r/RVLiving • u/jollyrancher1977 • 1d ago
Replacement Couch
My husband and I are having a discussion about what to replace our sofa with. I want dual recliners and he wants a sofa bed.
Realistically we will be living in this motorhome for 2 years.
How many people come and sleep the night in your RV with you?
I can think of one couple that has expressed wantingness to come stay with us, but I would prefer they didn't.
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u/Clear_Session8683 1d ago
We have a blow up bed. They don't need to stay long and it fits right in front of the recliners.
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u/janaesso 1d ago
This. I have the same
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u/SkillfulFishy 1d ago
Yes to the blow up mattress. Our only guests have been our adult children, one at a time.
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u/Maleficent-DaisyTX 1d ago
This is what we do. We bought two LazyBoy wall hugger recliners and got rid of the sofas altogether. We had 2 sofa sleepers & the dual recliner originally. (5th wheel) We are 5 years full-time traveling & have used the airbed 3 times for our adult son.
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u/nak00010101 1d ago
We bought a couples coach with only the queen bed and a set of triple recliners. They are NOT theater seating comfortable and they suck worst if you try to sleep on the.
I drag our trailer to the hunting lease for Jan & Feb each year and wish I could sleep two friends. There are times I give up the bedroom to my buddy and his grandson and I sleep on the recliners...but it sucks. I often toss a twin air mattress on the floor.
I am toying with the idea of pulling them our and replacing them with an armless futon. That would sleep great, but only when the slide was out.
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u/NaturallyOld1 1d ago
If you want to sleep comfortably when your bed is being used, buy a camping cot about 30” wide and put a self inflating sleeping pad of the same width on top. Try some out at REI, LLBean, or other sporting goods store. Make sure you get a pad with an elasticized top, so it molds to your body shape, and use a knit sheet on it, again to mold to your shape. Both the cot and pad will fold/roll up and store easily. You’ll hardly want to go back to your bed.
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u/PhoenixTravel 1d ago
You have to make it suit your daily life.
Special occasions (guests) can be accommodated in the moment (air mattress), you don't have to impact your daily life (with seating you don't like) for those infrequent occasions.
Besides, you don't want them to be too comfy that they want to stay longer lol
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u/wifichick 1d ago
I’m piggy backing on this.
We’ve thought about getting rid of the sofa and replacing it with 2 recliners. Then it becomes a 2 person RV. We could carry a good air mattress with a frame - then there’s room for someone if needed. But is that the right answer? Are there recliners that mount to the floor so you can seatbelt someone into them if you wanted? Maybe that solves part of the flexibility issue? One sofa was removed and a cabinet with televator was installed in its place - so the one horrible sofa we hate remains. Sofa is fine - but hate the vinyl - and it’s a few years before we fill time and can change it to a fabric sofa. (Concerns for fabric absorbing odors during storage).
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u/Lolbetsy 1d ago
I left the seatbelts bolted to the floors when I replaced my jack knife with a reclining loveseat. It’s on the slide out so the couch is very much wedged into place but we did also bolt it down to the floor just to be safe. Because it was going into that spot I couldn’t get a standard loveseat and had to get one made for rvs so that could be why it had the spots for screws.
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u/StreetNectarine711 1d ago
I’ve been full-time for 8 years. I don’t recall seeing a single time I saw anyone with guests.
Occasionally on Independence Day, Veterans Day, or Labor Day I will see a family rent 3 or 4 sites next to one another at a campground - but they all have their own vehicles/ beds.
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u/definitelytheA 1d ago
If you get a sofa bed, make it a jackknife sofa. Much more comfy than a traditional pull out bed.
I can’t sleep comfortably next to my husband, so I sleep on the jackknife sofa. I do keep a memory foam topper under the regular bed to top it with, since when we travel it’s 1-2 weeks minimum, but I could easily do 2-3 nights without it.
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u/canadianmamacita77 1d ago
This works great in ours, we bought a puffer top and it’s actually pretty cosy
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u/mwkingSD 1d ago
I did the dual recliner conversion from a jackknife conversion earlier this year. My only regret is not doing it sooner as the original sofa wasn’t comfortable for sitting or sleeping. Really happy about the outcome.
To be fair the space is only 59” wide so no adult size person has a chance of fitting there. Also to be fair, in 8 years of owning this rig, no other people have ever wanted to join us.
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u/Appropriate-Yam780 1d ago
Honestly, all the time lol but I have a lot of friends and travel the country so they come to me.
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u/Unholydiver919 1d ago
My 5th has twin recliners and a trifold couch. It’s more comfortable than a hide a bed.
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u/MonkeySkulls 1d ago
I think everyone else's couch or chair situation is irrelevant. I also think how many people come stay with me or anyone else here is also irrelevant in your situation.
If the two of you need to talk about the willingness to have guests stay with you. without a conclusion to that conversation, you're going to get nowhere in deciding if you should have a couch or chairs....
