Advice on RV/Camper bedding
 

Hello all, I know there are a bunch of you out there who take your quilting along with you in your RV or camper; so I thought I'd put my question to you here on the board. The mattress in my camper is extremely firm. Firm to the point of pain, after 4-6 hours in the bed. We can't afford to buy a whole new mattress. What I'm looking for is some advice on something else we may be able to put on top of the mattress to sofften it up a bit. I don't put a lot of stock in those foam things (sort of "corrugated") that you can buy in Wal-Mart, etc. We have one of those on our regular bed (which even has a pillow top), and I'm not so sure it helps that much. If there is a particular type of foam or some other material that is available, what exactly do any of you recommend? What density is it? what material is it? what price range are we talking about? I also don't need to add height to the bed. It's already plenty high. Thank you all so much for your input.

I recommend going to Amazon and searching for "mattress topper". A lot of different ones come up, and you can read the reviews to find out which ones are good. From a brief scan, it looks to me as if the Visco and ViscO2 get the best reviews.

Once I do a search on Amazon, I usually choose a department and then sort the results by average customer review. That typically gets me the top 5 selections or so to research for myself.

Here's a link to one that I found on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Density-Elasti.../dp/B004AR5X92

We purchased a foam topper that is 1.5 to 2.0 inches thick. It's the same on both sides - it helped a LOT! I think a regular sized one cost about $50 at Big Lots in Florida.

Don't remember the name of it, though.

Two cautions about it: The packaging said to let it 'relax' and air out for a day or so before using it.

It's flammable and emits bad gases if it catches on fire.

I tend to have allergies, and it didn't seem to bother my breathing any when we were using it.

Wal mart sells a Memory foam topper. We paid $110.00 for a queen size. We placed it on top of our conventional mattress and it worked great. We now have it on top of our Temperpedic bed.

So far we have bought 3 mattress toppers for our camper. Got them all at WalMart, 2-3"thick and they work just fine. The last one has lasted 5yrs. we keep them stored in the camper.

Do you find the memory foam warm? When camping in hot weather, I don't want to add heat to the bed.
Thank you for your input!

Good things to know...thank you!

Thanks for the link! I'll check it out.

Memory Foam would help soften it up ... though if you're already saying you can't afford a new mattress, I'm not sure how you'd afford a Memory Foam topper!

We bought the "egg crate kind of topper" and put it underneath the mattress. then bought another one, and put it on top of the mattress--have slept on it for 6 years and it is wonderful!

We Had a new bed at the family cono we could not sleep it was sow firm.We bought a Memory foam topper it was so much better.

I'd check QVC - one thing I like about ordering from them is you have 30 days to try out your purchase and if you don't like it back it goes - no questions asked. I've purchased MANY things from them, most of the items I've kept, but some, did go back.

We also purchased a memory foam topper at Sam's Club for our King size RV bed and I think we paid about $100 and it is awesome and made all the difference in the world.

Your most welcome.
I wouldn't know about the mattress getting to warm. I sleep with an electric blanket year round. My husband hasn't complained about the mattress getting warm.He likes to sleep in a cool dark room, hence the electric binkie on my side of the bed. :)

The memory foam topper is much cheaper than purchasing a regular full size mattress.

We have a motorhome and purchased a Memory foam topper from Kohl's when they had the 50% off sale. It has really made our mattress comfortable! Since the slide comes in over the top of the mattress, we could only get the 2" thickness but they go up to 4 inches thick depending on your preferance. It was definately worth the money.

We purchased our memory foam from Costco and have one at home and one in the trailor. They are wonderful. Our trailer one seems to be better than the house memory foam. I think we paid about 150 in Saskatchewan.

I have a feather tick topper on the mattress in the 5th wheel. Under the mattress is an egg crate (the blue corregated foam) It sure has proved comfortable to us. The mattress in ours was extremely firm also. This makes it very comfy and not to hot in the summertime.

We purchased an inexpensive blow-up air bed and put it on top of the mattress in our RV. We loved it.

Sometimes Overstock.com has good prices on foam mattress pads.

Wow! Thank you all for the suggestions. Now I just have to convince DH to get something soon, so we can try it before the actual camping trip!

a hint not really asked for b-u-t---sew the top sheet to the bottom sheet [like waterbed sheets] and they stay together and your tooties don't stick out at the bottom---easier to make the bed --we use an 'egg carton' pad on our and like it just fine--- camping friends have the memory foan pad and really like it also

We purchased a Tear Drop trailer 2 years ago and it had those hard 4-inch foam pads in it. We tried it 2 nights and it was awful. We sleep on a waterbed at home (very 80's I know) so we bought a queen size air mattress. It sleeps like our waterbed and it doesn't develope "hot spots" from laying in the same place too long. They aren't expensive and we sleep great.
kathyd

I just take a thick comforter and fold it inhalf and lay it on the matress before I put my sheets on. It makes it soft and if it gets really cold you have another blanket on hand.

We have a feather light and have the same problem , changed to a heated mattress no help so now we have an air mattress under the regular one works great.

Your least expensive option is to use one of the less expensive air mattresses (they usually aren't as thick as the more expensive ones either) &/or a sleeping bag under your sheet but on top of the regular mattress.

As long as you have the sheet over it, the air mattress will not get uncomfortable in summer. If you have a mattress pad over it as well, that's probably even better.

You may want to get some of the clamps to keep the sheet on the air mattress as I had trouble with mine slipping off on the twin size one I used on my cot when sleeping in the booth at Sherwood Forest Festival and Scarborough Faire this spring. Of course it may not be as much of a problem when it's on a bed instead of a cot.

Here's to comfy sleeping!

Same here with the RV mattress. Bought 4" memory foam topper from WalMart ($110?) and it has helped so much. The mattress is a queen x-long so we bought the king size and bottom sheet holds it in place.

I have used the eggcrate topper on top the mattress & what a difference. I saw some in JoAnnes just the other day.

Go to OVERSTOCK.COM and type in memory foam topper - we got a 4" and I think they have a 5" too. Not too expensive and well worth the money!

I went to the Foam Factory and purchased a 4" memory foam for a queen size bed. It was three hundred dollars and worth every penny. The only problem as this is a standard queen size not a camper queen which is fine for us. We just had to add support at the foot of the bed, we have room in our trailer. I believe the Foam Factory will cut to size. At the time I purchased I did not have the measurements with me. I put the memory foam on top of our trailer mattress. The mattress in the trailer was more comfortable than our home mattress that I did the same for the house.

Word of caution, when storing the memory foam do not bend it, it will crack in cold weather. Keep it flat.