For the folks with rear engine skoolie's

[BUSBOZO]

This is basically directed to the member that have RE buses and of course the people with knowledge.

Anyway.. attached is my revised and hopefully final floorplan. I would like to put some sort of couch forward of the kitchen counter. But I only have 29" of front door width to work with. My plan is to build bench seats over the driver side front wheel well and opposite side just after the wheel well (I want to build a little entertainment center over the passenger side wheel well).

RV couches are crazy money. I don't want to do a futon. I've been looking at regular loveseat sizes and they are to big. Does anyone have any other ideas that I could consider? I need something thats no bigger than 29" deep and about 60" long.

Also, what do you think about the tanks and generator? Are they on the proper sides? I should relocate the LPG storage to the other side. Thats where the furnace will be.

Dan

[Jarlaxle]

Check secondhand furniture stores with twpe measure in hand...I've seen loveseats no more than 5' wide. Take off the cushions and you could get it through the door. (Many older houses & apartments only have 30" doors.)

[GoldenGate]

I don't have much input on your floor plan, as my bus is completely different from yours, but I've run in to the same problem with needing narrow couches-- though in my case its because I want to have seating on both sides and regular couches across from each other don't leave adequate leg room. My solution is to use bench seats out of old pickup trucks from the junkyard. I'm gonna head over tomorrow and try to find several identical seats from old chevy's or ford's or whatever else kind of truck they have a lot of. They're narrow, relatively cheap and plentiful, and pretty comfortable...at least more comfortable than the seats I was going to custom make. I'm going to re-upholster them with cool looking fabric. I don't know if that's exactly what you had in mind, but they are narrow and if you wanted a longer couch you could just put two side by side and build armrests if needed.

You could pretty easily custom make a bench seat from scratch, I began to do so but reneged because for the amount of seating I need it wasn't worth it, especially with the cost of a nice foam slab which I found to be pretty high (I was looking at several hundred dollars for foam alone on all my seats) .

Just wondering though, couldn't you just turn the couch on its side to fit it through the door? When I put a regular full-size cough in my bus a while back, I just turned it on its side so that its height effectively became its depth (tilting it as if a person sitting on it were flipped on their back), and it slid right on in. I used my back door which has a width of I *think* 29 inches or so and I had no problems. Though again, I don't have an RE bus, or even a full-size bus for that matter, so I'm not sure exactly how your doors are configured and if it would work out.

Hope I at least gave you some ideas!

[BUSBOZO]

Hi John. Thanks for the detailed reply. I was thinking I would like to put my fresh water tank under the kitchen sink if possible with the water pump also. Hot water heater I might put under the bathroom counter.

Goldengate... Thanks for your reply. I think I will just have to have tapemeasure in hand when I look at couches.

Storage space will be under bunks, under benches, under bed, and a closet over the drivers side rear wheel well.

Not sure if I'm going to do house batteries inside or outside.

[GoneCamping]

You can get reasonable priced RV sofa's from Tri-State Surplus but I don't think they ship them due to size & weight...so it'll only do you good if you live close to where ever they are located...

[GoldenGate]

Yea If I needed less identical seats than I do, then I would totally go the homemade route. Like I said, cushioning was the only real problem I encountered and that's only because I need about 15 feet of IDENTICAL seating total. Its not impossible but I'd rather have something pre-fabbed if I can help it.

But if that doesn't do it for you, I can strongly recommend going to a junkyard and pulling the third row bench seat out of newish Dodge Caravans/they're Chrysler cousins. They're plentiful, they're all in incredible shape because people rarely sit in the back (unlike pickup trucks which, though longer seats, are ugly and all in poor condition), they're a cinch to get out of there because they were designed to be removable (literally takes like 15 seconds to pull them), and they're actually pretty comfortable. Leather seating is very common, and if you want seat belts, the seats come with them installed (you have to pull the shoulder harness part out of the wall though)

Sorry, don't mean to promote the idea that much, but I was really surprised at how nice and plentiful they were. When they have a 50% off day best believe I'm gonna grab all the leather seats I can.

[BUSBOZO]

Some good ideas by far. The third row bench seat is not a bad idea either.

[the_experience03]

My main hallway back is only 19 inches wide for several reasons (like fitting comfortable bunks on both sides). It's tight, but doable. I wouldn't worry too much about your doorway width. Your layout with the couches scares me a little. You'd be surprised just how fast space fills up. Putting couches on opposite walls facing each other WILL result in feet tangling.

[BUSBOZO]

Actually, I wasn't too specific on the floorplan. I only want to have a couch forward of the kitchen counter. I plan on building a bench over the wheel hump on the drivers side front, and slightly opposite of that bench on the other side, I was thinking of putting the original fold up bus seat that used to be right at the side emergency door. (the seat bottom folds up to allow access to the emergency exit door when bus was in service).

[sportyrick]

I built my 76" couches out of angle iron, plywood and foam with fabric on them, the only thing is the foam is pricey. You can make them hinged and hide lots of stuff under them too. sportyrick

[Tanker Pilot]

“My solution is to use bench seats out of old pickup trucks from the junkyard. ”

Great idea! I’m going to add it to my notes!

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