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

Several people have mentioned in another post that the sofa when folded down for sleeping ends up with two different levels. We have two of those sofas. One lays perfectly flat, the other has the back secton noticeably lower. Is is possible that it can be adjusted somehow to end up flat ? Sue

If possible, I would love to know. I'm half toying with the idea of having my sofa replaced by one of those inclining twin beds.

How do they compare in width? Is the twin bed wider than the sofa? Or do I lose some isle space if I switch to a twin?

Trish

I have had the Flexsteel Sofa Bed in both my prior 1999 BF 24' RB and current 2002 BF 26' RSB. I am the one sleeping on this bed. The two halves of the one in the earlier 1999 were definitely not level with each other. The one in my current 2002 is closer to being level but not perfect - but I evidently have gotten used to it and it does not cause me sleeping problems.

I was curious about the reclining twin bed option due to all the recent postings about it. So, last Friday while traveling from home to Knoxville, IA I stopped in Humboldt to look at a inclining twin bed installation. Ed Neuman showed me a customer's BFT coach that had two of the electric inclining twin beds installed. They were both covered in ultra-leather which Ed said that he would not really recommend. They appeared to be comfortable as reported by others and the cushions appeared to be softer than the cushions in the Flexsteel sofa bed. It appeared to me that the twin bed was not as wide at the Flexsteel when in the bed position but certainly still wide enough as a bed for one person.

If the actual width dimensions are important to you, you can learn that by calling the factory. The inclining twin bed acts as a sofa by having two large cushions placed along the back of the bed up against the sidewall of the coach. When you want to use it as a bed, you just move those two cushions out of the way by generally storing them in either the driver or passenger seats.

The bed is equipped with an electric control on the end of a cable that will cause the 1/3 head end of the bed to incline upwards to at least a 30 degree angle similar to a hospital bed.

Someone posted that they thought the twin bed provided more underneath storage space than the Flexsteel sofa bed - Ed said that he thought the available storage space was about the same.

I did not ask Ed what the factory charges to remove an existing Flexsteel sofa bed and replace it with this electric inclining twin bed. Maybe someone that has had it done could post the cost of the conversion.

I have not decided yet if I am going to make the conversion or not.

I called today and spoke with Kim Olson about it. (Is it Olson or Olsen?) I hope Olson...i wish to get it right, out of respect.

anyway, back to the story. It costs roughly $2,000 to have a reclining single bed installed in place of a flexsteel sofa in an existing coach. They don't have any extras at this time. Sounds like they're working very hard to just keep up with new coach demand at this time.

They would not make one for a non-Born-Free coach.

So there you have it.

I will wait for now. I sleep in the cabover very comfortably. Until I cannot, that's what I'll do.

Trish

We love our twin beds in our BFT. After using them for a year now, I have come to the conclusion that if I were to do it again, I would not get the reclining feature. The storage space you give up underneath for the mechanism on both sides is too great a sacrifice to make up for the occasional use of reclining. Storage space is very precious in the BFT and I have cussed those mechanisms many times trying to get things in and out of the side storage. They really limit the useable heighth of the storage volume. I think you could use some pillows to prop up on about as easy as removing the back cushion and reclining the bed.

Allen, although we do not have the reclining beds I am wondering if you could remove most of the mechanism leaving them in a fixed position to obtain the maximum storage. If that was possible you could keep the parts in a box for when you sold or traded in your coach. Just a thought.

I also like the reclining beds very much, however, I agree the mechanism is intrusive of the storage area. I have not done it yet but plan to remove the power actuator and replace it with a hinged prop rod. I find that only one or two positions would be sufficient. There is room on the bottom of the inclining portion of the bed to have prop rods of various lengths. they could be hinged at the head and held in a stowed position with a spring broom holder or such.

