We stood in that dealership outside Tampa for nearly two hours, opening and closing the same murphy bed over and over. One of us loved the floor plan. The other kept saying it looked flimsy, like something that would break after six months on the road. Looking back now, we had no idea how much an RV with murphy bed would change the way we lived on the road.
The bed itself seemed fine when it was down. But when we folded it up, the whole thing felt like a gimmick. We could see the hinges underneath the mattress, the straps that held it in place, the D-brackets that were supposed to keep it secure. It looked complicated. And complicated, in our experience, meant expensive repairs in the middle of nowhere.
Our main concern was not the mechanism. It was the mattress. We had read enough forum posts to know that RV mattresses are universally terrible, and a murphy bed mattress had to be even worse because it needed to fold. One blog we found said someone tried to cut a memory foam mattress themselves to create a hinge, and it was a disaster. They could feel the gap every time they rolled over. That story stuck with us.
We walked out of the dealership that day planning to look at floor plans with permanent beds. Then we talked to a couple in the parking lot who had been full-timing in an RV with murphy bed for three years. They were not salespeople. They were not trying to convince us of anything. We asked them if the bed was comfortable, and the wife laughed and said, “More comfortable than the one in our house.”
That got our attention.
They explained that the mattress quality had nothing to do with the murphy bed mechanism. You could upgrade it like any other RV mattress. The hinge was built into the mattress itself, invisible on top, and if you bought a decent one, you would never feel it. They also said the real benefit was not what we expected. It was not about having more space during the day, though that was nice. It was about having a bedroom that could actually do something else when you needed it to.
We went back inside and put a deposit down that afternoon.
The First Week We Actually Lived with It
The moment we knew we had made the right call was three days into our first trip. We were parked at a state park in Georgia, and it started pouring. Not the kind of rain where you sit outside under the awning. The kind where you are stuck inside for hours with nothing to do.
With a permanent bed, we would have been sitting on the couch staring at each other. Instead, we folded the bed up, pulled out our laptops, and turned the bedroom into an actual workspace. We had room to spread out. We were not cramped. We were not sitting on the dinette bench hunched over like we were working in a phone booth.
That same week, we had friends stop by for dinner. Four adults in a travel trailer is tight no matter what, but with the bed up, we actually had room to move around. When it was time to sleep, we put the bed down in about ten seconds, and that was it. No wrestling with cushions, no converting a dinette, no unfolding a sofa bed that felt like sleeping on plywood.
We had been completely wrong about one thing: we thought putting the bed up and down every day would get annoying. It does not. It is faster than making a regular bed, and the bed stays made when it is stored. You fold it up, clip the straps, and you are done.
What Our Daily Routine Actually Looks Like Now
We wake up, make coffee, and put the bed away before we even get dressed. It takes less time than it took to write that sentence. The straps cinch it in place, the D-brackets snap into position, and the whole thing stays put until we are ready to sleep again.
The rest of the morning, that space is ours. Sometimes we use it as an office. Sometimes Maggie uses it as a place to stare out the window and bark at squirrels. Sometimes we do absolutely nothing with it, and it is nice to have the room.
By mid-afternoon, especially if we have been driving all day, the bedroom becomes a place to decompress. We can close the door, sit on the floor, stretch out, do yoga, whatever. With a permanent bed in there, the room would be useless for anything except sleeping. The bed would take up every inch of floor space, and you would be climbing over it to get to the closet.
When evening hits, we put the bed down again. If we are staying somewhere for a week or more, we sometimes leave it down for a few days in a row. But most of the time, we fold it up every morning because we like having the space.
The one friction point we did not anticipate is that guests do not always understand how it works. We have had people look at the folded bed and ask where they are supposed to sleep, even after we explain it. One friend refused to believe the mattress would be comfortable and brought an air mattress as backup. She never used it.
The surprise benefit, the one we never saw coming, is how much easier it is to access storage. Most RVs with permanent beds have storage underneath, but you have to lift the entire mattress to get to it. With a murphy bed, the storage is along the walls and under the platform, and it is all accessible without moving the bed. We keep our tools, winter clothes, and extra bedding back there, and we can grab whatever we need in about five seconds.
