Need help with bed issue and chosing a floor plan

[Dutchgrl]

Hi,

I joined this month when I discovered a app for my iPad to access the forums. Great stuff!

We, my husband and I need help/advice from experienced RV'rs.

We have not decided on the trailer yet, brand or floor plan. My husband has done his research and found the truck he likes the Ford 350, now all we need is a trailer, a 5th wheeler. We will be semi - fulltimers

This is our situation:
I have a painful chronic illness, am disabled and often bed bound and thus homebound. My greatest passion in my prior life was traveling. There so much that I ave not seen yet. Before my illness progresses too much I want to be able to travel again. So were taking our home and bed with us.

Because I have pain 24/7 I'm often awake during the night, read or write in forums as I do now :-) at home this is not a problem I have my own room but in the trailer I would keep husband awake with tossing and turning and I fall asleep at 6:00 am. We have 2 separate beds at home.

What we want in a trailer is a bedroom that we can use with 2 twin beds instead of 1 king or queen bed. Or I would like a floor plan where the living area can be closed off and there will be a comfy sleep couch. Although my husband does not look forward to making his bed every night.

The floor plan with the closed off living area has my preferences, that way he could also use the kitchen if he had to work and go online make hour long conference calls to China or India. And I could claim de bedroom for middle of the night activity.

We are open to new models or older, I did see an older model that had a kitchen in the back with sliding doors between de living area, but I can't find it again. Memory lapses are one of my symptoms :-) I vaguely remembered Excel or Nuwa. Don't even know where I bookmarked it.

If we buy an older model how easy or difficult is It to replace furniture and decoration on the walls? Can it be replaced by a sleep couch from Ikea?

We have been thinking about a toy hauler but that leaves us with not much living space.

As for newer models we did see yesterday a video of the newest Keystone Montana with the large front living room! That was gorgeous and husband ever agreed that de aired looked comfy.

The trailer will also be used as a personal clinic for me as we will traveling the country in search of treatment for my illness. We will spend at least 3 months in Nevada were a new clinic opens up in May and I will need IV's etc. Instead of staying in a hotel for 3 months i will stay in my trailer. So I will need a bit of privacy as week

Long story, lot of questions I hope you don't mind, I thought I would give an open and honest impression of the situation we are facing. I posted an intro in the newcomers section for anyone interested.

Thanks for any pointers or insight in advance!

Cheers,
Dutchgrl

[terapin-bear]

Hello!

I'm sorry to not be of much help as I am a class A'er and not a 5th wheel-er but wanted to say 'good for you' for getting your traveling on and trying to work around your pain issues and getting out there! You won't regret it!

Take your time and look around to get what suits you best. Will traveling in a truck be painful? Have you considered a class A where you could be sleeping in the back (ya, ya, not legal but many do) during traveling? Also many of the front seats have a lifting footrest so you could be less upright and more horizontal, or at least changing positions, yet still being part of the journey and its vistas. There is a difference in the door positions of the gassers and diesels, so take a look at that.

I've heard some manufacturers, like Newmar, will work with customers to create a custom plan - maybe that would work for you.

Anyhow, best of luck!

[jimcumminsw]

I am so sorry for your condition and hope you can get better in the future?
To me what you need is a floor plan with the front living area over the pinbox or front of trailer. In this way the bedroom would be in the rear of the trailer and the kitchen in the middle. With the front living area over the pinbox, the couch could have an air mattress for sleeping on it. I would not buy a jack-knife couch at all. Here is a front living area. http://keystone-montana.com/index.php?page=floorplans&model=3750FL&year=2011

Another option would be to buy a 5er with two bedrooms in it such as one of these models. http://keystone-cougar.com/index.php?page=floorplans&model=322QBS&year=2011 or this one http://keystone-avalanche.com/index.php?page=floorplans&model=335RB&year=2011

These are just some to review, I am sure that other manufactures will offer similar ones.
Good Luck.
Jim W

[Dutchgrl]

Originally Posted by terapin-bear

Take your time and look around to get what suits you best. Will traveling in a truck be painful? Have you considered a class A where you could be sleeping in the back (ya, ya, not legal but many do) during traveling? Also many of the front seats have a lifting footrest so you could be less upright and more horizontal, or at least changing positions, yet still being part of the journey and its vistas. There is a difference in the door positions of the gassers and diesels, so take a look at that.

