Yesterday we looked at a 2002 U270 40' with a tag axle in Mesa, AZ. It had two slides with the one in the bedroom popping out the wardrobe/closet on the passenger side.
I noticed that the driver side had very little space to walk between the wall and the bed. So little, that you had to turn partially sideways and still ran the risk of bumping your head on the window valance. Something I would be bound to do at night.
Is this unique to the floor plan or common?
Sounds like it has a non standard size mattress in it. Did the mattress size equal the platform size and was the platform size = Queen or (CA) King?
Neal
Our '03 40' 2-slide coach is similar. Because of the slide, the bed is closer to the streetside, not centered like a non-slide coach. I'm only 5'3" so the window valence doesn't enter into the equation ;) (with the bed shifted, ours doesn't have cabinets over the side windows).
I bump into the overhad cabinets along the sides, but I wanted the window on both sides, so I'll live with it. Mines only 36', but I'll bet it's just as wide ! ;)
I had a no slide 270 and that was the case on both sides not a problem as you just leaned over the bed a a bit and went sideways. Oh I am over 6 foot too.
Banging your head on the "overhead" (they aren't, unless you're really short) bedroom cabinets is part of the charm of living in a Foretravel. After owning ours for over a year, we still do it, regularly. Just be glad the designers specified beautiful rounded edges on all the woodwork!
Indeed, having a FT is charming, but......there are ways around it.....I did this twice the first nght in the coach, a bang on one side of the head & then (after saying to myself "that's the LAST time for that!") then once on the other side of my head, ("agh! you dope!!!") ...after that I learned to "duck"....(lean into the bed). Also when getting in & out of bed in the middle of the night I just slip off from the bottom of the bed, don't even deal with the sides. (Might not be that easy with 2 in a bed though but that's my trick)....you're not exactly wide awake in the middle of the night....who's thinking of obstacle courses at that hour?
Kinda like walking into awning arms and Cessna diamonds, after while ("while", depends on head thickness) your instincts take over.
After a few years you do learn and I still do it even though I do not need too.
You got mixed comments from different bedroom set ups. I noticed that non slide bedrooms have side wall cabinets. Slide closet wall coaches do not have side wall cabinets on the drivers side. In addition with a slide wall closet the rear cabinet is not as deep front to back, to allow the longer slide closet wall system.
I love the storage provided by the wall cabinets, and do occasionally bump into things as well.
I think ours is the only response with the same configuration OP was asking about - a BR slide with a front/back bed bed orientation.
To allow room for the slide to come in, the bed location is shifted probably 6-8 inches closer to the driver's/street side of the bedroom. There is no room between slide and edge of mattress on passenger/curb side when the slide is in. You do have to turn sideways on driver/street side.
ETA I didn't see a 2-slide U270 floorplan on Barry's site, but here's the link to the U295 ones so you can see the bed shift and lack of overhead cabinets I'm talking about
http://www.beamalarm.com/foretravel-links/models/specification_images/2002_foretravel_U295_floorplan.jpg
Our 03 double slide is like Michelle's with not a lot of room on the drivers side of the bed, but I also just lean over the bed to keep from hitting my head. Our coach did not have a cabinet on that side of the bed, but we found one from a 98 u320 and mounted it on the drivers side as we needed more storage space. I do not have any trouble with hitting my head. Our biggest head banger was the front tv. I removed the tv and tv box and mounted a flat screen tv there and now is much better.
We also have the two slides on our '03 U-320. Yes, it is a little tight on the drivers side of the bed but not an issue for us as that is "my " side. Once in bed who cares how much room there is!
Michelle,
You are exactly correct.
Not wanting anything to do with slides, I tend to forget that the bed is offset from center to allow the additional 6" to 8" to allow for slide retraction.
I just jumped to the two coaches that I have seen where with no slides, the owners had increased the original platform size from the standard Queen 60W X 80L to 72W X 84L to accomodate CA King mattresses. That leads to (from our perspective) very small feeling bedrooms.
In our no slide '02, both sides of the bed are spacious AND the overhead cabinets are 2" less deep and 2" less height than the '98, so it feels as though we have gained a lot more bedroom space than we really did. We really only gained about 6" at the foot of the bed (which also makes the space feel very large by comparison). That 2"x 2" volume reduction throughout the coach overhead cabinets makes for a very large "spaciousness" improvement. But then, when one parks a 36' coach beside a 42' coach and transfers the contents (non slide to non slide) and there is a whole big pile left over that won't fit, one looks at that "spaciousness" with a little different eye.
Neal
Thanks everyone that answers my question. As long as we avoid the bedroom slide should not suffer brain damage from a nocturnal impact.
Jim
I have an east west bed slide and you can walk around with no problem and yoru head is not at risk.
My 95 was ordered with overhead side cabinets deleted in the salon and bedroom. Really opens it up. After owning the 93 we found that not being full timers most of what we put up there we hardly ever messed with anyway. We love it. No head banging here!