We just got back from an RV show here in mid-Michigan and found some very comfortable La-Z-Boy Pinnacle rocker-recliners in one of the units. I'm going to see if those could be retrofit into the slide of our 16TBS in place of the sleeper-sofa. The sleeper aspect of our sofa is useless because there is no center support for the "mattress". The sofa is only marginally comfortable for anything longer than eating dinner. Two of the recliners would fit, but I'm not sure the bases can be accommodated in the slide. Some camper disassembly is coming up!
Merlin - It's funny that you happen to be mentioning this right now because we were just talking about doing this earlier today! We are on our inaugural trip in our new 21BHS and love it, but we find ourselves really longing for a comfortable chair or recliner to sit in (especially while on a 5-week trip!). We were talking about doing the exact same thing...... Retrofitting the dinette area into 2 recliners. Would have to be built into the slide, but I think it could be done. Then we could have some sort of a free-standing table to set up in front of the recliners when it's time to eat. Will be interested in following your pursuits in this, as maybe we could do something similar.
We just changed out all the cushion padding to a much denser firmer padding trying to make our 21BHS more comfortable. It worked but hey tow lazy boy chairs would certainly do the trick. Even two small comfortable sitting chairs would be more preferable to the table arrangement.
I've spent some time in the camper today looking the situation over. A simple fact (I'm sure known by others who have replaced furniture) is that anything in the slide has to ride in and out with it. In the 16TBS, the bottom of the slide is just over 9 inches higher than the floor of the trailer. So, if you put a standard recliner/chair/sofa/whatever in the slide, you start with your feet an extra 9 inches off the floor (+ or - a bit).
I did look into putting more comfortable sofa cushions in ours, but the construction is such that a steel bar runs the length right under your knees. Avoiding that would require a much deeper cushion, and then you are back with the issue noted above; your feet dangling in the air in front of the sofa.
I've not given up on the nice recliner idea, but the search is on for one that starts with the seat much lower than standard.
I was discouraged at the RV show I mentioned earlier in that a lot of furniture made for RVs is just simply uncomfortable. The cushions are either hard, or sit on something hard, or way too soft with no support. In the 14,000 seats (or so it seemed) we sat in that day, only the very last ones, the La-Z-Boys, were really comfortable.
We did buy last year a pair of very comfortable outdoor folding chairs from Gander Mountain that we transport in the front storage area and get out at campsites for around the campfire. I wonder if even something like those could work in the slide? First world problems, I know, but when you gotta sit you gotta sit.
My bride Jan (43 years) purchased a couple of very light weight hasseks that are about 18 inches in diameter and 18 inches tall. We use these to prop up our feet and also as a back rest when on the bed sitting up reading as they fill in the curved area (front of trailer) quite well. Cheap addition that adds measurable comfort for little money. A chair would be choice however!
[p]You can't really make the La-Z-Boy boxy recliner shorter so it will fit on the slide out with your feet on the floor. You would have to cut it all apart and sew it back together to make it shorter[/p][p]
[/p][p]But take a look at the following pic of our living room recliner. It would be fairly easy to cut the top of the u-shaped wooden frame off about 9" to lower its overall height and the re bolt it to the arm and frame. Then bolt the round base to the diamond plate on the slideout, and viola! you have a short recliner. The hassock that goes with it can sit in front after it is slid out. Should work nicely.[/p][p]
[/p][p]And it is a very comfortable recliner. We bought it a dozen years ago to use in our then new 24' fifth wheel while we camped in the western states for a few months. Now it is my favorite in the living room. Not cheap though. Probably would now cost $400 in a furniture store, but maybe cheaper online. Here is one of a similar design that could work the same- http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Enterprises-Leather-Recliner-Ottoman/dp/B004X5YBI0/ref=sr_1_53?s=furniture&ie=UTF8&qid=1453773969&sr=1-53&keywords=leather+recliner[/p][p]
[/p][p][attachment id="1123" thumbnail="1"][/p][p]
David[/p]
Instead of finding shorter chairs, assuming there is room with the slide not extended, has anyone built a folding platform to extend the platform area of the slide? My thoughts were to build fabricate and L-shaped extension that is hinged in the center of the L and hinged at the connection to the slide.
