Any RVer looking for a new sofa has come across something called a jackknife sofa during their search. It has left many RV owners asking what a jackknife sofa is? And after some research, we’re ready to tell you all about them.
An RV jackknife sofa is a couch that you can pull out and use as a bed. All it requires is pulling down the seat, and it’ll lay out flat. This quality makes it a great alternative to your standard pull-out couch as it doesn’t feature a heavy mattress. These products have also become a favorite item due to their affordability and easy transition skills.
This description is the general gist of what to expect when getting an RV jackknife sofa. But there’s much more to know about these products before you can decide whether you need one. So please, let us help by providing you with the necessary information required to make a decision about getting one.
Everything You Need To Know About RV Jackknife Sofas
This section will fully detail all the ins and outs of these products. We’ll further discuss what constitutes an RV jackknife sofa, how to care for them, and their benefits. This information will give you a better understanding of why these sofas have become more popular.
What is it?
The first thing you notice is that an RV jackknife sofa looks like your standard couch. It’s often made from some leather material and has enough seating area for at least two people. In other words, ’it’s a great place to sit down and watch a movie or two during your RV trip.
But what makes these products different is they can pull out into a single person bed. It can offer this function by having a back that slides down, which makes a flat surface. This quality makes them the perfect piece of furniture to have around for potential guests.
Here's a video that shows you just how these jackknife couches turn into a bed for the night -
The size of these products can range from 60 to 75 inches in length. This amount of variation means you need to understand how much space is available in your RV.
How to Care For It?
Taking care of an RV jackknife sofa won’t be much different than with a regular sofa. You’ll just need to ensure you’re careful when turning it into a bed and making sure there’s enough room.
Otherwise, it could result in tears and rips when encountering something sharp. Read the manual which comes with the sofa. This resource should contain any cleaning instructions the couch might have that require special attention.
If you don’t follow these instructions, using the wrong cleaning supplies could end up ruining the fabric. And since you want your sofa to stay looking sharp, reading the manual should be a priority.
What Are Its Benefits?
There are various benefits to having an RV jackknife sofa inside your RV. This section will cover what I feel are the top reasons why someone would find these products useful. It should give you an idea of whether getting one would be a smart decision.
Affordable
RV jack sofas are much more affordable than their pull-out couch counterparts. In fact, they're often up to $200 less than a traditional sleeper sofa or hide-a-bed. It's quite clear these products are an inexpensive way to ensure your guests always have a place they can sleep.
Take up less space
These products also take up less space than a standard pull-out couch. This benefit comes from them needing less area to operate as both a couch and a bed. The limited room onboard RVs make this quality an essential one.
Simple transition from sofa to bed
Jackknife sofas make transitioning from a couch to bed a simple process. In most cases, all you have to do is pull on the seat of the sofa, and it’ll lay flat. This smooth transition isn’t something you always see in other pull-out couches.
Easy to move
An RV jackknife sofa doesn’t come with a heavy mattress like other sofa beds. This quality means these products aren’t as hard to move. It comes in handy when you’re trying to install one into your RV.
Perfect one person bed
When you have a guest staying over, these products represent the perfect solution. It’s all a matter of pulling on the sofa’s seat, and you’ll have a comfortable surface for them to sleep. Some of these jackknife sofas are big enough to fit two people comfortably.
If you’re still confused about what these products are and can offer, we’re going to provide you with five examples. Each one of these RV jackknife sofas below should give you a better idea of what to expect.
The Top 5 RV Jackknife Sofas
These five RV jackknife sofas are the ones we consider the best in today's market. All of them will provide you with a comfortable piece of furniture with an added sense of versatility. We hope you like them as much as we do!
Lippert Components 68'' RV Jackknife Sofa 
The Lippert Components 68” RV Jackknife Sofa will provide an RV owner with a durable, comfortable furniture piece. This couch contains high-density foam that will offer top tier support whenever you use it.
As a result, your guest won’t wake up with a stiff back or aches and pains. It also converts to a bed with ease as it only requires one motion during the transition process.
