Twin rear beds

[DClark]

Has anyone ever converted the rear twin beds to one bed?
We have a (what I call) a nightstand in the center of the beds.
Does anyone know if this is removable ?

Thanks
Deb

[sovereign]

most of the furniture is held too the floor/wall with sheet metal screws.look around the bottom and behind and see what you can find

[InsideOut]

Everything is removeable!

We haven't done this specifically as ours doesn't have this layout, however we did remove our front gaucho permanently to make room for a dinette & our side gaugho temporarily for the new flooring to be installed. Everything seems to be simply screwed down to the floor...no problem removing them.

The only other thing would be coming up with a plan for the new bed frame. The foam/mattress should be pretty easy to have made, it you need a Denver area reference ~ we recently had our foam replaced by:

General Cushion North
3107 West Hampden Avenue
Sheridan, CO 80110
(303) 789-6007

And finally, the last thing to consider is finding (making?) sheets that would fit it...

Good luck...keep us posted!

Shari

[casarodante]

I have posted messages all over looking to do this. I was hoping to find someone with our vintage that has a single bed but wants the twins. I could then simply exchange.

My wife does not want to loose any storage, whether under the bed or hanging from the ceiling. Making a special shaped bed would not be hard. I would probably mount it on a platform that can be lifted easily.

Great idea, though!

[tomb]

on my 87 sovereign...I removed the nightstand ,and single mattress.had carpet to match, and put it down on single bed platforms..bought new queen matress and 1x10 pine boards, put four 1x10's down between platforms, then matress,made foam fillers to fill in holes around matress.this will give you about two feet of carpeted platform to use as night stand.(push matress to window).still have storage under bed and in bed platform....cheap fix,but it works great.....

[casarodante]

tboone,

You have any photos of what you did? I would love to get some ideas.

I would have to find some down time. We like to try to get out every 3rd weekend if we can.

Thanks!

[wflorencejr]

Thanks, tboone and caadoptees for bringing up this subject. I have an '86 Sovereign with the twin beds which we find uncomfortable as well as hard to keep the sheets and blankets from becoming a mess while in use. Also, we have found that the twins force you against the walls of the coach and in cold weather it is not a warm way to sleep.

I hope you will get some pictures of your queen size bed arrangement up soon. Otherwise, I have just put a 3/4" piece of plywood cut and pieced to dimensions of 75" X 52" across the twin frames with the twin mattresses out of the A/S. Since they go across from curb side to street side the credenza has been left alone. Makes for better sleeping but not much room left in bedroom! I am interested in a frame that resembles that which is used in the new Excellas for full size beds.

[tomb]

I posted some pitures today,you can just see rear bed....i'll try and get some more pitures......it fits good, and sleeps alot better

[casarodante]

OK. Here is an update. Over the last 4-5 days, I have gradually removed things from the back bedroom. This while continuing to reassure my wife that I can get it back to original if she doesn't like it.

On Friday, I removed the nightstand between the beds. Pretty easy. Just 13 screws.

Saturday, I put in the queen mattress from my son's room (got married in June). BOY! Was that a job getting it from vertical to horizontal in the back of the trailer! It was fairly easy to get it down at first but it was not oriented correctly. Rotating it 90 degrees in the small confines took some doing.

I had a few pieces of 3/8 in plywood from when we lost our front windshield in WY, so I put those under the bed between the platforms.

All this is temporary. We will be taking the trailer three straight weekends after Labor Day so we get to test it then. My wife may actually like it but we will see.

I took photos this morning but the morning sun was coming in the back so I will take them again this evening and post them.

It takes a good deal of muscling the bed to get it in so keep that in mind if you want to do this. If we want to make this permanent I will have a mattress custom made locally and make a small nightstand to go next to the bed and under one of the warddrobes.

See ya!

[casarodante]

OK. I have my photos up at http://www.airstreamphotos.com

Look under the 1990's trailers.

Kind of a tight fit but it is just to test the 'concept' My wife mentioned that she does like the larger bed there.

I will let you know after we do a weekend (after Labor day) in it.

