J Steel Sofa or Hide a Bed - Which One?

[cppeekskill]

We are the proud owners of a 2014 Whitehawk 28DSBH. We ordered it in September last year and it arrived in October. The dealer stored it for us until last week when we picked it up. We ordered the unit with a hide a bed, but Jayco somehow messed up the order and installed the J Steel Sofa instead. I overlooked that when I closed on the sale of the trailer last October and didn't realize it until I brought the unit home. I contacted the dealer and after they did some research, they found out the Jayco made the mistake. The dealer also apologized for missing it on the PDI. The dealer informed me that Jayco is willing to reimburse them for the uninstalled option since they left it out of the unit. The dealer is willing to give me a credit for a cover for the unit or some other accessories. The dealer also has another 2014 Whitehawk 28 DSBH on the lot with the same interior color scheme. He is having his techs figure out if they remove the Hide a Bed without damaging it and may offer to install it my unit if possible. The J Steel measures 60" by 42" and it appears that the hide a bed measures 60" by 52". DW likes the current J Steel sofa. I can't seem to find much discussion on which people prefer, but most of the units on my dealer's lot have the Hide a Bed installed as an option. Are they both as comfortable to sit on when closed? Can anyone make any recommendations? I'm not certain if the extra 10" in length will make a big difference with the usefullness of the bed. Is the newer Hide a Bed with the Denver mattress comfortable than the old style? I know that the previous versions had an air matress.

[Adk Camper]

I have two hide a beds in my TT and they are very comfortable and prefer them over the J steel sofa however it's a matter of preference and what you think feels better to you.Go to your dealer and sit on one and also have them open it up and lay on it and see what you think compared to the J steel in your TT. Then make your decision.

[Camper_bob]

IMHO, it really depends on whether you will ever actually use it as a bed. If you do, will it be for children or adults? If you will rarely use it as a bed, and it'll be children, I'd say the J-Steel is fine. If you plan to have adults sleeping on it often, I would say try for the hide-a-bed. I didn't notice any difference between sitting in the J-Steel vs the hide-a-bed.

I can't speak to the sleeping comfort of the Denver Mattress in the Hide-a-bed, but having opened ours up a handful of times, it resembles a very firm foam mattress, not memory foam, just foam. Also, there are a lot of joints and crevices when it's folded out, so you'd want to put something over it more than just a sheet to smooth things out a bit.

[33 RLDS]

I would recommend bringing the hid a bed mattresses in at seasons end. Mice ate a bunch of holes in one of ours and I am having trouble finding a replacement. I have not tried Jayco yet as I assume it will cost more than it should. Lol...

[bluie5]

We have the hide-a-bed and even used as a couch it is much more comfortable than the J-steel sofa we had in our old unit.

[Brownie]

I have the hide-a-bed in my Eagle. I find it very comfortable as a sofa, and I like the pull-out storage drawer underneath it for storing the air mattress, sheets, blankets, etc. Don't know about the Denver Mattress vs. Air Bed. Mine has the airbed, but I haven't used it yet.

[cppeekskill]

Thank you everyone! Based on your replies, I'm leaning towards the hide a bed. I hope that the dealer will be able to swap out the J Steel for me.

[kodes]

definitely go for the hide-a-bed - we went with that option and there was also a mistake, and the dealer did end up swapping out the j-steel sofa with little issue, so that was good.

[clutch]

We have the hide a bed and really like the storage compartment under it. The mattress has only been filled once since 2011.

[Paintinfool3]

well we got the hide a bed sofa in our 2015 with the Denver mattress but the boys slept on it this weekend and said it was stiff as a board ... we will probably take a air mattress to lay on top of it next time ...sofa is nice to sit on though

[NY RVer]

We chose the Hide-a-Bed in ours because the J seemed more geared to children than adults.

[tomwest]

I recently purchased a used Jayco eagle travel trailer. It has a jay steel sofa bed. When opened it measures 58" x 68". Where can I find an air mattress that fits those dimensions. Apparently Jayco opts not to supply one.

[goldenbetty]

We have a Jayco Greyhawk with the hide-a-bed. We want to take it out and put two power recliners. Any hints on how to remove the sofa and prepare the area for the recliners?