The lounge bed in the Interstate sounded like a good idea, but it was never very comfortable to sleep on. Adding pads from the hiking store helped, so we figured we’d just put up with it. Then an electrical problem left us without house batteries, and we spent several nights with one of us sleeping on the upright lounge and the other on the jackknife seats. That was the last straw – the lounge had to go!
We’d seen a series of posts on Airforums in which Pahaska documented his conversion from lounge to twin. The breakthrough for us was his description of covering the electrical cabinet which lives under the lounge and using it as a nightstand. In this way, he avoided moving all the electronics. Awesome! We can do that!
Our first step was to remove the cushions. Already, things were looking more spacious!
We’d hoped to remove the lounge frame intact, but some of the cables for our lithium conversion were routed through the frame. We were very glad to have a battery powered reciprocating saw, which dismembered the frame quickly.
We wanted slatted bed frames for airflow. These were built in two pieces: a side, which was hinged near the van sidewall, and a back, which was hinged near the side. A frame under each piece supported the hinged parts and brought everything up to the height of the water heater.
The curbside bed has double slats which extend to make a full width bed. The backs have ratchets, and can be raised to make a lounge seat. The area between the twins has a hinged cover. This area stores our fold up table.
The last step was making the cushions. We bought a foam RV mattress and cut it in pieces. The Sailrite website provided instructions on making cushions, as well as high quality fabric, notions, and a soldering pen with a fabric cutting tip for Sunbrella.
Each bed has a large cushion for the bottom and 2 smaller ones that serve as a backrest when sitting facing the aisle. The second backrest cushion can be seen behind the raised seat.
At last, a good night’s sleep! In addition, we have the flexibility for one person to sleep while the other is reading, and we both can lounge comfortably.