Am I crazy?
I would need more lines of evidence before I could answer your crazy or not question, but extending the platform is intriguing. That might give the much needed "footrest" for climbing up into a standard recliner in the slide. I'm not sure it needs to be folding. I'll give that a careful look next time I can get the slide out (probably frozen in right now).
Just guessing from memory, there is enough room in front of the slide platform with it closed to put in a platform extension. But it would mean climbing over it each time you went inside with the slide closed. Also the recliner would look like an elevated throne.
David
[quote source="/post/18232/thread" timestamp="1454341016" author="@david"]Just guessing from memory, there is enough room in front of the slide platform with it closed to put in a platform extension. But it would mean climbing over it each time you went inside with the slide closed.[/quote]
[a href="https://flic.kr/p/Dzhzot"]
(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1570/24661878891_54988f048d_z.jpg)
This is amazing!I got on here to ask a question about something I saw on another site and voila...here you guys are already talking about an idea that I was going to put across to you. We found a reclining sofa, but think it may be a bit too heavy for the slide in our 16TBS. We even entertained the idea of some kind of gaming chair that resembled a computer chair. Anything would be better than the sofa we have in there now. We did get the other couch to replace it, but have elected not to put it in (that is another story). David, we are really liking your idea with your recliner as we have a three month trip in the future. We will be following this story.
My wife and I are contemplating putting in swivel chairs and a table in place of the sofa. I read, on another forum, that Casita has such chairs, but I don't know the brand name, or where/how to purchase them. If we were able to do this conversion, is there a market for the sofa??? Would anyone want this hardly used item?
Let me know what you think
Happy Trails
I looked up the Casita Campers and saw the swivel captains chairs that come in their campers. They really didn't look comfortable. I did find at www.cymax.com a Coaster faux leather recliner that comes with an ottoman. I was wondering if a gaming chair would somehow work. Some are fairly small and quite comfortable. As for getting rid of the sofa...maybe put online under ebay or recreational accessories website for sale? We have two sofas to get rid of, the original that came with our camper without the support and also the jacknife sofa that was to replace the sofa bed
I like the looks of the chairs that David posted in the earlier link. I looks doable to make those fit. However, I've learned to only buy chairs of any sort only after some "seat time", since things that look good may or may not be comfortable. I'm going to look around locally for something like that to try them out.
Camping World in Bartow FL has a light-weight reclining chair at the front of the store. I asked the brand - they said it was Voltage. It is not a swivel recliner, and the base appeared to be plastic. However, it might work.
We have 2 Camping Worlds nearby, I'll see if one of them has that same display chair.
I just spent over two hundred dollars on new firmer foam for my 21BHS cushions. After reading all the comments on recliners, I think it would be interesting to have a love seat recliner (wall hugger type) in the table area. The space or platform for the bed area minus the cushions is 72 inches wide by 40 inches deep. This is perfect for a love seat recliner. I am not sure why this would not work and Rooms to Go has a multitude of love seat recliners to pick from. Am I missing something here as why this would not work? This is the last major area of comfort improvement I can think for this trailer. It may add a little more weight but the improved seating comfort may be worth it. We are about to leave for Flordia for 8 nights out and will check on dimensions etc. to see if we can figure out why it would not work. Does one ever stop spending money on these travel trailers??
Yes, I think it can work (putting recliners in the dinette slide). There are many sizes and styles of recliners or love seat recliners that would fit in that area, but how can we figure out if the slide is capable of handling the additional weight? I would hate to go through all of the modifications and installation only to find out that the slide is incapable of handling it.
