pods8
Contributors
So I had a potential brainstorm on a “do it all” couch design. This would basically do couch mode, 2 person dinette, 4 person dinette, and finally bed mode. Too good to be true? Quite potentially, its just in my head at this point and executing it will be the key, haha. I’ll try and describe what I’m thinking but it might not come through.
Okay for the basic design take Mark Ingalls couch however make the bottom seat level instead of tilted AND fabricate it out of 4 separate pieces (roughly equal, dimensions will get varied as the idea develops). Backrest would be one piece and basically the same. The overall length would probably be an inch or two short on each end of the camper. There will be 4 sets of bulkheads / swing assemblies, two of which would be located under each the front and rear seat portions. To support the middle sections the inboard sleeper (I think this is the right term) on each side would have an inverted “L” notch in them to accept a piece on angle steel which would span the gap. The angle would be held front/back with a pin on the inboard side of each bulkhead. The middle cushions would have some wood strips on the back to straddle the angles. This would be “couch mode”.
For “two person dinette mode” lift off the middle cushions, pull the pins on the angles, slide them towards the front (or back) then swing up the back (or front) cushion section then slide the angles back out of the front (or back) cushion sleeper to fully remove them then put the back (or front) cushion back down. You’d now be looking at the couch sans the middle two sections. The middle sections would have two pieces of flat bar (with a slight bend) on the backs of them extending a few inches out so they could drop into some slots on the outboard side of the remaining cushions to form backrests. With Mark’s method of stowing the bench seat the backrest would only be protruding 3-5” into the 24” doorway (on my rig at least) which I think is livable and the backrest and easily be pulled up and out of the way in there is going to be a lot of in/out. A table and mounting system would be fabbed up as well but I think that will be the easier of the tasks.
For “four person dinette mode” assuming its already in two person mode you would just swing the end cushions up and drop the back into bed position. The backrest on the rear seat would likely need to be removed for any in/out as there would now only be about 8-10” of doorway exposed. The end seats would sit facing front/back and the other people would either sit on the back corners of along the side of the camper, hard to visualize what would fit best with legroom and all (the open space in the middle for legs would be around 38”x19”). While this might not be a super ideal configuration for 4 people in an extended scenario it would be workable for the occasional crappy weather situation and such.
Finally for “bed mode” the angles and cushions would go back in to make the lower bench full again and the bottom would swing up and the back would lie down. Again in this mode there should be 8-10” exposed in the doorway and at least 16” between the cabinets and bed.
Downsides to this that I’m seeing are when in dinette mode whatever is stored under the middle sections would need to be removed. I figure we can try and put more “campsite” gear there or move the stuff against the front of the camper between the seat and cabinet. The remaining storage sections under each end cushion would comprise a quarter of what is normally storable under the couch. Also when if two-person dinette you don’t have full view of the window (however a normal couch design wouldn’t either) but since the back isn’t affixed to anything it could be tossed up into the upper bunk if desired. To swing the bottom cushions up as a whole one would likely have to grab the middle angle so the unit moved as a whole. That is all that has popped into my head so far.
So does this make sense or do I need to start sketching, haha? Assuming it makes sense are people picturing any other downsides I might be glossing over? Either way between planning this out and actually getting the time to fab it up this will likely be a couple months out assuming it moves forward but I had to idea so I figured I’d get it on paper.
Okay for the basic design take Mark Ingalls couch however make the bottom seat level instead of tilted AND fabricate it out of 4 separate pieces (roughly equal, dimensions will get varied as the idea develops). Backrest would be one piece and basically the same. The overall length would probably be an inch or two short on each end of the camper. There will be 4 sets of bulkheads / swing assemblies, two of which would be located under each the front and rear seat portions. To support the middle sections the inboard sleeper (I think this is the right term) on each side would have an inverted “L” notch in them to accept a piece on angle steel which would span the gap. The angle would be held front/back with a pin on the inboard side of each bulkhead. The middle cushions would have some wood strips on the back to straddle the angles. This would be “couch mode”.
For “two person dinette mode” lift off the middle cushions, pull the pins on the angles, slide them towards the front (or back) then swing up the back (or front) cushion section then slide the angles back out of the front (or back) cushion sleeper to fully remove them then put the back (or front) cushion back down. You’d now be looking at the couch sans the middle two sections. The middle sections would have two pieces of flat bar (with a slight bend) on the backs of them extending a few inches out so they could drop into some slots on the outboard side of the remaining cushions to form backrests. With Mark’s method of stowing the bench seat the backrest would only be protruding 3-5” into the 24” doorway (on my rig at least) which I think is livable and the backrest and easily be pulled up and out of the way in there is going to be a lot of in/out. A table and mounting system would be fabbed up as well but I think that will be the easier of the tasks.
For “four person dinette mode” assuming its already in two person mode you would just swing the end cushions up and drop the back into bed position. The backrest on the rear seat would likely need to be removed for any in/out as there would now only be about 8-10” of doorway exposed. The end seats would sit facing front/back and the other people would either sit on the back corners of along the side of the camper, hard to visualize what would fit best with legroom and all (the open space in the middle for legs would be around 38”x19”). While this might not be a super ideal configuration for 4 people in an extended scenario it would be workable for the occasional crappy weather situation and such.
Finally for “bed mode” the angles and cushions would go back in to make the lower bench full again and the bottom would swing up and the back would lie down. Again in this mode there should be 8-10” exposed in the doorway and at least 16” between the cabinets and bed.
Downsides to this that I’m seeing are when in dinette mode whatever is stored under the middle sections would need to be removed. I figure we can try and put more “campsite” gear there or move the stuff against the front of the camper between the seat and cabinet. The remaining storage sections under each end cushion would comprise a quarter of what is normally storable under the couch. Also when if two-person dinette you don’t have full view of the window (however a normal couch design wouldn’t either) but since the back isn’t affixed to anything it could be tossed up into the upper bunk if desired. To swing the bottom cushions up as a whole one would likely have to grab the middle angle so the unit moved as a whole. That is all that has popped into my head so far.
So does this make sense or do I need to start sketching, haha? Assuming it makes sense are people picturing any other downsides I might be glossing over? Either way between planning this out and actually getting the time to fab it up this will likely be a couple months out assuming it moves forward but I had to idea so I figured I’d get it on paper.
