Bed mod and microwave stand

KBaggins1

    Last season we used a 1.5" soft foam pad over the bed. We did not find it that comfortable so we decided to get an IKEA foam mattress to go over the original bed cushions and see how that would work. The IKEA mattress is really comfortable and we used it on our recent trip out west (31 days out ). This setup has one glaring problem and that is how close our heads were to the underside of the back cupboards. To make this better we decided to take out all the cushions and just have the mattress on the frame. Since we did not want to take the upholstery off the couch back or the covers, we took the couch back out of the trailer by unbolting the two ratcheting hinges that fasten it to the frame.
     The next step was to cut a new couch back and two new cubby covers out of a suitable plywood. We chose a 4' X 8' sheet of 11/16" thick oak plywood. Birch would have been nice but not available locally. The oak is stronger as far as I can tell anyways. Cut up the pieces, drilled a few holes and screwed the hinges to the new back and put everything in and we were done.We also added a microwave stand.

DurangoTaB

Looks very comfy!  So...you never use the inside table?

KBaggins1

No we have the bed in there all the time. We put the bed slats in shortly after we got the T@B. We have the Pahaque tent and we set that up any time we are staying more than 1 night. Gives us the kind of room you get with a bigger trailer. If we do get stuck inside the trailer because of rain, we pull the seat back up and watch TV or read. We eat all our meals in the tent or outside when it is nice out. We really don't hang around the campsite much, always try to go to places that have lots to do and see in the area.

Jannon

What size IKEA mattress did u get?  Seems like a Queen width is perfect, though the length is too long.

Nice work!

KBaggins1

    Thanks. It is a queen I believe 3 7/8" thick. It was too long, we cut 6" off of it to get it to fit. A sharp kitchen knife and a board for a straight edge works well. The cover was not cut, just folded in to itself and then the fitted bottom sheet is put on and held tight with some straps. The mattresses that Ikea sells that have the zipper on the bottom of the cover are the ones designed to fold for couch or futon use. I think they come in 2 thicknesses.