But the best part of this sofa is its design. This model consists of beautiful PolyHyde upholstery that makes this couch something, which will fill your guests with jealousy. Plus, this material is both durable and easy to clean as well.
This sofa comes with a 1-year warranty.
Click here to see this product on RV Auto Parts!
Thomas Payne 68" RV Jackknife Sofa
This couch uses Euro-leather vinyl material which doesn’t just look great but also makes this couch easy to clean and maintain. This quality benefits rather lazy people like me as keeping it in pristine shape won’t require much effort.
It helps that this jackknife sofa features an easy conversion method as well. It’s a simple three-step process, which won’t take much time or effort. And the bed itself will be much more comfortable than you expect thanks to the high-density foam.
This foam will work together with the padded backrest to make sure whoever sleeping on this sofa is entirely comfortable. We should note that this couch has a steel frame, which is resistant to scratches and rust as well.
Click here to see this product on Etrailer!
RecPro Charles 60" RV Jackknife Sleeper Sofa
The RecPro Charles 60” RV Jackknife Sleeper Sofa isn’t a model you should overlook even with its smaller size. In fact, this sofa’s compact design doesn’t stop it from providing comfort to whoever uses it.
This sofa can provide a high level of comfort thanks to its use of suprima fabric. This material’s incredibly soft, and various customers have praised its use in their reviews. You should love this sofa’s metal bed frame as well.
This feature will ensure this sofa doesn’t wear down by providing it with stability. In other words, you should expect this sofa to stick around for many years. It also helps that you can choose between four different colors to ensure the couch matches with your interior.
Its ability to transform within a few seconds is another aspect anyone would love. It removes any hassle or complication that could arise from the process. Plus, the bed it turns into is six inches thick, which will provide more than enough support.
Click here to see this product on RecPro!
Thomas Payne 68" RV Jackknife Sofa w/ Leg Kit
This jackknife sofa from Thomas Payne consists of a mahogany color that’ll provide a luxury feel to your RV’s interior. It also uses PloyHyde Euro leather, which means this luxury look is easy to maintain.
You should love the leg kit as well. This feature provides extra storage under the couch, which could be a godsend for RVers that love collecting items. It also helps that this sofa has detachable kickboard to make using this space much easier.
This sofa’s other features are a lot similar to the first Thomas Payne product on this list. It has the same simple three-step transition process, padded backrest, consists of high-density foam, etc. In other words, it has everything great from the first product with the leg kit and removable headboard inclusions.
I don’t know about you, but those two additions certainly seem like wins to me. And the price didn’t even get raised all that much. As a result, I think this sofa is worthy of your full attention.
Click here to see this product on Etrailer!
RecPro Charles 70" Jackknife RV Sleeper Sofa
The last product that we’d like to discuss is the RecPro Charles 70” Jackknife RV Sleeper Sofa. This particular couch stands up well to its rivals with features that could challenge any other jackknife sofa’s.
For instance, it consists of durable, soft suprima fabric that’ll make sleeping on this sofa a treat. This material is tear-resistant and easy to clean as well. A metal frame also supports this sofa, which is another thing you should take into account.
This metal frame is both rust and scratch resistant that further shows the sofa’s durability. Given these features, there’s no reason you should believe it won’t be around for years to come.
It’s also worth noting this fabric can come in four different colors. This feature might seem a little trivial, but it’s always nice to have a choice about your furniture’s color. And lastly, it doesn’t hurt that this sofa’s rather long at 70 inches in length.
Click here to see this product on RecPro!
After reading all this information about RV jackknife sofas, there shouldn't be an issue finding the perfect one. But if you do have more questions, feel free to ask them in the comment section. We'd love to help in any way we can!
Our jack knife sofa bed measures 51″ long and 36″ deep. Removable armrest pillows on each side. Is there a product available that would fit this smaller space, not necessarily another bed but two attached theater seats with drink holders in center? If we did go with another sofa, something with a deeper seat….
We bought a like new jacknife sofa and we can’t get it to work/pullout correctly. It worked for the people that we bought it.
I can’t find videos for it anywhere. It is “L” shaped.