Virgil Dutton

I also have a fold down sofa bed in my 1995 BF RSB.When I opened up the back rest was lower than they seating area.I repaced the foam cushions,which I bought from the Flexsteel factory.I also raised the backrest by an 1 1/4 inch,which made the sofa almost even.I did so by using a 1 1/4 aluminum channel between the backrest and the folding arm.

Hans Rueckert
1995 BF 26 RSB

Thanks Mel, good idea. I'm going to see what's involved in removing the mechanism.

hrgermany wrote:I also have a fold down sofa bed in my 1995 BF RSB.When I opened up the back rest was lower than they seating area.I repaced the foam cushions,which I bought from the Flexsteel factory.I also raised the backrest by an 1 1/4 inch,which made the sofa almost even.I did so by using a 1 1/4 aluminum channel between the backrest and the folding arm.

Hans Rueckert
1995 BF 26 RSB

Hans, if you have time, would you mind making a couple of photographs of this change, so that others who are so inclined may do the same?

Thanks....

I sorry to admit,but I dont have a digital camera and if I had one,I would
not know how to put the pictures on my computer.
But to raise the backrest is very simple.Take off the 4 nuts that hold the backrest to the frame.Take a channel iron 1 1/4 inch wide and about 10 inches long and drill 4 matching holes and mount it on the backrest and the frame.I used aluminum metal,because it is ease to work with.

Hans Rueckert
1995 BF 26 RSB

We had twin foldout sofas with ultra-leather installed when we ordered our coach, and used it that way for over three years. However, it became increasingly annoying to have no aisle between them when the sofas were extended for sleeping. As a result, we scheduled replacement of the passenger side sofa with a non-reclining, single bed in ultra-leather. This was done just prior to the Amana Colonies rally that we attended before returning home. Here are some answers if you are considering this:

The bed is about 32" wide & 76" long, but there is a bolster about 3" thick mounted on the wall a couple of inches above the bed as a backstop for the cushions that allow the bed to be used as a sofa. This reduces the useful bed width to 29". It would have been better if the bolster was carried down the wall below bed height, and the bed moved out the extra 3" for more sleeping width. This would have reduced the aisle a little, but the aisle is wider than before since the bed has no overhang like the front of the sofa. At night, when the sofa is extended, we still have a 12" aisle.

As for storage space, I was surprised to find I had just a little less height and a little less length under the new bed base, even though, I did not opt for the tilt mechanism. The height seems to be about 1" less and the length shorter by a couple of inches. I would have been happier if the base was made an inch taller, but given the more than 6" thickness of the foam mattress, I think the intent was to make the height equal to the sofa.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the change (and I'm the one sleeping on it). The bed is comfortable, and the ultra-leather looks fine to me, even though I was warned that I might not be happy with it. I have ordered a new Hack-Sack of twin bed size to replace the double bed size used on the sofa. We have used the Hack-Sacks instead of Trava-Sak because Trava-Sak did not make a double bed size, and the nylon exterior was more likely to slide on our ultra-leather than the cotton/acrilyc blend of the Hack-sack. The cost for the sofa to bed change was about $1,600, but would have been substantially less if we had not wanted to stay with ultra-leather throughout out our coach.

hrgermany wrote:I sorry to admit,but I dont have a digital camera and if I had one,I would
not know how to put the pictures on my computer.
But to raise the backrest is very simple.Take off the 4 nuts that hold the backrest to the frame.Take a channel iron 1 1/4 inch wide and about 10 inches long and drill 4 matching holes and mount it on the backrest and the frame.I used aluminum metal,because it is ease to work with.

Hans Rueckert
1995 BF 26 RSB

Okay...it sounds like you just used the metal as an 'extender'. Does this create a gap between the seat cushions and the back when the sofa is used as a sofa?

Trish

Or does it create a gap between the bed and the wall? And would it work to just put a spacer on the bottom of the frame so that you are just raising it where it meets the seat? And how do you get at it???

No-it just lifts the backrest where it meets the seat cushion to make it more level.

Hans Rueckert
1995 BF 26 RSB