2007 Great West Sptnter

[airuke]

Hello all have a 2007 Great West Sprinter class B. It has the tri fold sofa bed. There is a button behind the sofa near the back doors that says sofa release. I can't seem to figure out what this button does. or how it works Any help is much appreciated.

[Davydd]

The button at the back door allows you to operate the sofa from there. You have a pin on both sides of the sofa you can move and insert to make the sofa move forward without dropping down into a bed.

[Rok]

We have a 2013 model with the same button. You can use it for putting the bed up and down. Unlike Davydd (IIRC), we put our bed up every morning as part of our routine. When we put it down to sleep on at night, one of us is in the back with a flashlight to make sure that the stuff stored under the bed doesn't interfere with the movement of the bed. If just one of us is doing it, we have to use that button in order to both view the underside of the bed and open/close it at the same time.

The pins Davydd mentions are hard to find and re-insert elsewhere in order to give you more storage/hauling room in the back. It is a nice feature of the GW Legends. I think the the bathroom doors that fold out into a little room are another great feature of the GW Legends and the extra storage under the back seat because of the rails being on the side is yet another great feature of the GW.

Too bad GW went out of biz. I hope someone adopts the floor plan--it is the best out there. If they could build them with a bit better parts, that would be good, too.

GL with your rig.

...........Rocky

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Rok

Too bad GW went out of biz. I hope someone adopts the floor plan--it is the best out there. If they could build them with a bit better parts, that would be good, too.

The ARV Ocean One in its default configuration is a near exact clone of the Legend, including the trifold sofa, albeit with higher level finishes and systems.

[Davydd]

Rocky,

Your 2013 doors are different than the 2007 Legends. Yours are a pair of doors with folding panels that came across and created a private space. The 2007 was a bi-fold door on rails. The 2011 was a bi-fold door as well and I had them change it to a pair of doors. I may have had the first in that configuration but I did not have the folding panels. That came an obvious addition shortly after.

We always made up our beds at night and we used sleeping bags. We always kept it in sofa mode during the day traveling and in camp. We never traveled with the sofa moved forward. You could also nudge it forward an inch or two that way if you wanted to carry a couple of zero gravity lounge chairs upright behind the sofa. We only found one brand from Cabelas that could be carried that way without moving the sofa forward. If we had bikes we might have been tempted as you can carry two inside that way. I moved the sofa forward sometimes for hauling and Home Depot runs when at home, or just to simply show it off.

As for the plan, Advanced RV has been using it pretty much as the base starting plan with a few minor tweaks by putting the toilet on the forward wall with the sink with vanity opposite and angling the refrigerator and wardrobe area back at an angle to create a little more open floor space feel in the front. The Pleasure-way Plateau plan was not too much different with the difference being they move the bathroom to the front behind the driver. Advanced RV has now built a couple of Bs using plans with a fantastic bathroom up front with a round shower area. That was FredA's contribution.

[Rok]

Sorry Davydd, I guess I didn't recall correctly .

Also, I didn't know that the bathroom doors had changed on the GW Legends. I really like that little dressing room--It keeps you from having to pull a bunch of shades if you are going to drying off or changing clothes.

I'd like to be able to afford an Advanced rig, and maybe someday I will, but for now our GW Legend SE suits us just fine, although our next go around we were going to go to an EX, but that won't be possible now.

Again, sorry, I got you mixed up with someone else.

........Rocky

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Rok

our next go around we were going to go to an EX

We deliberately chose the LE over the EX, and not for financial reasons. The Legend has a huge amount of storage as it is. We just didn't see where the extra length was buying much, and it makes the difference between easy vs tight parking under many common situations.

[Rok]

Avanti,

We went through that deliberation ourselves. The length of the rig was indeed a factor. But, we weren't able to actually see and touch an SE (we're in Seattle). Someone from this board owned an EX about an hour north of us and we went up there and got to see one of those in person, but we bought our SE sight unseen with the assurance of the owner of the company that at 6' 0" the bed would be long enough for me.

The short story is that it really isn't (unless I'm alone and can sleep diagonally). I tried to work something out with Dave after our first trip but he would have none of it.

There have been many places where our SE would fit where an EX would not. After that deliberation, we've kept track, and it sounds like you have as well.

Now I've kind of gotten used to knowing that I'm not going to sleep well when we travel. Occasionally we'll check into a hotel every third day or so to allow me to get one good night's sleep.

We've even considered one of the C's that LTV calls B+'s. They would be plenty big enough. Alas, we figure that the only way to get the value out of our GW is to drive it out.

Bottom line is that the EX would be a much better fit for me, and now we won't be able to get a new one a couple of years from now when we decide to trade up.

Didn't you buy the first rig made at the new plant? It sounds like it is working well for you.

..........Rocky

[avanti]

Ah, yes, the bed length. That is a very valid issue if you are tall--I should have mentioned that. I am 6'3", but I solved that problem in a different way. Ours was a factory order and we specified several customizations, including this one:

IMG_09.JPG

IMG_10.JPG

By sacrificing 4" width of the galley bottom cabinet, I effectively lengthened passenger side of the bed by enough to make all the difference. This was very successful. I have since modified the box to hold the TV when not in use.

IMG_5483.JPG

IMG_5482.JPG

Perhaps you could find a carpenter to make this mod for you? Not that hard.

Yes, it really is a shame that GWV is gone. They filled an important niche in the market--a high-quality, straightforward van with a great floorpan and systems but a good value and without gratuitous glitz. I am a DIY type and have made many significant mods to our van. The Legend was the ideal platform for this and it has worked out amazingly well for us. Not sure what I would buy today. Everything available is either unacceptably low in build quality or uninspired. I hope Hymer will fill this niche over time.

We do have the first US-built Legend. Sad that it is also one of the last.

[Rok]

Wow, that is quite a nice modification! I wish we would have had that done to ours. We got some nice modifications. In my defense, I didn't think it would be a problem because before ours was built I knew it would be close so I called Dave and ask him to physically measure one of the tri-fold couches to get the measurements exactly. The measurements he gave me were 2-3" longer than the real length of the bed, and that extra couple of inches would have been perfect for me, even 1 more inch would be a LOT better.

You are 3 inches bigger than me and you got 4 extra inches to work with, so you did get that 1 extra inch net for your height. Interestingly Dave's willingness to work with you and get it right might have been due to the stink I caused because of my height.

I had to go out in our van to see just what had been done to yours. For a number of reasons, I don't think a modification of our existing would be very easy at all. In your modification, the wide drawers were moved left and the middle drawers were eliminated. A carpenter would have to do some pretty extensive rebuilding to manage that.

Almost the perfect solution would be to move the wide drawers left and have some sort of removable cabinet for long people.

Unfortunately, I think we might be hijacking the OP's topic here.

I'd like to hear if you had any other modifications done, but if you want to respond, maybe we should do it in another thread.

Thanks for posting the photos.

...........Rocky