Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club Info & Discussion Forum

Has anyone figured out how to sleep on the trundle bed in the Born Free Triumph? We have the couch that makes into two recliners. But when it's all opened up to sleep on, it's miserably uncomfortable. My hubby sleeps above the cab, and I'm going to have to come up with something or I won't be able to sleep at all!

We have the same trundle bed in our RSB and one of us uses it occasionally. A queen sized sleep sack is essential and the one sleeping there sleeps diagonally on the bed to avoid the hole at the bottom, which bugs us. We do not find the bed that uncomfortable except for the hole and the slipperyness of the surface. We are considering a thin foam topper which I think could be stored behind the couch. There is a lot of room there. The foam topper would even out the surface of the bed and might help with the shifting of the bedding. Good luck!

Thank you for responding, Harrises. I see that over 100 people viewed my post but didn't add anything. We're new to the site, and to Born Free. We have the Triumph, and what I'm describing as a trundle bed may not be. I don't know what you mean by a hole at the bottom, nor do I see that there's any storage behind the couch. I may look into buying some sort of topper, also, but it's the three different levels that need to be addressed--the back, the seat, and the leg rest are all at different heights when bed is out! I may end up in a sleeping bag on the floor, except hubby will squash me on his many trips to the bathroom at night.

There may not be many viewers with slideouts . Most coaches have the flip down couches which aren't to bad to sleep on especially with the superbags .

randallrae wrote:There may not be many viewers with slideouts . Most coaches have the flip down couches which aren't to bad to sleep on especially with the superbags .

randallrae is absolutely correct. Born Free is a custom coach company with very low production numbers. Since the units with slides are relatively a new offering, there are very few in the wild so far... probably fewer than twenty total, and there are probably fewer yet who check in here. That particular recliner/couch-thingy is a new offering that only comes in the slide models, so there just isn't much experience with them "out there" yet. All the rest of us who have couches have the Flexsteel "jacknife" style in our older coaches. I don't know who makes the new couch in your unit.

You're not alone in your small production number situation... I believe that there were only a total of 16 coaches similar to mine built, so sometimes we're kind of on our own figuring out "custom" solutions for our "custom" situations.

dinycat, you're breaking new ground for all of those who will follow... keep us posted about what your solutions are. I'm sure someone down the line will appreciate it!

Roger

Roger H does a good analysis. I'll add that I too had no idea what you were writing about. It helps all of us if we know the model year of your BF. When I first read your post I pondered if it was a new model or an older model than mine. When I registered for this site I noted that most members posted the year and model of their BF in the signature block so I followed suit. It would be helpful to us all if all posters included model and year in the signature block.

Good point, Dallas. Our bed is probably a 2014 model and may be different. When ours is made into a bed, the head section is slightly angled, which we sort of like, but the lower 2 sections are level with each other. Perhaps there is an adjustment to the lifting mechanism for the bottom section that could help. In any event, you should talk to Kim at Born Free - you sure won't be happy sleeping on the floor and shouldn't have to.

Judy

So, the bed looks something like this?

Steve, this is the current shot of it from the Triumph page on the Born Free site:

Thanks Roger.
I was trying to find a picture of what it would look like as a bed.
I understand the footrests fold down and slide under the sofa/ recliners.
Hence the name "trundle bed".
And the 2 recliners...recline completely flat.
If this is the case, maybe with all the "joints/seams", it is hard to sleep on?
I guess the only solution would be a "topper"?

I have been looking for a newer BF, so this is a good topic.

Steve, that is exactly what our trundle couch looks like. The back portion does not lie completely flat but the other 2 pieces do and ours are level. There is a smallish half moon opening in the center of the bottom of the reclined bed where the 2 bottom pieces meet. It is sort of hard to describe. With a sleep sack, the seams are not too noticeable but I think a topper would definitely help. Even without one, I at least prefer this bed to the jack knife sofa we had in our 2004. The small hole in the bottom bugs Chuck and he is trying to devise a removable "plug" for it.

https://youtu.be/s28MVc1BcgA

Here's the Born Free video with Ed showing how the trundle bed works at about 5:20 into the video

Thanks.... too bad he doesn't show it completely folding down as a bed.
But looks pretty neat.
Looks like you can sleep only on 1/2 of bed, which is a great idea.
Too bad not comfortable according to OP.
Maybe it would be better if bed was fabric instead of ultra leather?
I have heard bad comments of the jack knife bed covered in ultra leather. Too "slick" I guess. Maybe sweaty?

stevek wrote:Thanks.... too bad he doesn't show it completely folding down as a bed.
But looks pretty neat.
Looks like you can sleep only on 1/2 of bed, which is a great idea.
Too bad not comfortable according to OP.
Maybe it would be better if bed was fabric instead of ultra leather?
I have heard bad comments of the jack knife bed covered in ultra leather. Too "slick" I guess. Maybe sweaty?

I'm on my second ultraleather-upholstered coach (and third couch... my Bigfoot 25RQ trailer had a UL couch) and I really like the stuff. I put the jack knife couch out and use it for naps pretty regularly when I'm on the road and I've never found it uncomfortable at all in any way. I found it more comfortable than the overhead bed in the 23RK, but not as nice as the Sleep Number queen mattress in my 32RQ (no surprise there...) I guess it's a matter of taste?

I have an identical set up in a 2014 Triumph. I also use a sleep sack which is mostly unzipped especially in the Summer when running the generator and a/c is a noisy business at night. With the sack unzipped it slides off the very slick leather. I do not feel the cushion edges as described in this thread and have slept with the whole sofa reclined and just half. I also wrestled with the storage issue of a topper which I resolved by purchasing the best I could find that was a memory foam or tempurapedic type. I went for the half size or single bed version so that I could easily store it on top of the cab over bed. This not only made the sofa way more comfortable. However the weight of the topper plus the ladder has made the cab over too heavy for the gas struts that provide more head room to move from the driver area to the coach. So I bought a pair of yoga foam blocks that wedge nicely between the bed and it's supports to recreate the head room.