I've heard some manufacturers, like Newmar, will work with customers to create a custom plan - maybe that would work for you.

Anyhow, best of luck!

Hi and thank you for thinking with me. Yes I have considered a class A, and maybe even prefer it for comfort but my husband had all kinds of practical and technical objections so we went got the 5th wheel. I will again bring it to the table, didn't know about the footrest that's a good one and would make a lot of difference.

Will look into Newmar also thanks for letting me know.

Yes we kept putting getting a trailer off hoping next year I would have made a miracle recovery but there comes a moment in time when you have to be realistic and admit you're not going to get any better, maybe worse but not better and you have to start living your dream before its too late! I think the living your dream part is useful for anyone! Most people keep putting that off and have a lot of 'somedays' lying around in a draw. :-)

Thanks!

[Dutchgrl]

Originally Posted by jimcumminsw

I am so sorry for your condition and hope you can get better in the future?
To me what you need is a floor plan with the front living area over the pinbox or front of trailer. In this way the bedroom would be in the rear of the trailer and the kitchen in the middle. With the front living area over the pinbox, the couch could have an air mattress for sleeping on it. I would not buy a jack-knife couch at all. Here is a front living area. http://keystone-montana.com/index.ph...50FL&year=2011

Another option would be to buy a 5er with two bedrooms in it such as one of these models. http://keystone-cougar.com/index.php...2QBS&year=2011 or this one http://keystone-avalanche.com/index....35RB&year=2011

These are just some to review, I am sure that other manufactures will offer similar ones.
Good Luck.
Jim W

Hi Jim,

Thanks a million for the links. I already spotted the Montana 3750 FL with the nice front living room, looks gorgeous an I can easily see myself sitting there.
Will heave to look into the others.

I do have a question, suppose I find a dream floor plan and a used RV, but I absolutely hate the decor and furniture, maybe it's worn out or so. Can I easily change that? Can I put regular furniture in it or does it has to be trailer furniture? I often have seen very nice floor plans put the decor was horrible.

Thanks again!

[jimcumminsw]

Originally Posted by Dutchgrl

Hi Jim,

Thanks a million for the links. I already spotted the Montana 3750 FL with the nice front living room, looks gorgeous an I can easily see myself sitting there.
Will heave to look into the others.

I do have a question, suppose I find a dream floor plan and a used RV, but I absolutely hate the decor and furniture, maybe it's worn out or so. Can I easily change that? Can I put regular furniture in it or does it has to be trailer furniture? I often have seen very nice floor plans put the decor was horrible.

Thanks again!

I am not sure about the furniture? Some users on other sites have replaced their jack-knife couch with chairs from Lazy Boy and like that. So I think you could , they just might be heavier. Another thought is to goggle the RV Furniture and you may find lower cost suppliers on the inter net. Just need to be sure of them and see if the site is HTTPS. This means they are a secured site to use. I would then pay thru pay-pal.
On the fabric, yes you can. Camping World sells fabric and the window treatments. See attached Link. http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/valances-and-lambrequins/49951d
Jim W.

[Dutchgrl]

Originally Posted by jimcumminsw

I am not sure about the furniture? Some users on other sites have replaced their jack-knife couch with chairs from Lazy Boy and like that. So I think you could , they just might be heavier. Another thought is to goggle the RV Furniture and you may find lower cost suppliers on the inter net. Just need to be sure of them and see if the site is HTTPS. This means they are a secured site to use. I would then pay thru pay-pal.
On the fabric, yes you can. Camping World sells fabric and the window treatments. See attached Link. http://www.campingworld.com/shopping...requins/49951d
Jim W.

That's a big help Jim, thanks a million. I had no idea that fabric and window treatments were for sale! I should have done a better job researching this and than we might have had a trailer last year. But no use crying over spilled milk am thankful for all the help I'm getting now.

