In the early 2000s, Scott Curtis, Design Engineer for West Coast Leisure Homes, built upon Bob Mehrer’s pioneering slide-out audacity with Snowriver and created what has become the most popular multi-slide floor plan in truck camper history; the Okanagan 117.
What made the Okanagan 117 so revolutionary is something most of us take for granted at home; a real sofa. By inventing the now ubiquitous sofa camper, Scott had turned the industry on its collective turnbuckles, and changed the course of truck camping design forever.
To anyone with a butt, it should be obvious why Scott’s design was so important. Until the 117, truck campers had extremely limited sitting opportunities. If you wanted to sit in a truck camper, you were in the dinette, or propped up in the cabover.
Some campers had a bench seat instead of a dinette, but most of these were hardly a good substitute for a real domestic-style sofa. To be blunt, sitting in truck campers was not truly sofa-comfortable, until the 117. Thank you, Scott Curtis.
The problem with a sofa camper is size. Not all of us want a double-slide truck camper, or the long bed dually it requires. Some of us, Angela and I included, prefer single or non-slide floor plans. That doesn’t mean we don’t have butts. We do, and they want more comfy camper seating – slide-out or no slide-out.
With our butts in mind, we have been scheming about how we can make our existing dinette seating area more comfortable, and what we can do to create comfortable seating and lounging areas in the rest of the camper.
Specifically, we’re considering improving the seat cushions in our dinette. After eleven years, the existing cushions have condensed, and the quality of the foam and fabric could benefit from an upgrade.
We’re also looking at the dimensions of the dinette bench seats and table. If we removed the dinette and started over, how could be maximize the space, and make it more comfortable ergonomically?
Angela and I are also taking a long look at our cabover. Fellow truck camper owners have created foam wedges that prop-up the lounging situation for reading books, perusing iPads and Kindles, and watching television and movies. Maybe there are some other opportunities as well.
This week’s Question if the week is, “How have you made sitting and lounging more comfortable in your truck camper?” All ideas are welcome; from pillows, to upholstery upgrades, to tear-it-out and start over dinette-area mods. Who knows, we may just take your lead, and make it happen in the mobile TCM HQ.
This week’s QOTW is now closed. Click here to read the reader responses about more comfy camper seating.