We also discovered that the bedroom does not feel like a hallway. In a lot of RVs with permanent beds, the bedroom is a mattress with a narrow walkway on one or both sides. You cannot get to both sides of the bed. You cannot sit on the edge without your knees hitting the wall. With the murphy bed up, the whole room opens up, and when the bed is down, it is centered in the space. You can get in and out from either side, which matters more than you would think.
The Honest Stuff Nobody Tells You Before You Buy an RV with Murphy Bed
Everyone talks about the space you gain, but here is what actually matters: the floor plan has to make sense with the bed up AND down. We have seen RV layouts where the murphy bed folds down and blocks the bathroom door, or covers a window, or makes it impossible to open a cabinet. If the floor plan does not work in both configurations, the murphy bed is pointless.
The other thing nobody mentions is that the bed mechanism will eventually wear. We are five years in, and the straps are starting to fray. The D-brackets still snap into place, but they are not as tight as they used to be. This is not a dealbreaker. It is maintenance. But if you are the kind of person who expects everything in your RV to last forever without any upkeep, a murphy bed will frustrate you.
We have also learned that not all murphy bed frames are created equal. Some brands, particularly certain Forest River models, have had issues with weak frames that bend under weight. We have heard stories of people who could not even clip the bolts to hold the bed in place because the frame was already warped. We got lucky with our rig, but if we were buying again, we would test the bed in person and make sure the frame felt solid before we signed anything.
That said, we would still choose a murphy bed layout over a permanent bed every single time. The drawbacks are minor. The benefits are daily.
The One Accessory That Actually Made a Difference
We replaced the original mattress with a custom Tochta about a year in. The factory mattress was not terrible, but it was not great either, and we knew we could do better.
Tochta makes custom RV mattresses with hinges built in, and you can choose the thickness, firmness, and exact dimensions on their website. We went with the Utopia model in a short queen size, which is sixty inches by seventy-five inches. The mattress arrived vacuum-sealed in a box, and after we peeled off the plastic, it expanded to full size in about an hour.
The difference was immediate. The mattress is soft but supportive, it does not make us hot at night, and we cannot feel the hinge at all when we sleep. It is heavier than the original, but we can still lift it into the upright position without any trouble.
We have tried mattress toppers, and they do not work with murphy beds. The topper slides around when you fold the bed up, and you end up having to adjust it every time you put the bed down. Skip the topper and buy a better mattress. We have written about other RV upgrades that made our lives easier, and a good mattress is right at the top of that list.
Before You Order Your RV with Murphy Bed, Ask Yourself These Three Questions
First: do you actually need the space during the day, or do you like the idea of it? If you are planning to spend most of your time outside, or if you are only using the RV for weekend trips, a murphy bed might be overkill. But if you are going to be inside for hours at a time—working remotely, dealing with bad weather, or living in the rig full-time—the extra space is not a luxury. It is a necessity.
Second: are you okay with a little bit of daily effort? Putting the bed up and down is not hard, but it is a step you have to take every day. Some people love the routine. Other people want to roll out of bed and leave it there. If you are in the second camp, a murphy bed will annoy you within a week.
Third: does the rest of the floor plan work for you? A murphy bed is not a magic fix for a bad layout. We have seen RVs where the murphy bed was clearly added as an afterthought, and the rest of the floor plan made no sense. The kitchen was too small. The bathroom was in a weird spot. The dinette was crammed into a corner. If the only thing you like about the RV is the murphy bed, keep looking.
If you can answer yes to all three of those questions, go find a dealer and test one in person. Do not look at it. Put the bed up and down a few times. Sit in the space with the bed folded. Lie on the mattress and see if it is comfortable. Talk to people who actually own the model you are considering, not the salesperson.
We spent two hours in that dealership in Tampa going back and forth, and we are glad we did. Nearly thirty percent of new travel trailers now offer murphy bed layouts, and that number is climbing every year. There is a reason for that. When the floor plan is right, and the bed is comfortable, and the mechanism works the way it is supposed to, an RV with murphy bed layout is not a compromise. It is an upgrade.
We are still in that same rig. We still fold the bed up every morning. And we still cannot imagine going back to a permanent bed that takes up space we could actually be using.