We looked into love seats but found a limited selection in the width we have available. The slide in the 16TBS is significantly less wide than the slide in the 16DBS or any of the 21 footers. We have a bit less than 64" to work with. They shortened it up to accommodate the N-S king size bed. We may still find a love seat recliner, but 2 chairs recliners have a much greater chance of fitting in terms of width. There is nothing light about the heavy steel frame sofa-bed that came with our 16TBS, so I'm not too worried about weight so long as we stay away from any that are super heavy.
OK, maybe the weight won't be an issue. I measured our dinette and we have 72" to work with (6 feet). So I'm fairy confident that we'll be able to find something that will fit. It's really going to boil down to whether or not we'll be able to get them set in there in such a way that they are well supported and won't sit up too high. Will probably have to have aluminum support beams welded across the open area to support the recliners. Any ideas or suggestions from the group would be greatly appreciated!
There's been some good group-think so far on what to do about sitting up too high, but we'll need some more to solve the problem. I have a great selection of cutting tools from a Sawzall to a Dremel and I'm not afraid to use them on furniture! P-)
[quote source="/post/18389/thread" author="@gbpack" timestamp="1454623810"]Will probably have to have aluminum support beams welded across the open area to support the recliners.
[/quote][font size="3"]As an inveterate do-it-your-self-er I prefer screws, bolts, and gusset plates. Can do at home, much more reworkable, and easily removed if desired. Buy some 1"x1" or 1"x2" 6061T6 AL tubing from HD or Amazon and measure carefully 8-) [/font]
We are really looking at this but just measured the door opening and usable entry space is only 20 inches. Not sure if Houdini could get anything of much size through that space. We are going to experiment later today with one those fancy lawn chairs with a side table (collapses) The lawn chair is 36 wide with little table extended, 26" table down the height is 18" to the seat. We have two small leather chairs at home that may fit the bill exactly but the feet would have to be removed, most are attached by one single screw through the middle of the foot. Either way the biggest issue to get around is height of seating. When I am seated on the current seat, there are 16" from the top of my head to the ceiling of the slide. Anything over 18 high on the platform will be tight for head room. Maybe a beach chair (those cut off to sit in the sand) would work but not sure if we would gain anything in comfort.
This project may be a lost cause due to overall gain not worth the trouble.
Yup, the door is a limiting factor for getting things in and out. One of the reasons we were drawn to the Lay-Z-Boy recliner is the back simply slides off for moving it through narrow doors. It does seem to always come back to seating height!
Another thought on the recliners...I wonder if we would need to look at an incliner where the back doesn't go back but the foot rest still comes up. Probably the same thing as a wall hugger? Looked into furniture for rv's and saw a pretty comfortable tooking chair. Was only 30 inch side which the 16TBS slide would be able to fit two with the 63 inches given to use. Just a thought!
Any chance you still have a link to that 30" wide wall-hugger?
Well we experimented today in our 21BHS. We removed all cushions to give us the largest area available, 72 inches wide by 40 inches deep. We put two outside chairs each 18 inches from floor to seat area on the platform. No problem for room but the stepping up issue was a problem. We were going to watch the Super Bowl this way and changed the seating back after 10 minutes. We had hassocks for foot rest but had to be balanced on the platform, otherwise they were too low on the floor. The major issue was the step up and trying not to stumble or misstep. Dead issue for us now.
What do you think about this one? Specifically designed for RV's. 68"' wide would fit in our 72" slide opening in our 21BHS. Do you think we could get the slide base modified to the point where this would fit and work?
http://www.glastop.com/rv-furniture-detail.asp?id=430
This looks like a very nice love seat. Not sure it will fit through the trailer door however. I did not see a weight on the sofa and I do not know if the slide out has a weight restriction, I bet it does but LL would have to answer that question. I also think you could find someone to modify the slide base (needs to be able to weld aluminum) by lowering the seat platform and they could probably add a few extra pieces of aluminum for support. I have not actually seen what is under the seating area so not sure what would be involved but again bet someone at an RV repair shop could give you some direction. Lazy Boy recliners may work better because the back comes off (not sure about the LB loveseat) the recliner.
