Single beds or fixed island?
Hi everyone, a long time since I have posted but I hope I have the right place! We have sold our motorhome and now planning to buy a caravan, we will be going to the caravan show in October . We prefer beds which give us both easy access so we don't need to climb over each other when getting out of bed. We are considering singles or fixed island .Are caravan single beds big enough for adults or should we limit our search to a fixed island bed? We are average sized adults but not quite as agile now. Looking forward to hearing about your own experiences and thoughts. Thank you
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I'm only a little squirt but hubby is 6 foot and we sleep in two full length singles. Hubby would definitely appreciate an extra few inches but manages. Anybody taller would struggle.
We opted for this arrangement in a two berth van because I don't want to tow the extra length of van that's only going to be used to sleep at night.Personal choice but we're happy with things as they are.
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I would have thought that any caravan with designated single beds (as opposed to settees made up as beds) will be two foot six inches wide, although the distance between the beds won't be as great as the settees in the lounge. As Jill points out caravans (and motorhomes for that matter) with separate designated sleeping areas will also be longer in length for towing.
David
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The single beds in our Motorhome are 1929 x 1730 (6ft 4in x 2ft 5in). We find them perfectly adequate with Duvalays. Our previous Motorhome has slightly smaller singles and that was fine also.
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Check the sizes of the beds as they do vary between models but for accessibility I’d opt for 2 singles every time.
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I figured that for a decent size island bed, whether with a longitudinal or transverse arrangement, one would have to go for an 8ft wide caravan, otherwise access from both sides will be rather limited. To make towing a bit easier I didn't want such a wide caravan so we chose two singles instead.
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The bed arrangement in our current van was the principle reason for choosing it. We previously had a Bailey Barcelona with a 'French" double bed and Ros - having had a knee replacement a few years ago was finding it increasingly difficult to get in and out of it - regardless of whether or not I was in it at all! Getting out of it and back in, in the middle of the night was a real challenge and she was getting seriously fed up with it..
We chose the current van - a Knaus Starclass 695 - and 8' wide - principally because of the two single beds - just short of 3' wide ( almost as wide as a standard 'domestic single) and the longest one is about 6'10' long. There is a gap of 2' between the beds and they are SO comfortable.
More importantly, though - is the fact that they are actually lower than the Barcelona fixed double - which, again makes access a lot easier.
The only slight downside is that - with it being an 8' wide van, I've got to be a bit careful about where we take it.
Each to their own - depends what your priorities are - but for us - it works.
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Our near neighbours had a Bailey, bought only a couple of years ago, that has single beds. Both of them are over 6' tall and are apparently well satisfied with the unit. Can't remember the model exactly but suggest you look at those.
It may in fact have been what DEBSC had but I can't confirm (as I've forgotten!
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Be careful when looking at Island beds some friends of ours b ought a c/van with an island bed but did not it seem to notice what the length of the bed was when at the show, only when they picked it up ,they realised that to make the full length it was required to be extended.which when done there was not enough room to get past it
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Somebody on CT started a thread recently saying exactly the same thing. 😯
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We went from single beds to an island bed. The single beds were 2’4” wide and 6’2” long, almost long enough for a 6’3” OH, although he did get fed up with stubbing his toe on the board at the end. The reason we changed to island bed layout was we didn’t find singles gave us much ‘wriggle room’; being mostly side sleepers, often knees were hanging out and at times felt a bit like sleeping in a coffin. We prefer the island one and yes it doesn’t give a huge amount of room at end of bed during the night when it’s extended (about a foot) but easy enough to get past. During the day when it’s retracted the passage is fine. Personal choice but we found it better for us. An earlier caravan had a ‘French’ side access bed which we found very inconvenient.
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Thank you so much for all the replies and useful information. Our main concern was that the single beds would be too narrow but it sounds like people feel they are more than adequate.Now all we need to do is find the right caravan layout for us.Thanks again.
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I can understand not wanting a corner bed due to clambering over each other but for us, its a no brainer. 6ft 5 inch long, nice and wide and bags of storage space underneath. Personally, I wouldn't buy anything else, although manufacturers seem to be ditching them.
Island beds are only 6ft 2 long in most cases, so unless you sleep with head against the headboard, then your feet will hang over the end at somepoint. On standard width caravans, the end butts up to either the side or the middle bathroom door. If it butts up to the side then you can't get round in the middle of the night.
Single beds are too narrow for us, and access to storage underneath is difficult to get to, and restricted to the width of the bed.
In your situation, I would go for an island bed that comes from the back of the caravan with a central bathroom. It will butt up to the bathroom door, but that slides so you should both get access. There will be plenty of storage space underneath the bed for chairs etc, but their won't be an outside door so you'll need to bring everything through the bathroom.
Final point, test before you buy. Get the bed out to its full length, and lie on it. For half an hour if needed. Visit the loo with the bed extended and make sure it all works before committing.
Good luck!
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We have a conqueror 645, 2013, so not as wide as latest vans. No complaints, ok a bit of a squeeze for me when extended to get to the kettle! but pretty good for 2 pensioners.
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We had a 2016 Elddis Affinity 550 with the island bed at the rear of the caravan. The bed was the best part of that caravan and it worked well for us. But then design and quality problems caused us to trade in our Affinity.
We realised that we had been towing around a large caravan just for the night time convenience of the bed, whereas the lounge area had been really quite compact in that caravan.
So we bought a Knaus Starclass 480 2 berth van and use the two front single beds with Duvalays. It works very well for us, especially for night time bathroom visits. And we have a much larger daytime space in a much smaller caravan!
Delighted!
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That looks a nice compact layout, but the front bed cushions still have the knee roll - why do caravan manufacturers still insist on doing this? We traded from a Swift with front lounge/beds to a Bailey Unicorn Cordoba as we found the knee roll made sleeping very uncomfortable. Having twin beds at the rear avoids this.
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2022 Swift Challenger, 6' 3" island bed, 4' 4" wide, in a van just 7' 4" wide. No problems encountered in either of us getting out of our respective sides. And it's still nice to be a couple even when older.
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Of course it's everybody's personal preference but to me 4' 4" is rather narrow for a double bed. The single beds in our caravan are already 3ft wide each and the double bed back home 6' 7". Anything much less would create problems when we finish lying diagonally in it when we wake up in the morning.
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We have a 2014 elddis crusader cyclone with rear island bed, plenty of access room both sides to the wardrobes and no extension of the bed needed. Plenty of 'dressing room' in the midships.
We purchased this caravan to replace our lunar freelander which was also an end island bed set up.
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I asked this so many times Nutsy, couldn’t agree more. OK for sitting on but so uncomfortable for sleeping. Knee roll on a seat you need to use for sleeping is so unnecessary. Don’t think the manufacturers have ever tried spending a night on one. Home sofas don’t have them so why? We also changed our caravan to single beds for the same reason.
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