Remove Dinette? (long)

[cougarfan]

I am seriously considering removing the dinette from my trailer and replacing with a euro chair or recliner.

I have searched all over the net on this subject and I've come up with a few pictures and descriptions, but mostly for Class A's where they're adding theater seating-type sofas, etc. That would be too much weight for my little trailer and I don't have the room for the footstools to go out that direction anyway since I don't have a slide.

I have a small, 19' trailer with a dedicated queen bed in the front and a dinette down one side. A few of my camping trips have been in the rain (this is Oregon after all) and after not being able to be outside, I discovered the dinette is really not that comfortable. The foam isn't very thick and the fact that the back is straight up made it really uncomfortable and my back hurt for a week afterwards. I don't need the extra sleeping space the dinette provides, I'm not concerned about resale, and I'm not interested in purchasing a different trailer with different seating.

I have opened up both seats of the dinette to see what's underneath. The side by the bed just has the drawer. The other side has another drawer, wires for the inside and outside 110 plugs, and the outside cable connection (for watching tv outside) which all run under that dinette seat and then into the floor about 15 inches from the wall so I will need to cover all that. There is also a small box for the wheel well (single axle).

The supports for the dinette table are above the floor so would only need to fill the small screw holes or just throw a rug over the area. The flooring is the same from the front pass-thru storage area to the bathroom in the back. Looks like they put down one sheet of linoleum and then built the trailer on top of it so no worries there.

I would purchase a small recliner or euro chair with an ottoman, and I found a small base cabinet at Home Depot that will work to cover the wires and replace the storage I will lose by removing the drawers under the seats. I would take a sample of the current cabinet finish in to the store so I could find a stain that matches. I would use a tv tray for meals and my laptop.

I have a friend who is a contractor and will do the work for me (although I'm pretty handy and could probably do it myself) but hey, why not use the professional?

So, my question is has anyone done something like this in a trailer? I'm pretty close to doing it but thought I'd throw out the question here in the hopes someone has done it and to make sure I haven't missed something in my planning.

Sorry for the long post and thank you in advance.

Laura

[MitchF150]

I did that very thing to my trailer. It's 22' from hitch to bumper, so the camper part is only around 19' from end to end.

Here is what it looked like after removing the benches.



We also thought about adding chairs or a couch or something, but that wasn't going to work... Just not enough room.. So, I moved the existing benches end to end and that was the ticket for us.



After cutting out for the wheel well and finishing it up, it looks like this.



If we have to eat inside, we do this.



Works for us and gaining that extra foot of floor space makes a HUGE difference inside... We talked about doing this after the first year we owned it (2002), but didn't actually do it until 2010... DOH....

Best mod we've done so far, and I've done a LOT of mods! 🙂

Just what works for us.. No concern on 'resale' value, because it really would not take much to put it back to a dinette again (I still have the table and all hardware).

Good luck!

Mitch

[profdant139]

I have heard of others who have done this -- if you are not concerned about resale and you'd like a really good place to hang out during the rain, why not?? Great idea! The only trick will be making sure that it is properly secured to the subfloor, which should not be too difficult.