Upgrading the Jackknife Sofa

Section for discussion of Chinook interior and appliance issues, repair or installation.
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SMan
Senior Member
Posts: 633
Joined: February 17th, 2015, 1:57 pm
Location: 7 Lakes, WA

Re: Upgrading the Jackknife Sofa

Post by SMan »

We currently use a thick mattress pad inside two sheets that my wife sewed together. It stores under the sofa. I do like the idea of a self inflating pad and plan on looking into those.
Steve aka SMan
2004 Premier V10
pdemarest
**Forum Contributor**
Posts: 384
Joined: August 8th, 2015, 11:54 am
Location: Santa Cruz, CA

Re: Upgrading the Jackknife Sofa

Post by pdemarest »

A lot of great ideas here. I found an upholstery guy who is familiar with Chinooks and is willing to cut out the auto-seat springs on the jackknife sofa and replace them with memory foam cushions. The material will be close but not an exact match for the dinette but having a comfortable bed is one of my primary goals for the rig. He will also stuff the existing dinette cushions with the same foam for consistency and is making the sofa cushions slightly larger to eliminate the gap between the dinette and sofa when they're folded down into the sleeping position.

He's also removing the cab carpet (a lovely blend of autumnal colors in a medium shag - yuk!), laying down a layer of Dynamat on the cab floor and under the engine doghouse and then finishing with a pale buckskin color carpet that will match the dash and door panels (originally dark gray but had them vinyl painted to the lighter color). I'm going to see if he can put some Dynamat inside the cab doors and try to talk him into removing the rest of the carpet in the rig in preparation for putting in some laminate flooring.

It could be me but I'm getting the feeling that most of us Chinookers are NEVER finished messing with our rigs!
Paul Demarest
2003 Premier V-10
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Cozimoto
Posts: 16
Joined: February 21st, 2017, 6:54 am
Location: ~Alaska/NC~

Re: Upgrading the Jackknife Sofa

Post by Cozimoto »

Just going to mention in here that I went with a KingCamp "Deluxe Wide" sleeping pad off of Amazon, it is a bit long, but move the drivers seat up and it squeezes in just fine, the quality seems very good and at 3.5" the comfort is there, plus a little cheaper than REI ... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D1 ... UTF8&psc=1

Full Inflating Size:
DELUXE SINGLE: 198 × 63 × 7.5 cm (77.95 × 24.8 × 2.95 inches);
DELUXE PLUS: 198 × 63 × 10 cm (77.95 × 24.8 × 3.94 inches);
DELUXE WIDE: 198 × 76 × 10 cm (77.95 × 29.92 × 3.94 inches);
DELUXE DOUBLE: 198 × 130 × 7.5 cm (77.95 × 51.18 × 2.95 inches)

Package Size:
DELUXE SINGLE: 67 × 23 × 23 cm (26.37 × 9.05 × 9.05 inches);
DELUXE PLUS: 67 × 24 × 24 cm (26.37 × 9.44 × 9.44 inches);
DELUXE WIDE: 76 × 24 × 24 cm (29.92 × 9.44 × 9.44 inches);
DELUXE DOUBLE: 67 × 32 × 32 cm (26.37 × 12.59 × 12.59 inches)

Weight:
DELUXE SINGLE: 2.7 kg (6 Ibs);
DELUXE PLUS: 3.3 kg (7.3 Ibs);
DELUXE WIDE: 4.1 kg (9 Ibs);
DELUXE DOUBLE: 5.2 kg (11.5 Ibs)
~Cozette~
'95 Chinook Concourse
ChinookAdventures
Posts: 2
Joined: March 25th, 2019, 11:57 am

Re: Upgrading the Jackknife Sofa

Post by ChinookAdventures »

My wife and I just fixed this same problem. We decided to take out the jackknife couch and frame all together. That shaved a few pounds off the rig. Then we custom built a 2x4 bed frame with a sheet of plywood on top. We measured for a twin foam mattress which fit perfectly. We invested in ottomans to close the gap between the bed a booth. This makes for a complete and comfortable sleep. When we wake in the morning we relocate the ottomans to the front seats. No more back problems related to the couch anymore 😃
Still on my journey in this life.
dougm
Senior Member
Posts: 516
Joined: June 7th, 2016, 9:25 pm

Re: Upgrading the Jackknife Sofa

Post by dougm »

I used the existing jacknife sofa frame to mount and secure the twin bed frame i built to replace the crappy sofa. I also added storage underneath.
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Worked out pretty well IMO.
Concourse St Tropez
Posts: 70
Joined: August 29th, 2015, 9:29 am

Re: Upgrading the Jackknife Sofa

Post by Concourse St Tropez »

Could you please post a picture from a distance , so we can get a better idea. Couldn't you just have added a sheet of plywood over the frame ?
Jjbemus
Posts: 2
Joined: August 7th, 2021, 7:18 am

Re: Upgrading the Jackknife Sofa

Post by Jjbemus »

Hi all I’m new to this forum. I have a 2002 concourse XL with the dinette. I found the sofa to be uncomfortable so after much deliberation I found a solution that works for me. I found a 3 inch mattress pad with cooling gel on one side at IKEA in a double size. It was extremely challenging to get it to stay on, but I came up with a creative solution.
It’s a bit bulky but so comfortable. I tuck the upper part behind the top of sofa as much as possible (6 +inches ) then I have a long (or 2) bungee cord across the middle clipped on each side. I have sheets and a thin cover on it first then tuck and bungee. It’s stays put even on washboard dirt roads!! The mattress wAs $99 a few years ago.
JoAnn
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