Hi everyone - New member here! We are the proud new owners of a 1971 Overlander International, in excellent shape. We will be going on our first camping trip in a couple of weeks, and are trying to sort out the sleeping arrangements. It has center twins and a gaucho. My husband and I would like to sleep on the gaucho, and let our daughters (ages 9 and 6) sleep on the twins. However, I am one of those people who is very picky about being comfortable when I sleep ( no noise, no light, etc...you get the idea!) My question is....how bad are they to sleep on? Is there anything that can be done to make them more comfortable? And, as a long term solution, is there anything that can be done to make them pull out to a larger bed?
Its been awhile.....and I was 50 lbs lighter. My first wife and I were able to sleep on the gaucho without a problem. Now, I don't think that would work. My size along with my wife's leave us little room on a double.
Hey....try it on for size in the driveway this weekend. It may be fun, especially if the kids are inside the house (With a responsible adult sitter, of course)
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Stan and the Lou
Together Forever
BTW, that's MaryLou
Hi, we have an 84 excella with a similar set-up (twins & gaucho). The first time my husband and I slept on the gaucho together I didn't think it was that bad. Until a few hours had gone by! Then I felt every lump and button and I swear that bed was shrinking by the minute. The next night we added one of those foam mattress toppers and it was somewhat better. However, the next weekend we just bought one of those queen size air mattresses with a pump and left the gaucho alone. It works much better for us that way and the air mattress just fits in the floor in front of the gaucho. Good luck.
We are just average sized adults and our gaucho is comfortable, not luxurious...but then again, we are camping, remember! And...ours doesn't have the extra seams & buttons....
Actually, we did make our side gaucho about 4" wider and it helped quite a bit. Also, get good quality foam for the mattress...not the "cheap-stuff", you'll bottom out.
Shari
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Vintage Airstream Club - Past President 2007/2008
WBCCI #1824 - DenCO Unit Past President (2005)
AIR #30 - Join Date: 2-25-2002
I have given thought to the air mattress thing as well. We already have one from the tent camping days so it will not be any trouble to throw it in the Overlander and take off! I will just need to make sure we have enough room in front of the gaucho.
Shari -
How did you expand the gaucho by 4 inches? I think that's what we would like to do eventually. We're average sized as well, but used to the king size bed at home so anything that will make it wider will help!
It was actually a "happy accident". The folks that made our new foam mis-measured and it was too big. So we decided to see if we could adjust it, if not they were going to remake the cushions for us. The way our gaucho is made, we just had to move a couple of "stops" that were underneath, very simple to change.
I'm not sure the 70's models would be as easy. Check out the cushions page from our website for pictures of our gaucho...although, it doesn't go into detail on moving the stops, you'll be able to see the style of the cushions.
Shari
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Vintage Airstream Club - Past President 2007/2008
WBCCI #1824 - DenCO Unit Past President (2005)
AIR #30 - Join Date: 2-25-2002
No less than a king for the wife and I at the house so when on the road we have separate beds. Just like these brochures that say a TT can sleep six, six midgets?? Maybe someday I'll have a rear king in my A/S classic diesel pusher, (Such a beast?, I can dream!) No way in heck the two of us could sleep on a gaucho!!
I don't know what kind of foam the previous owners used when they re-did the cushions in our Caravel (I assume the foam isn't original) but the gaucho is incredibly comfortable. I was worried about sleeping on it, but we've spent 8 nights in the trailer now, and it's just wonderful. Even though it's much smaller than our bed at home, we haven't felt squeezed for space at all. Every night we've both slept the whole night through, no problem. Maybe we're just still in that 'airstream honeymoon' phase where we can't find any fault with our little trailer, but so far so good.
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We just completed our second trip in our Overlander, and found the gaucho to be relatively comfortable. We're average sized, but short, so that helps :-)
I feel like the foam cushions are great for short trips, this last one was two weeks plus and by the end my back started to hurt after sleeping all night. I have seen some folks replace the cushions with a futon, seems to be just the right size. I may look into doing that for longer trips.
The worst part about these fold out beds is the person on the interior has to sleep "under the shelf"...we've got a large shelf above the front gaucho and a small ledge over the back one. It doesn't really get in the way when you sleep, but there is that feeling of being crammed in sometimes.
You may as well try it for a night or two and see how it works out for you!
I figure it's a thousand times more comfortable than tent camping - I just can't sleep on the ground anymore!!
In our '70 Tradewind, we had two gaucho couches that I recovered but did not replace the foam. The couches were smaller than a double bed as the sheet bagged on them. My husband and I could never comfortably sleep together on them due to the size and weak foam. We would usually end up separate one on each couch...and that's no fun! Since we often like to camp in the fall or winter, the person that slept against the wall also froze due to lying against the cold, aluminum wall.
It was due to this lack-of-comfortable-sleeping problem, as we really loved everything else about the trailer which we had spent a full year refurbishing, that we upgraded to a '92 30-ft Excella with a queen bed in the rear. I will save you the long story on this one but we now have a '97 34' Legend, also with a full-time rear queen. Now we actually can sleep on vacation!
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Adults Sleeping on Gaucho..is it comfy?
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