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.

[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]

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