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Old 03-22-2010, 07:10 AM   #1
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Floor plan, oh (wheel) well

I'm prepping the interior for priming and paint. I put down a layer of red rosin paper to start and began doing some marking. My wife likes the Sleep Number bed. There is a "short queen" model that's only 75" long and would work well enough. Unfortunately, the rectangular shape of the bed doesn't work particurlarly well with the curvaceous rear of the Overlander. The problem: the proximity to the wheel wells. I can rotate the bed to run port-to-starboard but it's still a tight fit and the space between the walls and bed aren't really enough to move in (for a guy with size 14 feet).

I talked to my wife who said we could go full "boudoir" and run the bed all the way across the rear of the coach... filling the "sliver moon" gaps with either storage or foam cushions. We could go with a smaller bed, but sleeping comfort is priority 1A for the Overlander.

On the subject of wheel wells, the existing brown plastic wells are pretty lousy. They are clearly not load bearing. This isn't a huge issue on the galley side of the coach. On the bathroom side, however, I'd like to have a shower with a bench seat. I seems like a waste of space to have a flimsy plastic well wheel. A load-bearing cover would seem to make much more sense.

Ah, (wheel) well, scrubbing the "goo" off the inside will take awhile. Having my wife pick the paint colors will take longer than painting. This will give me a little time to contemplate how to work around the wells.
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Old 03-22-2010, 07:33 AM   #2
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the solution

Twin beds.

Wheel well just has to be worked with a bit.
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Old 03-22-2010, 07:42 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hampstead38 View Post
I can rotate the bed to run port-to-starboard but it's still a tight fit and the space between the walls and bed aren't really enough to move in (for a guy with size 14 feet).
That seems to be common - all of the snazzy queen-equipped 23FB and 25FB have the same issue. (If we buy newish someday, we'll keep on sleeping in two beds - maybe even buying twins.)

Could your wife sleep next to the wall, thus being able to fit her smaller feet into that remaining surrounding space?

Tom
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Old 03-22-2010, 08:04 AM   #4
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Bearbeds are pricey (as if Sleep Comfort wasn't) and they'll custom make them to your Airstream's curves. Only issue is that you get just one inflation pressure.
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Old 03-22-2010, 08:25 AM   #5
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The curved bed doesn't save much space... I'm guessing around 5" because I don't have my notes with me. Ah, and the twin bed idea. Perhaps due to my education, occupation, experience and gender, I tend to analyze problems from a rather detached and objective perspective. While this is useful in many venues, marriage is not one of them. My wife is fan of sharing one bed. And, frankly, I think it's pretty nice as well. So, while the engineering side of me would be willing to carefully consider all of the practical advantages and drawbacks, the husband in me knows better than to even open my mouth.

Ah, and one of the draws of A Sleep Number bed is that my wife likes a mattress where the firmness is somewhere between industrial diamond and cured concrete. I, on other hand, like to wake up without needing 20 minutes to feel all of my limbs.

As for the wheel wells, I can see where some additional construction will be required. I just don't understand the point of the cheesy plastic? They really don't do anything but take up space... unless I'm missing something. I'm considering removing them and replacing them with something a bit more stout... rather than just building over them. While I'm thinking of it, has anyone fabricating a fiberglass shower floor pan with a bench to go over the wheel well?
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Old 04-04-2010, 03:14 PM   #6
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The interior is cleaned, primed and primed. I keep thinking about the bed. The short queen sleep number is 60" wide but only 75" long. The bed fits better running across the coach, and my wife is generously willing to clamber over me... but how do you make the bed? I suppose it's the same deal with the Bear beds. What I really need are longer arms, I suppose.

Well, the good news... I still have some time to figure things out. The next step is interior painting (much easier without having much in the coach. After interior painting will be subfloor, part 2. Here's my current theory on the floor. The new 5/8" floor is solid, but not quite smooth enough for a layer of cork tiles. Per Boat Doc's suggestion, I'm looking at picking up some thin (5mm) mahogony plywood.

Earlier in my cogitations, I thought about a single, seamless floor. If I lay the 4' x 8' sheets of thin ply overlapping the seams of the existing 5/8" plywood and get a good glue bond, I'll have--more or less--a 3/4"+ single, seamless floor... and a nice surface for the cork tiles.

I'm not going to put cork under the bed. I thought a nice layer of linoleum or some other water resistant covering I could seam-seal against the wall. The floor of the bathroom is going to be an oversized shower pan. Framing the wheel well will allow me to create a bench/sitting shower. So, all in all, I really only need enough cork for about half the coach.

Once the cork is in, I'll cover everything with paper and then, then I'll have to make a final decision on how to get the bed to fit into the rear.
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Old 04-13-2010, 07:50 AM   #7
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Bed concept 37

I keep thinking about how to best use the underbed storage. Because of the wheel wells, it's hard to access the areas under the bed and against the port and starboard walls. It's not hard to get under the middle of the bed because of the aisle between the galley and the head. The rear access hatch is pretty small. So, here's my thought. The SleepNumber bed can deflate. We could use the areas under the bed and against the port and starboard walls for longer-term storage. Rather than a single solid sheet of plywood, my thought is to create hinged lids over both spaces. This would allow top down access.
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