Swapping a jack knife sofa for a recliner

[Damdifino]

I'm thinking of swapping out the jack knife sofa for a wall hugger recliner in my Arctic Fox 22H. Can anyone think of any gotchas here, other than, like, fitting stuff through the door?

[RollandB]

Carol, when I brought in the Flestelel jackknife sofa a buddy helped and we did have it down in the sleeping setting. No problem but I also have space inside without much in obstructions. You could make a mock up from some cardboard made like the sofa you want.

[rooney77]

I pulled my jackknife out, just a few days ago, to install my flooring. I opened the sofa then with the help of a friend we walked on out, no problems. It had to be opened though (sleeping position). Put it back in the exact same way.

[Robert_and_Caro]

Hi, we just bought an 04 Minnie Winnie and it had two big recliners. We took them out and are looking for a sleeper sofa (jack-knife or magic bed). The guy at the rv salvage yard said that a jack-knife won't come apart to go thru the door, same with the magic bed by flexsteel. He said we'd likely have to take the slide off and put the sofa in, then put the slide back in. Would love to hear anyone's thoughts on this. Thanks, Carol

[wannavolunteerF]

I had a friend who replaced his jackknife with a loveseat recliner. Said it was much better. when he sold TT he put jackknife back in and offered to sell me loveseat. I wanted to make that same change, but my jackknife is in slide and has slide mechanism and other mechanical stuff under it so I have to keep my sofa that only sits so so..

If you can... go for it.

[DD716TED]

I replaced my couch with 2 recliners...Only thing I had to do was put down laminate flooring under where the fold out couch was...Our couch was in the slide out so there was no access from the outside to under the couch..

[Bowti]

You also might want to look into a loveseat recliner instead of two recliners. They recline individually but have the added advantage of acting somewhat like a couch enabling you to lay down if wanted.

[Jim-Linda]

Removed our sofa, had to partially disassamble to get it out the door. Recliner had removable back so no problem going in door. 1998 HH Champagne 38'

Jim

[Dick_B]

That's what we did when the rig was manufactured. Actually two recliners.
Some recliners come apart to make it easier to go thru tight spaces and haul with cars.

[DutchmenSport]

Just make sure you don't have any wires or plumbing running under the current sofa. It's not impossible to re-route them or even create a new conduit for them to pass through, still ... if you have anything major under there, you'll need to figure out a way to get around that.

Our Dutchmen Sport had a jack knife sofa across the front of the camper. I hated that thing, especially with the curved nose, so you could never sit back without your head hitting the wall behind you,very uncomfortable. Unfortunately, I could not remove it. Under it was the front pass-through storage. We would have lost all of that, and space was limited in that camper.

My Keystone had a built in couch along the curb side wall. Hated that thing too and wanted to remove it. Couldn't. The furnace was under it as was a great deal of plumbing and electric wires, including the water pump. Couldn't use the space for any storage either because of all of that.

Solution? Purchased a new camper!

[RollandB]

If there isn't an outside storage access infer the sofa and the recliner fits in the door you should have an easy transition. One past trailer we had did have an area below the sofa with an outside access door but the sofa was secured to the floor. We just did the opposite of what you did, replaced two old recliners with a jackknife sofa. Good luck with your change.

[Fiverwheel]

Many recliners now come with the back removable so that they can get thru small doors Ect. We put a Lazy Boy in our MH after removing the sofa behind the passenger seat. Big improvement!

[DrewE]

On my motorhome, the jackknife sofa is not mounted on the floor but rather built on a box that is also a storage bay with a door to the outside. From what I can see that isn't the case for your trailer, but it would be good to make sure that there aren't any tanks or systems "stuff" hiding within.