Just purchased a 89 Bigfoot delux 17 foot trailer and think we will love it......all except maybe the narrow beds. Used to a wonderful 15 foot trillium.

Has anyone modified the back goucho to make it bigger? (want to leave the front as a table at all times and retain the bathroom)
I was thinking pocket door on bathroom and making the bed wider to the bathroom door using some of the closet (sleeping with heads to the entrance door)
Has anyone seen or done this???
Any other better ideas??
Thank you for any suggestions

Hi Donna,

I have seen very few threads discussing this, but here's what I know:

This queen extension to the side gaucho sounds just like what you are proposing.

Here's one where they extended the front bed to a queen size (might give you a few ideas even if it's the wrong location): Front Dinette Mod

HTH

Here's exactly what you're looking for... I think!
Bigfoot B17 Bed Modification Check the pictures at the bottom.

Maureen and Chris are active on this forum and I'm sure would be open to questions about this mod.

Oh Donna and Lainey.... Thank you Thank you..........just the info I needed. And what a great job Maureen and Chris did.
Something to aspire to.
Now we have to see if we like pulling the Bigfoot as much as the Trillium.....

Hi, Donna R!

My hubby is the one who did all the work on our old 17' but I can tell you a little about how things worked. Before we did that remake, we actually tried a temporary version similar to the other link above for the "dinette mod." We simply put cushions in the same configuration pictured on top of two coolers that were the right size. The advantage of that was that you could still easily get into the bathroom at night, but the disadvantage was we seemed to end up with "gap-osis" with the cushions. Another disadvantage was that it blocked the front door. However, the link shown looks so much better than our temporary fix.

After trying that, Chris ended up taking out the closet to make room for a wider bed in the gaucho area. This also meant changing the bathroom door to an accordion style. We put a futon type of mattress in the gaucho area instead. The bed was really comfortable then -- the width of a full-size bed. The only downside was that we needed to kind of "scoot" into the bathroom at night since the bed was right up against it. It was still worth it to have a bed wide enough for the two of us.

It actually was working just fine until I saw a Bigfoot 5th-wheel and decided that it would be so nice to have a permanent queen size bed.... What can I say? The older I get, the more spoiled I am!

Anyway, we really enjoyed our old 17', but we did appreciate the wider bed once Chris figured it out. If you have questions about the bed extension, just let us know. That is, I'll get Chris to answer, since he's the one who did all the work! :-) Good luck!

Maureen

Thanks Maureen for your info
We have not got the new trailer as yet. Bought it in Ontario and have to drive from Nova Scotia back to Ontario to pick it up in September.
THAT'S when we see if we like pulling such a big trailer ( big after the Trillium)
It's all relative...biggness that is.
We have done 6 months on the road in that Trillium and were happy and fine.
The extras in the bigfoot ( hot water,toilet, SHOWER, awning, oven, screen door,...not sure about the AC, think a fantasic fan might be enough) make it seem like a palace to me, but maybe also too big. Weird eh?
When we are sure that the bigfoot is the trailer we want to haul to Mexico, the bed renos will start. At that point we may well email you for more info and be greatful for your expertise.
So knowing you are there to give advice is GREAT. Thanks
PS. did you leave the bed set up that way all the time??? or somehow set up "half way"
Donna

No, we didn't leave the bed up all the time. I suppose you could do that if you wanted to, but only if you didn't use the kitchen much. We usually pushed it back out of the way. That is, we would slide the stand underneath in, just like the original gaucho bed, and slide the futon mattress in and bend it up into a sofa shape. It looked a little different folded in because it wasn't shaped quite like a normal futon, but it was just fine. Having the mattress folded up sofa style gave us more room to get around by the stove and walk into the bathroom.

I'm sure you'll love the bigger size once you get used to it. I remember when we upgraded from a tent trailer to our 17'. It was SO nice to have a bathroom. No more wandering around the campground in the dark with a flashlight in the middle of the night. :-) I'm sure you'll enjoy your new Bigfoot. You can probably tell we're huge Bigfoot fans. Have fun with your new purchase!

Maureen

You'll love the bigfoot! There is so much room! We recently upgraded from a 15ft beachcomber to a 20ft bigfoot 5th wheel and it feels like a mansion to us. The extra room and bathroom is so nice, especially since we have two kids under 5!
Pulling it has been no problem at all (we thought we might feel a big difference coming from the smaller trailer).
Any bigfoot owners that we've run into really love their trailers, especially the storage and the big windows.

Nicole

Thanks both for your positive feedback on Bigfoots.
I KNOW I loved it the moment I saw it and there are very rare on the east coast....never see them except passing thru. The only thing I can imagine better IS the 5th wheel....but I think they are even MORE rare? And we don't have a truck....and we like to do small back roads...and we hope the 17 will do that as well as the Trillium. Only 2 feet more after all.

Did either of you use anything to help potential swaying?
With the Trillium there was NEVER any issue or prolblem. Tracked like a charm so we have no experience/knowlege about sway bars or stabalizing hitches.
We will be using trusty old "Bucko" our 1996 aerostar all wheel drive listed at towing (I believe )of 6500 lbs .
Donna

Donna,
When we had our 1989 17' Bigfoot we were using a 1998 Toyota Sienna (V6 3.0L) with tow package. According to Toyota that van could tow up to 3500 pounds. Our Bigfoot trailer came with a weight distribution hitch, which made a big difference over our previous Coleman tent trailer. The Bigfoot also came with electric brakes, so I needed to get a brake controller installed into the van. The electrical connections on our trailers have been the round 7-blade connector. I'm not sure what your van and current trailer has, you might want to find out so you are prepared before your trip.

There was only one time when towing where I had any sway problem. This was my fault by attaching a cheep bicycle carrier to the Bigfoot rear bumper. I was carrying three bicycles on that carrier and it started to sway. That started a chain reaction with the trailer, then the van swaying. This was the one time I was glad to have the electric brakes. I took my foot off the gas, applied the brakes just to the trailer and coasted to the side of the road. I took the bikes off the back and stowed them in the trailer without any further problems. Lesson learned; keep the weight evenly distributed throughout the trailer.

I never felt a need to install a sway control friction pad. It would have been very easy with our weight distribution hitch, since it already had the mounting for the second ball joint.

Hope that helps answer your questions. Maureen and I will be traveling with our Bigfoot for the next week or so. We can help answer additional questions after we return.
Chris