Bed/Mattress question

[Scoutman]

Ok, so how many are truely happy with the mattress that came in their camper?

How many have replaced it for a thicker foam mattress or added a 'topper' to it?

And my ultimate question for this thread... how many have replaced it with a traditional home mattress? I have a ~3" foam camper mattress in our pop up truck camper and while it gets the job done, it's not the greatest thing. I would like to be able to use fitted sheets and thought about a foam topper (@$100) to make it a little better. Then this came up. Our queen master bed has had the box springs fail and we're thinking of stepping up to a King. This leaves the box springs on the curb and an orphaned queen mattress that is only a couple years old. If dimensionally it would work, does anyone see any reason not to slip it in the overhead?

 

[cnynrat]

Not exactly the same situation as you as we have a regular (non pop-up) camper. We replaced the camper mattress with a home mattress a few years back, and it was the best thing we've done for the camper. IMO, there are few things more important on a trip than being able to get a good night's sleep.

In SoCal there is a small family owned mattress company that will make custom mattresses (Custom Comfort). We had them make a slightly less thick version of the same mattress we use in our bed at home. Very comfy!

We've even talked to them about a custom mattress for the Eezi-Awn on our AT Horizon, but that was so different from a regular mattress it got to be way too much $$.

Anyway, if it fits in your pop-up, I'd go for it.

 

[mhiscox]

How many have replaced it for a thicker foam mattress or added a 'topper' to it?

The optimum foam for seat cushions is too hard for the optimum matress, so for the Unimog camper, we put a one-inch bunk-sized memory foam topper from Camping World on top of the bench cushion and it made it work very well.

On the other hand, the rear mattress in the Sprinter started out as 2 inches of memory foam bonded to 2 inches of firm bed foam. While it was good enough, it wasn't asclever as it sounded; the memory foam had too much give. We recently swapped it out for a 4" foam mattress which we bought at Ikea. We ditched the cover, cut the foam to the necessary shape with an electric knife and put the trimmed mattress into the prior upholstery cover. That's working out extremely well.

 

[jesusgatos]

I cut a queen-size tempurpedic mattress into two pieces to make something like a futon for Mah Deuce. Then made custom slip-covers out of some sunbrella fabric and ballistic nylon. Really happy with how it turned out.

 

[zidaro]

My wife and i both feel the stock mattress in our Northstar is very comfy and we sleep great every night in it.

 

[Scoutman]

In SoCal there is a small family owned mattress company that will make custom mattresses (Custom Comfort). We had them make a slightly less thick version of the same mattress we use in our bed at home. Very comfy!

There is someone that regularly posts on the RV section of our Craigslist who makes custom RV mattresses. I may e-mail them to get a ballpark price of what a custom one would cost.

I'll verify my dimensions and give it a shot when we get the new set.

Good info guys. Thanks.

 

[knobbytracks]

My wife and i both feel the stock mattress in our Northstar is very comfy and we sleep great every night in it.

I have to agree with Zidaro - comfy queen size mattress. :bike_rider:

 

[Lynn]

If a home matress is too thick for the space available, check out <good> futon matresses.

Futon's have a bad rap, mostly I think because of the bad frames, but there are some high-quality futon matresses out there.

 

[Prybry]

Couple of options...

When I was looking for new beds for my bethany (old 70's vintage foam) I resorted to 6" thick Futons... they work great.

Since then I've also noticed that Ikea also carries a number of foam core mattresses that would also have worked out sweet.

Prybry

 

[Accrete]

if anyone is pondering a build or radical replacement to go super light...
You might find the "Froli Sleep System" of interest. It is in use in products like the XPCamper-PopUp and Yachts. My wife and i have chosen it for our Van build. Reasonably priced and very compact. The "system" is just under 2" in height, then you would place a bed topper for mattress. . .and use flat sheets. Owners/users claim it is as comfortable if not more so, than their box spring and luxury topper mattress sets at home.

happy trails,
thom

 

[bigun]

Talk about a timely topic. While wiring a friend's new garage in Ne, I spent 10 nights in my new to me 82 FWD Granby. The top bunk is 2 pieces one folds down and makes a back rest for the couch and is really hard. The other is so soft that you might as well be laying on the wood beneath! I thought I would be smart and throw my futon mattress on top only problem now my nose is only 3 inches from the ceiling. I ended up moving all night from one side to the other trying to get comfortable.

 

[Riptide]

if anyone is pondering a build or radical replacement to go super light...
You might find the "Froli Sleep System" of interest. It is in use in products like the XPCamper-PopUp and Yachts. My wife and i have chosen it for our Van build. Reasonably priced and very compact. The "system" is just under 2" in height, then you would place a bed topper for mattress. . .and use flat sheets. Owners/users claim it is as comfortable if not more so, than their box spring and luxury topper mattress sets at home.

happy trails,
thom

I second the Froli system. It came installed in our Westy camper, and I've recommended it to a few boat-owning friends, who love it too. One nice thing is that Froli offers a couple of different rate "springs", so that you can essentially "build" your box spring with different softness in different areas, like your hips and shoulders.

Put a nice mattress on top of that, and lights out Gracie!

 

[Overland Hadley]

if anyone is pondering a build or radical replacement to go super light...
You might find the "Froli Sleep System" of interest. It is in use in products like the XPCamper-PopUp and Yachts. My wife and i have chosen it for our Van build. Reasonably priced and very compact. The "system" is just under 2" in height, then you would place a bed topper for mattress. . .and use flat sheets. Owners/users claim it is as comfortable if not more so, than their box spring and luxury topper mattress sets at home.

happy trails,
thom

Cool product. Thanks for the link.

 

[grizzlyj]

if anyone is pondering a build or radical replacement to go super light...
You might find the "Froli Sleep System" of interest. It is in use in products like the XPCamper-PopUp and Yachts. My wife and i have chosen it for our Van build. Reasonably priced and very compact. The "system" is just under 2" in height, then you would place a bed topper for mattress. . .and use flat sheets. Owners/users claim it is as comfortable if not more so, than their box spring and luxury topper mattress sets at home.

happy trails,
thom

That seems like a good system!

We started out with a 4" Ikea mattress, then a proper 10" sprung one, and now an 8" Ikea foam layered one. The sprung one was fab, but disintergrated where you had to put you knee on it to get into the cabover over about a years use full time. The rest was OK, but the dip left that side with a slope you couldn't really sleep on, so effectively reduced the width. The current foam one could be better.

Does anyone with experience of the Froli system think a repeated kneeing in one spot would damage that areas springing? Although I suppose its easy to rotate those springs that are getting most grief?

Cheers

Jason

 

[boblynch]

The cabover mattress in our truck camper is comfortable. However, for the kid's bunk beds we were unimpressed by available RV bed options. We opted instead to use a combination of 4" memory foam and a 3.5 in thick self-inflating camp bed from REI. The home grown system works great. The memory foam alone is too soft, but with the added camp bed it's very cozy. We can pull out the camp beds to sit on if needed.