Merlin,
Sorry it took so long to get back to you. It looks like someone has already posted the link to Glastop RV Furniture. They also have recliners and wall huggers. We stopped in to our local Camping World today. They had some recliners on display that looked small enough to fit two in our small slides.
I'm not sure I understand the consern about a weight restriction for the slide. If it's rated for two people sitting at a dinette why wouldn't it be rated for two people sitting in recliners?
How about 2 of these?
22" wide eadh.
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/marquee-armless-reclining-sofa-jaleco-chocolate/83897
More options with armrests or individual center consoles:
http://www.campingworld.com/search/index.cfm?Ntt=reclining&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=primary&Ntpc=1&N=4294957702&Ne=1000002&Ns=p_price_pc
These appear to be all lippert furniture. The math seems to work width wise: two with armrests 29"x 2=58" wide. my lippert slide is 59" wide. The seat hight is 20"...not sure about that for comfort when sitting unreclined raised up on the slide platform.
We just spent the afternoon at a Camping World furniture outlet trying out various sofas and recliners by Lippert, especially their Thomas Payne collection. All were comfortable (though some more than others!) and many would fit fine in our 64 inch wide slide out. The kicker (so to speak) is that only the jack-knife sofas would work in our slide because they have no regular furniture base.
The bottom of the slide is 10 inches higher than the floor (both to clear the wheel well and because of the frame on the slide bottom. That means that conventional RV furniture with 20" high seats would leave our legs dangling 30 inches off the floor and be a bear to climb into. In addition, the bottom of the slide is not very deep, so it's tricky to consider modifying furniture by removing any base structure to get the seat lower. And, finally, we really don't want to resort to carrying stools/footrests just so we can get into the seats. So, we are going to try some jack-knife sofas and see if we can find a comfortable one as a replacement for our sofa-bed that is not comfortable to us. While we are looking, I'm going to follow Whoofit's lead and see if something completely custom might be rigged up that would fit our needs.
tlbones,
I checked various sites on the Swintek slide and some manufacturers have more issues with the slides than others. One guy states there are weight restrictions and some OEM's overload them hence a problem. My trailer is at storage and I do not have the manual to see which slide model I have on the 21BHS. I checked several manuals on-line and none indicate a weight limit but again there are so many sizes etc. I guess they cannot list a weight restriction in each general manual.
One thing I did learn reading the manuals is to continue pressing the close/open switch for two seconds after the wall has stopped. This evidently helps the two motors stay synchronised. I have always released the switch when I thought the slide was closed or open. Notes from manual below, I will check to see if there is a Swintek topic in this site and post below comments there as well.
Extending Slide-out Room
1. Level the unit.
2. Verify the battery is fully charged and hooked up to the electrical system.
3. Remove the transit bars (if so equipped).
4. Press and hold the IN/OUT switch (Fig. 1B) in the OUT position until the room is fully extended and
stops moving.
NOTE: It is important to continue to press the slide-out switch for a few seconds after the room is fully
extended until the motor shuts off. The control will sense that the room has stopped and will shut
off the motor after a few seconds.
5. Release the switch, which will lock the room into position.
Retracting Slide-out Room
1. Verify the battery is fully charged and hooked-up to the electrical system.
2. Press and hold the IN/OUT switch (Fig. 1A) in the IN position until the room is fully retracted and stops
moving.
NOTE: It is important to continue to press the slide-out switch for a few seconds after the room is fully
retracted until the motor shuts off. The control will sense that the room has stopped and will shut
off the motor after a few seconds.
3. Release the switch, which will lock the room into position.
4. Install the transit bars (if so equipped).
[quote source="/post/18895/thread" timestamp="1456148846" author="@montedtrotter1"]tlbones,
I checked various sites on the Swintek slide and some manufacturers have more issues with the slides than others. One guy states there are weight restrictions and some OEM's overload them hence a problem. My trailer is at storage and I do not have the manual to see which slide model I have on the 21BHS. I checked several manuals on-line and none indicate a weight limit but again there are so many sizes etc. I guess they cannot list a weight restriction in each general manual.
