Increasing the comfort level!
We fell in love with Tess as soon as we bought her- she was so original in the interior, all of the mahogany was in fantastic condition, we knew we didn’t want to make any significant changes…. except for the sleeping arrangement!
In theory she is designed to sleep 5 people. The davenport (or couch to you young folks) pulls out to a large twin/small double. Above that are the pins and hanging connections for a canvas bunk (which we didn’t have) and in the front there were two gauchos- each a single bed, with the dining table in between them.
We slept on the davenport pullout for the first few trips. It was a little tight, and the person against the wall had to crawl over in the middle of the night, so it was not ideal. Meanwhile the entire front of the camper was just kind of used as storage. We prefer to be outside under the awning most of the time, including when we eat, so the table added little value to us. The gauchos have GREAT storage underneath, but we didn’t use them to sit on. And since it is just the two of us traveling we just don’t need all that sitting space.
But we didn’t really want to lose the originality of the camper, nor lose the very practical under gaucho storage area, so we came up with what we considered the perfect solution.
First we removed the table and put it in storage- we always want any future owner to be able to have all the parts to restore it if desired. Then using 2x6s we built a U shaped frame. The frame lifts the beds above the gauchos, so they don’t have to be altered. The frame has corner brackets to keep it solid, and L brackets to attach to the plywood on the top of the gauchos- they keep the bed from sliding around more than anything.
Because of the space limitations we bought a short queen mattress and a “bunkie board” bed support frame. We then bought these lifts, attached them to the U shaped frame and the bunkie board frame and voila! We have a queen sized bed that lifts up easily, giving us access to the gaucho storage. We can also store bulky items like a laundry basket underneath the bed. All without destroying any of the original interior. I did need to cut a notch in the 2×6 closest to the center of the camper so the bed sits level.
Now “since we were there” and had all of that pulled out, we took the opportunity to paint the interior and replace the carpet squares the previous owner had installed. The paint was just very dull Zolotone and the carpet was ok, but just held dirt and sand. We used a very pale blue oil based paint for it’s adhesive qualities and sheet vinyl for flooring. I know everyone loves putting down hardwood or LPV flooring but the fact is those floors can trap moisture underneath and hide it for years- and it’s not easy to remove. The sheet vinyl is just laid in and can be easily lifted up when there is a leak. Plus it’s durable and easy to clean.
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