Anybody ever upgrade their couch cushions?

[dre00]

I'm fulltiming for a few months in my 28', and have developed a permanently sore tailbone. This started, coincidentally, a few days after I started living in the AS.

Has anyone upgraded the couch cushions (or maybe put additional padding underneath them?

[DEITZ645]

ChromeNomad,
We just had the upholstery in our '87 re-done and updated. The couch was "re-sprung" and new padding added. But I see in your profile that you have an '06. The couch in our '06 is still very comfy. I am not sure about D.I.Y., but I would assume any upholsterer could reinforce and bolster your couch for your posterior. I think the couch removal would be pretty simple on the '06. On our Classic all you have to do is remove the storage drawer, remove a few bolts where the couch is fastened to the floor and haul it out the door.

[willyd]

We upgraded the couch for two recliners - works great for us. Good luck.

[Steve & Susan]

We too have the 28' CCD with a very uncomfortable couch and have been trying to figure out how to make it more comfy. We added an ottoman to put our feet on and some bigger throw pillows, but there just isn't enough padding in those seat cushions.

The solution would be to NOT use the couch as a pull-out bed, remove the plywood base that the cushions rest on, and replace that with some type of webbing that has a little give to it when sat upon. Or, get thicker cushions and some sort of padding between the cushion and the plywood base.

I'm going to make that one of my projects for the coming season - I'll post pictures if I make those changes.

[Silvertwinkie]

I upgraded to the "Ultra Leather" sofa at the time of construction. I was less than pleased with it's comfort. It is vastly different than the "Ultra Leather" sofa used in the Classic line. The sofa used in the Classic line is very comfortable. I'm not sure what I will eventually do, but I too am open to suggestions.

[wheel interested]

How about a memory foam pillow top for the seats, could be the next big rage? Our cushions upon plywood are not as comfortable as I would like. I even thought of adding memory foam to the cusion inside. Flexible springs or fabric rather than a board would seem to be an improvement. As far as cushions with springs within them, are those available for custom order and can an appropriate thickness be found? Even cutting down the lower storage would be fine in my opinion in pursuit of cush.

[Ganaraska]

Here is an old upholsterer's trick. Often the problem is that the padding is too soft. The answer is to add a couple of inches of firm foam under the original padding when recovering the seats.

Sometimes you can put an inch of firm foam under your old cushions without recovering. Or at least try it out before you recover your seats.

[wheel interested]

Thanks, that is surely worth a try!! I am excited. I can do that. That would be lovely.

[Doctorpolish]

we went to the local thrift store and bought a 12" thick king size latex foam mattress new not used proceeded to mark our mattress out then cut them to size covered them in micro fiber aka ultra suede. Now we have the most comfortable sleeping and we did this for around 225.00 you could not even buy poly foam for this Jim

[Utahgoldrup]

What did you use to cut out the mattress with? What a great idea and for that price, you can't even come close with anything else!!

[Doctorpolish]

elect knife

[Chaplain Kent]

Originally Posted by wheel interested

How about a memory foam pillow top for the seats, could be the next big rage?

Memory foam needs to be thick before it is comfortable. I do not think you would get any comfort out of a thin topper. We use memory foam on a front sofa /bed and it is over 10 inches thick.
In our 1975 Tradewind trailer we took out the front sofa and replaced it with a leather love seat from IKEA.

[28totow]

ChromeNomad,
In three seasons we have put over 60,000 miles on our AS and could not agree with you more on how unconfortable this model is. Looks cool, lives bad. So on two rounds of remodling we have:

1. Completely removed dinett and replaced with a table that folds down against the curb side wall when not in use, and built a chair (with storage underneath) over the street side wheel well. For meals, one person sits in the new chair and the other person sits in a Zip-Dee across the table. Table can unfold another section to seat as many as six. Jackson Center sent their design guy out to inspect when we went by for warrenty issues last year.

2. When I saw how Willyd modifyed his AS to put in two lounge chairs, we immediatly removed the front "L" built in couch and have replaced with two Lane (brand) Eames type chairs. We did not take out the storage bin directly behind front window. To replace the three storage bins that were underneath the built in couch, we are having built an extension to the kitchen cabnet (streetside) that will run forward to the front of the trailer. Will pick up two nice size bins and 4 deep drawers for can goods etc.

When finished I will post pics. Do not be afraid to improve on Jackson Center. All it takes is money.

[28totow]

One correction, the chair was built over the CURB side wheelwell.

[dre00]

wow, lots of good info here.

I was intrigued by the mcconaughey dinette replacement - the square table with stools underneath. I wasn't going to do something that drastic, but when I realized that the dinette ergos are TERRIBLE for use as a workspace (almost 5" too high), it made me want to make some big changes. Still not sure exactly what I will do -- probably need to either lower the table somehow (remounting the wall brackets scares me), or just toss the whole thing. Will probably need to start a separate thread about that.

Back to the couch: the plywood under the cushions seems to be the main problem; I'm not sure you could really do much thicker cushions without affecting the backrest height adversely. I don't think I'd want to sit much higher.

I used to have a pair of barcelona chairs in my apartment. Underneath the cushions were leather straps -- they stretched just enough to make the chairs comfortable, but they didn't sag. It would be tempting to remove the plywood and replace it with something like this. Definitely beyond my skill level though.

[Foiled Again]

Buttocks round, cushions square - doh.

One simple thing to consider - comfortable chairs have a rounded out seat - the back of the seat is LOWER than the front edge. On the Safari 25 FB SE everything is a dead level plywood board (and about one inch too high to be comfortable to me). One very simple experiment noted above was to put an additional inch of foam under the existing cushions. May I suggest you try a wedge of foam, to make the seat less flat from front to back.

Second I had a 22 CCD - and always found that the dinette was more comfortable to sit at with the cushions removed. Those bentwood frame seats are basically diner furniture if you remove the cushions. Now the table IS simply too high - period. Standard computer desks are 26-28 high, standard tables are 28-30 and airstream hangs theirs at 30.5 inches... why I have NO idea. In the down position, because of the curved walls - the table is often too wide and sticks out over the edge of the bed - the sole purpose seems to be inflicting a nasty scrape and purple bruise on the shin.

I got a hydraulic side arm lift and just finished putting my existing table top on it. Lowered the table an inch and a half and it's the difference between night and day for comfort. I still don't like the table top size - or cheap Safari laminate and will get a new top eventually. Surprisingly changing the height of the table seems to make a difference in the comfort of the flat seats. I do confess that I pretty much leave the table down, have big cushy pillows thrown about and use it as a daybed with a tray table to eat off of. The pull out bed - surely there has got to be a way to tilt the back side downward when retracted, then tilt it level when pulling it out. Just haven't needed it, so I'm not doing anything about it yet.

Paula

[imeynstein]

Hey, I am considering a huge overhaul on my 1974 sovereign.....Has anyone used the
old sofa's/gaucho's from an old van and re-upholstered them to fit the decor of a renovated AS???

[imeynstein]

Please ask wahoonc for any advice...Maybe he has replaced his guacho!!!

[Steve & Susan]

Hey 28totow - can you post any photos of your re-do - we are VERY interested.
Thanks!

[Jack46]

We recently replaced the stock foam with higher density. First use of them this past weekend. An improvement, but still the sofa is not an option for long term comfortable seating. I like 28totow's ideas and look forward to seeing the pics.