Also consider a comfortable place to sit. Some dinettes are horrible once you sit in them for an hour and a sofa would be a very welcome addition to a floorplan like that. If you choose a floorplan with a dinette only (no sofa) then make sure its a comfy dinette-long-term for the inclement days/nights.

Easy to say, tough to do. Insisting on both a sofa and dinette by definition means a longer trailer than many of us are willing to drag around ... since we eat outside more often than inside our solution was a floor plan with a sofa only. The trailer did come with a stand alone table but it's way too big, too heavy so we instead use a couple of lightweight, folding TV tables whenever we might want to eat while seated at the dinette. Works for us and means we don't have to drag around a bigger trailer. :B