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Modification to Rear Twin Bed Area


dougi

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Geneva and I ordered our Oliver with the twin bed option in the rear, so as to have more storage and food preparation area, and so that one of us would not have to climb over the other in order to go to the facilities in the front of the trailer during the night.

 

Unfortunately, Geneva is a restless sleeper and moves around a lot during the night while she sleeps. The rear bed area is too narrow for her to get a good night's sleep and she is reluctant to go camping in the Oliver, especially for longer periods of time, which is something we plan on doing for at least 2-3 months at a time at least once a year. I use the street side narrow (24 inches wide) bed area but it does not bother me too much. I can get a decent night's sleep.

 

What to do? We like the Oliver but if Geneva is unable to get a good night's sleep that's a serious problem for us.

 

I got to looking at the rear area of the trailer and I noticed an opportunity. On both sides of the aisle, from the stripper pole back to the front edge of the rear bed there are small notches at the top of the fiberglass aisle sides that were put there to hold the big rear fiberglass dining table on the standard double bed Oliver.

 

So, I constructed a platform out of 1/2 inch balitc birch plywood, gluing two pieces together to make it 1 inch thick (for strength), cut and formed it so it would fit in the notches at the top of the fiberglass aisle sides, forming a platform (about 29 1/2 inches wide and 24 1/2 inches deep) where I could put a new cushion, which I will have to have custom made, about the same width and depth as the plywood platform, making a bed area the same width as the standard double bed, except for the area where the curb side cabinet just to the right of the stove (only on the twin bed Oliver) sits. To do this, I had to remove the swing-up table attached to the street side cabinet and store it (easy & quick to do). This leaves the storage area in that cabinet far more convenient to access, since we no longer have the swing-up table in the way. Getting down on your hands and knees to access this cabinet was no fun...that problem will also be solved!

 

We will have a new cushion made that fits snugly over the plywood platform that will be about 3/4 inch thicker than the other standard cushions, so this expanded area of the bed will be the same height as the rest of the rear bed cushions, on top of which we will place a three inch memory foam mattress pad to match the rest of the bed area.

 

This will give Geneva a rear bed area that is the same width as the standard rear double bed, except at the foot area of the bed, allowing her plenty of room to toss and turn during the night. During the day, we will remove the plywood platform, the cushion and foam mattress on top of it, and store them in the back of our truck, restoring our longer center aisle, and allowing very convenient access to both the street-side cabinet storage area and the big drawer at the end of the aisle near the floor of the trailer.

 

This also will give us a large place (under the plywood platform at the rear of our aisle) to put our clothes and the footwear we took off before we got ready for bed, and it's easy to access them when we get up the next morning, and they will not in be our way when we get up in the middle of the night.

 

Now, If only I could modify my bed area to make it wider and more comfortable. Oh well, you can't have everything you want. If this doesn't work, we will have to get rid of our Oliver, but I think it will work.

 

I'll let you know how it works for us after we test it out in a few weeks at the FGRV rally in Johnson City, TX in February. I suppose no one else is experiencing the same problem Geneva is having, but that doesn't give her much consolation.

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Of course one of the down sides to this modification is that we have to do without our swing-up rear table. We considered that carefully, noting that the table, while useful, does not sit level when it's up. It slopes downward from where it is hinged and drinks and other things can easily slide off and spill if you are not careful. I don't think we will miss the table too much. We'll see.

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