I'm sure that once I locate a nice trailer I will have a bunch of other (oh so obvious ) questions.:-)

[j2m2]

We were in a new 5er trailer with the front living room. It is very nice, however I think that maybe with your chronic pain issues the stairs up to it may be a problem. There are also trailers that have a rear bedroom with the kitchen midship & the front has bunks & desk over the kingpin. Again the stairs may be an issue. The only thing that I can say is if you can, go out & look at the trailers out there. Lots of different designs, would a bathroom all in one suit you better or a split bath with shower/sink over on one side, toilet on the other. Also in your case you may want to make sure that you can access the fridge even with slides in. That is one thing we have both agreed on. We can compromise on some things & others we can't. At the end of the day what is going to work best for you in your present condition & later when mobility may become an issue. Hope this has helped & may all your dreams come true. God bless you & yours. Happy trails

[rrray]

Might want to look at bunkhouse rv's. They can offer some options after removing the bunks - ie; lot of extra space for......? AND don't sacrifice as much living space as a toy hauler. We considered for washing machine and computer desk, away from TV and noise/activity - extra storage. Why not a special bed, etc ? Some also offer separate exits and even 1/2 baths (designed for the kids)
Advantage might be the extra space to design for your specific needs.
Good luck and keep on traveling !!
Ray

[fletch460]

AT the rv show in Houston, I saw some with where the rear could be made into bedroom. Probably could be rigged to suit? Getting good ideas here so good luck and dont give up.

[Engineer Guy]

I was surfing Denver 'and surrounds' Craig's List today fer grins. There was a sweet used Toy Hauler there [2004?] for ~$12k with a really nice looking front section, and a full 10' or more behind the center 'privacy' Door. There were 2 Queen Beds there that motored up to the ceiling, as usual, and thus a really nice 2nd Bedroom in that rear space. This back end was temp controlled. The nice aspect of many Toy Haulers is that they're 'already' divided into 2 spaces; what it sounds like you're after. Form follows function [vs. a 'traditional' TT]. Resale seems to be good with Toy Haulers.

The 'niceness' of the front Living section, and the ability to seal off the 2 sections struck me as very flexible. In the Toy Haulers I walked through strictly for ideas prior, your idea of IKEA or other mods would work, due to the square footage to play with. Since the Beds are left made up, you could customize for comfort w/o sacrificing places to sit, and what to sit on.

The fine print would be whether a Bumper Tow would work for you. There are 5th Wheel Toy Haulers out there; I just saw some on line today.

P.S. ~ Found it. Food for thought for you...

St. George 29' 2004 Keystone Hornet RV

[Engineer Guy]

ARRRRGGGH... The CL Listing above expired, since it was near the end of the Posting period. Sorry for any inconvenience. Here's the Keystone Toy Hauler Website instead:

Keystone Toy Haulers

[Arch Hoagland]

In our stick house I like a soft mattress and my wife likes a hard mattress. So we replaced our mattress with two single mattresses that suit our fancy. The same top bedding is still used, but of course, the two small mattresses have single sheets on them.
What we discovered is that when one person gets out of bed it doesn't disturb the other person as the single mattresses tend to isolate the movement.

[Dutchgrl]

Originally Posted by rrray

Might want to look at bunkhouse rv's. They can offer some options after removing the bunks - ie; lot of extra space for......? AND don't sacrifice as much living space as a toy hauler. We considered for washing machine and computer desk, away from TV and noise/activity - extra storage. Why not a special bed, etc ? Some also offer separate exits and even 1/2 baths (designed for the kids)
Advantage might be the extra space to design for your specific needs.
Good luck and keep on traveling !!
Ray

Thanks Ray,

Apologies for the late reply. I wanted to reply from my computer, I'm using the iPad forum app. now but could not for the life of me remember my password so I had to wait for my iPad to return from the mothership were it went for a minor repair.

I agree, I have been looking at some 5th wheelers with bunks and the trick is to find one that has the roomiest floor plan that we can live with. A lot of trailers you end up with your couch across the kitchen isle and that just doesn't seem so attractive to me. I found one I liked that had a small bunk in the middle, we could remove the lower bed, strengthen the upper bed and design a desk under the bed for DH. He would not be able to stand up under the bed but would have plenty of room to sit down.
But I heard not such good reviews about the brand it's the newest Open Range 5th wheeler, something with the slide outs not being hydraulic but with cables didn't get raving reviews from some people. So I will have to do some more research on that.

This is the model we will be going to check out: http://www.openrangerv.com/open-range/floorplans.aspx it is the 375BHS that we fancy or I must say I fancy because DH isn't convinced yet that it will work. They also have larger models with a bunk house at the back that we could check out. The Portland dealer has practically all models in stock. What I also found interesting was the patio they offer. I'm wondering how it will look and feel. The larger models do not come with a patio though. Hope to have a peek this weekend, health permitting and will post what I learned.

Thanks again for your reply!