One thing I did learn reading the manuals is to continue pressing the close/open switch for two seconds after the wall has stopped. This evidently helps the two motors stay synchronised. I have always released the switch when I thought the slide was closed or open. Notes from manual below, I will check to see if there is a Swintek topic in this site and post below comments there as well.
Extending Slide-out Room
1. Level the unit.
2. Verify the battery is fully charged and hooked up to the electrical system.
3. Remove the transit bars (if so equipped).
4. Press and hold the IN/OUT switch (Fig. 1B) in the OUT position until the room is fully extended and
stops moving.
NOTE: It is important to continue to press the slide-out switch for a few seconds after the room is fully
extended until the motor shuts off. The control will sense that the room has stopped and will shut
off the motor after a few seconds.
5. Release the switch, which will lock the room into position.
Retracting Slide-out Room
1. Verify the battery is fully charged and hooked-up to the electrical system.
2. Press and hold the IN/OUT switch (Fig. 1A) in the IN position until the room is fully retracted and stops
moving.
NOTE: It is important to continue to press the slide-out switch for a few seconds after the room is fully
retracted until the motor shuts off. The control will sense that the room has stopped and will shut
off the motor after a few seconds.
3. Release the switch, which will lock the room into position.
4. Install the transit bars (if so equipped).
[/quote]Thanks. I guess I could see how a slide could get overloaded by the manufacturer, particularly with some that put the kitchen on a slide (fridge, stove, sink, etc.). I could be wrong, but I doubt that it's much of a factor with a LL trailer.
Also thanks for the info on proper slide function. I always wondered if I was putting strain on the gears and motor if I held it in too long after full extension/retraction. Glad to hear it's actually recommended.
Well, I said the recliner in our 21BHS was a dead issue but from reading this forum I decided to give it another shot. We have a small leather chair that is 29 inches wide but has a high back. I decided to take the feet off to make it about 10 inches high to the top of the seat cushion. I convinced my bride that I could build a 6-7 inch step to reduce the step up to the chair platform. She said we already have a step, the aluminum adjustable step from Camping world and others. OK step problem solved! We got the chair to the trailer and that sucker would not go through the door, close but no cigar. This was a trial run as we are going to TN this weekend and keeping 3 grandsons, 4,5,&7, and need the table area for a bed. So the plan when we get back is to take very precise measurements and see if taking the door off (22" opening vs 19" opening) to see if we can get the chairs in. The problem is taking the door off every time we need to take the chairs out when we need the table area for a bed. My bride is telling me to forget this idea and concentrate on making the table more stable and less wobbly. We can add more cushions to make the table seating area more comfortable; she may be right.
Quote from: @montedtrotter1" source="/post/19193/thread" timestamp="1457145011My bride is telling me to forget this idea and concentrate on... she may be right.
I'm left thinking you haven't been married long enough. My bride of almost 29 years is always right. ;)
Well, it will be 44 years this August and we are going to fight it out to the end now! At this stage you have to
Due to another forum member asking a question about the door, I realized it had a gas strut on the bottom of the door. I took it off and the door swung open nearly 180 degrees giving me a 22-inch opening. The chairs we wanted to try are 21.5 inches at the mid -point! I once again took off the 4" feet of one chair and barely got it in the trailer for trial. Without the feet on the chair, the distance from the floor to the seat of the chair is 26", hence the need for a 6-7 inch step. This will work! When it is just the two of us, we will place the chairs on the platform, then use the aluminum stool as a 7" step up. The chairs are actually small leather ladies chairs and we will have 14 inches of space between them for a small table. They do not recline but we have very light weight Hassocks we can use for foot rest. I will post a picture when we put both chairs back in for a future trip. For the trip this week, we need this area for grandkid sleeping area. So maybe we figured this chair mod out after all without getting out a hack saw or torch!
I noticed I did not finish that first sentence as bride distracted me with a question. I meant to say that at this stage one has to keep circling back to a dead issue with modifications/changes to keep it alive!