Jack Bed Sofa Mod - So Comfortable Now

[LivinLite AZ]

Hi Everyone.

The jack bed sofa mod. To date in this forum I have not touched much on my interior mods, but this one made a HUGE difference to livability inside the trailer, at least for our 13QBB. This mod is for those of you with the jack bed configuration who do not need the 'bed' function and are wishing for more living space comfort. That said, I'm sure you could tweak this mod to still make it into a retractable bed if desired.

BENEFITS

1) This mod adds 5" to the bench seat depth and several degrees of rake/recline to the sofa back.
2) You can now store long items, like umbrellas, conveniently behind the hinged bench back.
3) A sliding side table for coffee or cocktails while lounging on the sofa.

I have included 'after' photos below, but I wish I had taken photos of the whole process for the purpose of this post, but here are the steps:

• Unscrew and remove the brackets for the jack bed entirely.
• Slide (well, lift and move) the jack bed 9" forward towards the hitch (or however far you can/desire), butting it almost against the bed. It will now be overhanging the right side of the sofa base.
• Build a secondary mounting base out of 3/8" plywood. Mine ended up being 20"x58". If you want to save a little weight, you can cut it in a large U shape, leaving just an 8" perimeter for the front and left sides, and 12" for the right side (or whatever is needed depending on how far over you move the sofa).
• Cut two 3/8"x3"x17" braces for the backs of the bench (I used trex like material that is grooved to accommodate refastening the nuts on the shallow studs without having to router out recesses).
• Using 3/8 screws, screw upper hinges into the bottoms of the front faces of the back braces so they allow enough fore/aft angle and don't bottom out on the base when the hinges articulate.
• Drill holes in the back braces to line up with the stud threads coming out of the bench back no more than 1/2" from the top stud threads to avoid your brace contacting the wall behind (you want the fabric touching the wall, not the top edges of the braces - I mitered the ends on mine at an angle to make them flush and then glue gunned on pieces of foam to protect any hard contact points with the wall - see photo below).
• Reattach the bolts for the bench backs through the back brace holes.
• Position the lower sides of the hinges on the wood mounting base plate and screw into your marks.
• Lower bench: I rotated my lower bench cushion 180º as a matter of preference.
• Obsess over positioning to maximize recline and still open the bathroom door without making contact with the couch.
• Find your marks on the mounting base to drill holes to drop the the lower bench stud threads through. Then drill holes lined up to press fit the lower bench stud threads into the wooden mounting base. You could router out recesses in the wood mounting base to accommodate the stud bolts and some washers, but I have found it to be unnecessary.
• Fill in the resulting gap between the bottom cushion and backrest, by making a tube by tightly rolling up a 1" foam mattress topper in a sheet and stuff it down into the gap to fill the space.
• Final mounting: Position. Test. Repeat...
• Reuse the self tapping screws that the original brackets used to attach the mounting base, one side at a time, by drilling through the wood base and into the aluminum shelf below.
• Snug it all down to seat the bench threads into the press fit holes as much as possible to seat the bench.
• Work out your pillow situation. I used an inflatable pillow to adjust the gap under the bathroom/wall pillow.
• Relax, Enjoy.

Even though the lower bench is only press fit using this method, it did not budge, rock, or unseat in any way during our trip despite every manner of jolt and shock from travel.

Ahh, so comfortable and relaxing for two now (great for giving simultaneous foot rubs). Before this mod, the back was so upright and the lower cushion so shallow that there was no comfortable way to sprawl out. At some point I'll come up with a better looking solution for the bathroom/wall pillow, but the current memory foam topper stuffed into a flannel pillow case is extremely comfortable : )

Sofa Before and -> After

More pics below...

: ) S

[gbpack]

Very nice! Really looks comfortable. Sounds like it took you some time to accomplish, but worth it. Wish we had something like that in ours (we have the dinette). Great job!

[LivinLite AZ]

Very nice! Really looks comfortable. Sounds like it took you some time to accomplish, but worth it. Wish we had something like that in ours (we have the dinette). Great job!

Thanks GBpack. We almost bought a 13 with the dinette, but luckily changed our minds at the last minute. I believe you could set this sofa arrangement up if you can acquire a jack bed (preferably from a CL, but not necessarily). Alternately, what about a futon base or similar replacement?  Since your dinette seating splits the base into two sections, you would also have extra storage where your feet used to fit. Maybe post a 'wanted' notice in the for sale/trade area?

: ) S

[Merlin]

Although not directly relevant to the sofa in our 16TBS, your "damn the torpedoes" approach to the sofa mod has me thinking there's a lot more I could to make ours more comfortable. Good work.

[LivinLite AZ]

Although not directly relevant to the sofa in our 16TBS, your "damn the torpedoes" approach to the sofa mod has me thinking there's a lot more I could to make ours more comfortable. Good work.

Yeah Merlin. It's a different animal with the slide out, but increasing the depth of the bottom cushion 5" and increasing the rake/recline of the backrest will make a HUGE difference. This could probably be achieved by taking it to a competent welder and having them change the geometry of the factory brackets and cushion mounting stud locations. Or figure it out with some hinges and 3/8 plywood similar to what I did. Damn those torpedoes : )

[Scout]

sweet mod, I love the hidden umbrella storage. Would be great for fishing rods, or hunting gear. Thanks for sharing.

[LivinLite AZ]

sweet mod, I love the hidden umbrella storage. Would be great for fishing rods, or hunting gear. Thanks for sharing.

Hey Scout. Thanks. Glad to repay some inspiration : )