[tomb]

GOOD JOB LOOOKS JUST LIKE MINE,HOPE EVERYONE LIKES IT

[tod47d]

Very happy to have purchased foam for one gaucho and saving the best of the two originals (or at least what was in the airstream when we bought it) to do in the future.

Very happy that the two sets of gaucho cushions are identical
(twins?) and interchangeable.

We got foam at Circle Fabrics (the owner has kinfolk with Airstream gadabouts) and learned a good bit. Retailers often sell from pre-cut 76" sheets of foam, and the buyer pays for the scrap from these. By waiting for factory cut, there is no scrap to throw down, and we saved $30 for our patience by waiting untill Monday's delivery. This "on time" delivery also appeals to my conservative nature by not paying for, or contributing to waste! !

Total cost for 6"X22"X74" + 6"X15"X74" + (curved) 6"X12"-14"?X74" Set of nimbus gold foam 6" (added as required by the department of redundancy department) in at about $150.

Very happy to have time to test this nimbus before retiring it to the foyer lounge and deciding if we need to make corrections in firmness or composition (the originals were layered with some softer foam on top).

We were concerned about the firmness of the foam since it will be our regular bed. We learned that when foam is encased in a cushion, the compression makes it feel firmer. We got to feel the foam in a cushion and uncovered. We were surprised at the difference in firmness. Maybe a helpful hint when picking your foam!

[chrisp]

Our '88 Excella also has the rear twin bed option. I considered a remodel to a queen size bed for improved comfort... my wife had her own reasons. Ha! But I got the A/S "bug" and decided to leave the layout in its original configuration. But the original mattresses are still unformfortable.

Here's a company in California that makes custom air mattresses for A/S's. Not cheap, but they are probably top notch... and quite fitting for a luxury coach like the Excella.

http://www.bearbeds.com/airstream.html

Got a couple on my Christmas wishlist.

[overlander64]

RE: Mattress Options

I faced the decision of replacing the original mattresses in my '64 Overlander over seven years ago. I learned through the process that most larger cities have small manufacturers who specialize in building custom mattresses. In the Quad Cities/Dubuque, IA area it is a firm called Lebeda Mattress. I made posterboard templates with measurements from which they constructed new "innerspring" type mattresses for my unit - - there was a $75.00 up-charge for the custom sizing over the standard twin - - I was able to choose from any of the mattresses they manufacture. It wouldn't necessarily save much if any over the "bearbeds" air mattresses - - the pair of twin custom mattresses for my coach came to just a bit more than $750.00 over seven years ago. I can report being absolutely thrilled with the mattresses - - so much so that when I moved to the Illinois Quad Cities, I purchased the same bedding line for my home bedroom.

Kevin

[Whisperwoman1]

Hey everybody!!

Looking for some help!! I just purchased a 1980 Caravelle and the dinnette that converts into a bed is a little small. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for replacing it with just a bed. I have the org. owners manual so I know how to remove it. I am just not sure about installing "the" bed. Does airstream make any replacement options? (Stab in the dark?)

I'm not a tall girl but I do like my space in bed!! Sometimes!!!

I'd appreciate any thoughts!!

Have a good one!!

[overlander64]

RE: Caravelle Dinette Options

Greetings Cara!

During the 1960s and 1970s, Airstream typically offered two options for the smaller single axle trailers. You could specify either the dinette or an "L" shaped twin gaucho arrangement. One of the features that attracted me to my '78 Minuet (similar in size to your Caravelle only an Argosy) was its twin gaucho arrangement.

The "L" shaped twin gauchos seem to have two distinct variants. One version has a true "L" that wraps arond the streetside corner to form a continuous surface. The second version which my Minuet has, is a two sofa arrangement with about an 8" gap between the front sofa and the side sofa. The two sofa arrangement doesn't offer the side benefit of an unusually long sleep surface that the true continuous "L" sofa provides. The longest of the two sofas in my Minuet is about 76".

If what you are looking for is a fixed bed across the front, I am not aware of any vintage floor plans of the 1960s or 1970s that had such an arrangement. The cureent CCD 22' Airstream has such a floor plan, but it does sacrifice a certain amount of living and entertaining flexibility (IMHO).

Kevin