Free standing dinette vs booth

[Semperfi24]

Personally, I hate the table and chair option, lol. We have the booth in our trailer, but my parents have the table/chair set up. They hate it too. It is just such a pain in the (you know what) to have to secure everything in place, and then when you get there undo the teathers, etc. And even with all that, they get banged around and look beat up in short order anyways. Plus it seems like you have no place to sit when you actually try to have 4 people at the table, very little elbow room

With that said, for people that like to be able to use that space as they please, or those that dont mind my minor complaints, then the table/chair option is probably nicer, making you feel less like you are in an rv.

[another_newfie]

We don't have to tether anything with our table and chairs. We just slide them close to the table and they stay put.

[DreiHunde]

Originally Posted by another_newfie

We don't have to tether anything with our table and chairs. We just slide them close to the table and they stay put.

Ditto

[ttg]

We have had 1 RV with the booth and now 2 with the dinette table. I will not go back to the booth style.
As a person with long arms I need to be able to set my chair back to make room. It is much more comfortable for us.

[Semperfi24]

Originally Posted by ttg

We have had 1 RV with the booth and now 2 with the dinette table. I will not go back to the booth style.
As a person with long arms I need to be able to set my chair back to make room. It is much more comfortable for us.

Interesting, must be the floor plan itself. Because when sitting at my parents' table and chairs, you can barely make enough room to sit there. Behind the chairs on one side is the couch, so you cant put the chairs back very far, and on the other side of the table, is a window/wall/entertainment center. If you pull the chair out from the table as far back as it will go, the seat is still just barely under the table. You have to remove the first chair (outside seat), pull the inside seat back, and be seated. Then the person sitting on the outside will put the chair back and be seated. It is awful. And god forbid you are on the inside seat and have to get up in the middle of the meal... lol. So I guess the debate is more than just dinette booth versus table/chairs. The location of the table/chairs relative to the rest of the furniture is also important

[Stg1]

We've had 3 TT's. All have had the booth setup. I was tempted to change out the booth for table and chairs in the second one, but there was limited space to put in a table., so I decided not to do it. Our current TT has a pots and pans drawer under one of the benches, That makes it nice to have a place to store those things when you don't use them very often but need to carry them anyway. We use the other side for storage. Even though we have great storage spaces, it seems you never have enough.

[Timex]

Originally Posted by WFD

Just to clear the muddy waters here....In re-reading the last few pages of posts...when people refer to booth I think they mean the booth or Ushaped booth that can fold down to a bed...the dinette and chairs is more like the OP stated...Free standing dinette and chairs...

A booth is commonly called a dinette in an rv. It serves the purpose of a dining table and can be converted to a bed if need be. A free standing table/chairs is probably what you have in your house to dine on. Here is a pic of my u-shaped dinette. There are pull out drawers on each side. The cushions lift up for even more storage. The bench under the window is where one of the outside storage compartments is located. The tt's that we have owned have had dinettes. I don't have any knowledge of the free standing table/chairs setup but I have never heard of them being able to convert to a bed.

[ttg]

Timex, I believe you are right about not sleeping on the Dining table. I have a bed for that purpose.
If you have a need to sleep extra people the "dinette" is the way to go.

[dcheatwood]

Originally Posted by Semperfi24

Personally, I hate the table and chair option, lol. We have the booth in our trailer, but my parents have the table/chair set up. They hate it too. It is just such a pain in the (you know what) to have to secure everything in place, and then when you get there undo the teathers, etc. And even with all that, they get banged around and look beat up in short order anyways. Plus it seems like you have no place to sit when you actually try to have 4 people at the table, very little elbow room

With that said, for people that like to be able to use that space as they please, or those that dont mind my minor complaints, then the table/chair option is probably nicer, making you feel less like you are in an rv.

I towed my wildcat from the Rockies to the smokies and all in between. Never strapped the chairs or table down and never had them move around. Lucky I guess.

[dj3spots]

We prefer the table and chairs. The table is screwed to the floor and the chairs usually have an easy snap strap to secure them to the floor. Since it's only DH and myself we usually leave two chairs home.


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[Terier]

Generally I tend to prefer a booth over table & chairs but it depends on the actual design. Some booths are not comfortable especially those with a set up platform.

[WFD]

The floor plan absolutely dictates the comfort of one vs the other...we have seen some floor plans with the table and chairs that were a downright goofy set up...saw a couple where the 2 outside chairs were on an angle due to the way the slide was configured..the one who dreamed that up should have been fired. All depends on floor plan. With our table and chairs, the table is attached to the floor so need to strap it. There is a strap to tie one leg of each chair to the center pillar of table, but I have forgotten to do it on many occasions and nothing moved.

[edcarter101]

My wife and I prefer our jackknife sofa with two small folding tables. This gives lots of room when the tables are not in use. Also, because of disabilities, I usually sleep on the sofa.


Ed & Betty Carter


Forest River Solera 24S

[JoanneL]

Hi, our favorite is the round dinette, which we had in our first TT. Loved that. We now have a booth and I too like the storage under the benches. I take so much so every bit of storage helps plus our doggies can sit with us

[eastridges]

Just traded our 5th wheel in for a tt and got the booth this time. Over the years we got tired of having less sitting room at the table, moving the table from one side to the other and or chairs. The booth is ready to sit at all the time and less trouble. The bonus of having extra storage helps too.