Help finding a matress replacement for Wildernest

[SilverBullet]

So Kristi and I are borrowing a Wildernest for our F250 (Thanks again Martyn) and we need a mattress or sleeping pad. We were thinking a Therm-a-rest but are finding they come in 77" length. We have a 50"x72" area. Any ideas or experience. I have back problems and a very bony hip, so I need to have cushion. Any recommendations would be great.

[homemade]

Your question caught my interest because I had looked at an old Wildernest a year or two ago and almost bought it. I didn’t realize the bed was so small or I wouldn’t have even considered one. Are you pretty sure about the bed size?

Thermarest makes several size sleeping pads including 72” length but they are something like 20” wide so you would need two, it wouldn’t fill the entire width of your bed and they aren’t cheap, around $100 each. But you would have them for other uses afterwards.

Check this out if you want a dedicated mattress for this application.

http://www.amazon.com/Innerspace-Sle...6223040&sr=8-2

[chickadee]

Check out www.foambymail.com
You can order different thicknesses of foam in custom sizes. We ordered a 3" mattress and cut out the wheel wells for our 80's series. Super comfortable!

[DaveInDenver]

I'm not familiar with the place chickadee mentions, but they sell bulk foam and that's what you're looking to get.

Personally, I have a couple of places locally, one up in Boulder and another in Denver, that I've used. You are looking for closed cell marine or anti-fungal (or resistant) foam, very important for use in the 'Nest. The mattress in my 'Nest is 3" thick. One of the places can also sew up mattress covers, which are nice to have. I'm honestly not sure if the full size mattresses are bigger, I think they are, but in the small 'Nests the mattress is almost exactly the same size as a regular twin sized bed (39"x75"). I have oversized them before to 41" wide and shortened them to 74" to eliminate them bunching up at the ends. But it's not super critical since the shape of the lid is bathtub shaped and so it's tolerant of the size within an inch or two.

I like a 3-to-4 lbs natural latex foam, this is fairly dense but not unnecessarily heavy. In your case with a F250 and that power the weight of a heavier mattress would not be a big deal and so you might consider a better 5 lbs foam. This is the density of foam, not the plushness. When you pick up a mattress you'll feel its weight and that's really an indication of the quality of the foam and I would not go below 2~3 because it just won't last. It's important that you trust the foam supplier when talking about density, sometimes a heavy mattress is not good latex but rather has additives to make the foam feel heavier. A 100% latex 5 lbs mattress should just have a more dense foam than a 4 lbs latex, so then it is just an issue of quality.

For the plushness, I prefer about a ~35 lbs foam (this is measured by what's called IFD). This is measured using a set area and thickness of the foam and tells you how much weight will compress it 25%. So in this case, say a 35 lbs foam, means that a 3" thick mattress will compress 0.75" when you put 35 lbs through a 50 sq-inch disk on it. This equates to a relatively mid-firm mattress for an average person. Some lighter people would call it a firm mattress and it probably is, but I find that when setting up the 'Nest you kneel on the mattress a lot and a slightly firmer mattress holds up better. I would not go below 25 lbs IFD personally but I have a roof rack on my topper and it compresses with me (175 lbs) enough that I can feel the mounting hardware under the mattress. If you really must use a soft mattress, consider using dual plushness, a very firm 1" on the bottom (say 50 lbs IFD) and a soft 2" thick on top.

This should cost you around $125, give or take about $50, for a decent mattress and under normal use probably go about 10 years from wear.

People cheap out with open cell and the mattresses are usually replaced because of mold. Do not use outdoor foam that is designed to allow water to flow through during rain. This is fine for deck chairs where there is someplace for the water to go. In the camper moisture from your body just gets trapped and ends up with funky foam and fiberglass rot. You want the moisture to be retained on the mattress cover and then every couple of days you set the mattress on your hood to dry while you're making breakfast.

[SilverBullet]

So REI has a pad 3.5" thick and 25"x72", so 2 of these would fit perfect. I think we may go that route.

[BIGVAN]

One point to remember about memory foam is that it gets hard in cold temperatures.

[kayakstu]

My wife and I have the 3' ones and use them in our tent trailer, raft camping, car camping, unexpected guests during the winter.... awesome product, durable, comfortable, well worth the money!


http://www.coloradokayak.com/Jacks-P...category=18303

[SilverBullet]

We went the inexpensive route, we picked up 2 memory foam toppers at Wally World for under $70.00. Combined they make 4" of padding and we will try that. Budget is tight, so Thermarest is out of the question right now.

[DaveInDenver]

We went the inexpensive route, we picked up 2 memory foam toppers at Wally World for under $70.00. Combined they make 4" of padding and we will try that. Budget is tight, so Thermarest is out of the question right now.

BIGVAN's point is important that they are not comfortable much below room temperature. The spec'd temp for most is 75F and have a useful range of +/- 15F. They start (to me) feeling noticeably harder in the lower 50s and and completely useless (e.g. literally approaching like sleeping on a sheet of plywood) during early/late season or winter camping. In the summer, though, they are quite hot and retain heat, which might be your biggest challenge.