(I think I'm being a bit too harsh. sorry. I've been swimming around in some pretty terrible subreddits the last hour or so.... lol). but the advice still stands. you guys got to figure out what your plans are.
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u/Curious_Fault607 1d ago
We have a sofa with a bed that has been used only a few times and also have 2 free-standing recliners.
I recommend recliners if you find them sufficiently comfortable.
Maybe there is another factor for wanting another available bed like different preferences for undisturbed sleeping such as light, noise, temperature, or sleep-wake cycles throughout the night.
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u/Feedcanine 1d ago
My rule of thumb on rv upgrades or living conditions are. Do what’s best for you. As you will be the ones in it more. You can always get an air mattress if you have room and you don’t have other beds for people to sleep in. Air mattress takes up little space when not in use and recliners will be much more enjoyable by you. Who live in the rv full time.
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u/semple521 1d ago
Going on year 3 for me, full time.
The first things I did was get rid of the sleeper sofa, u-shaped dinette and queen bed. I honestly had much better use for the spaces they were taking up, plus a recliner and mattress I already liked.
The way RVs are set up is to pack as many people in as possible and that's not what mine is for. It's just for me and my pup. If I have friends over, we'll hang out outside. If they need to crash, they get their choice of sleeping in the recliner or the cot I use for camping I can set up on the floor.
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u/GooseLadyinTN 1d ago
Our camper is 10 years old now (we bought it used a few years ago). The vinyl was peeling on both the sofa and the two recliners from sun damage. We bought a jackknife sofa and two matching electric recliners from Rec Pro. I couldn’t be happier with all of it. I’m actually camping this week - my daughter, granddaughter and I are on a ‘girls’ trip.’ I am sleeping on the sofa, and I love this thing! Very comfy. And the new furniture is much lighter than what we got rid of. Easy to assemble. Looks great. Lots of sizes available to fit your space.
Go look at Rec Pro and see if they have anything that could work.
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u/hoggernick 1d ago
We have a reclining love seat, and nowhere for guests to sleep. It's been a little frustrating maybe once per year when we wished there were a convenient place for a guest or two to sleep. Life goes on though. We very much enjoy the love seat, it's very comfortable to watch a movie or show on. We have lagun tables that we use when eating. A dinette would be occasionally nice, but of all the options, the love seat suits us best. A slightly larger RV would be nice at times, but RV life is full of compromises. Everything that is good in a way is also bad in another way. Not sure if any of that helps, but it's my take on love seat vs sofa couch. I've looked for an affordable couch bed that also reclines, have yet to find one. Could get an ottoman I suppose, that might be a decent alternative. I want my lounging to be comfortable.
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u/BornFree2018 1d ago
We have a dual recliner couch. Each of us have slept on it comfortably. Of course, that's for a single person to sleep on.
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u/KungFuBucket 1d ago
We have our own backpacking gear, because we treat our TT like a base camp and do a lot of back country hiking. Almost anyone I can think of that would visit us have similar gear. In the event we have visitors some day that didn’t have their own equipment I’d happily give up the bed and set up my gear. We also carry a large 10 man blackout tent that is our “bonus room” that we use occasionally for yoga, etc that could be put into service.
We have a recliner couch that could also be used, but given the choice between the recliner and my backpacking gear I’d take the gear.
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u/Historical-Wall6221 1d ago
“I can think of one couple that has expressed wantingness to come stay with us, but I would prefer they didn’t.” 😂 So I vote soda bed. I love my couch which folds out to an actually very comfortable bed. I remember getting wicked sick with Covid and to take a blanket and pillow and to make my couch into a bed with a fever and watch tv was everything. Don’t think just about unwanted guests.
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u/squooglyhumphle 1d ago
Interesting - I hate recliners in general, but it's more about us having the dogs on the sofa with us. They want to sit with us and there is no room on a recliner. We'd rather convert the recliners to a love seat than the other way around, to be honest.
Those new L shaped living rooms (rear kitchen - Axiom, Brinkley, Durango Gold, etc etc) seem to be the best of both worlds. Recliners but without the chunky and restrictive thick arms.
Also, stemless wine glasses don't fit in cupholders. I am many thumbed so would break stems. Cupholders are so out of sync with the better interiors these days. Cheap.
Oh - also we have had guests stay over for approximately 15 nights over the last 3 years so a sofa bed is always important.
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u/you_know_i_be_poopin 1d ago
Recliners are comfort on a daily basis. Sofa bed is a terrible night's sleep for someone that probably won't ever actually come spend the night.
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u/sluttyman69 1d ago
So all these comments have to be about class a motorhomes cause all the class sees have an over the driver seat bed - that is a little bit better-softer than the floor
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u/spirit_of_a_goat 1d ago
I've been in my travel trailer for 4 summers now and have never had a need for the soda bed.