types of RV mattresses

[tbear711]

We have a 2015 Jayco 23 rb Jay flight. I cannot sleep more then 2 or 3 days until my back really hurts. We have tried a foam topper which was much too warm when sleeping and did not help. We just were at the RV show in Cleveland and a dealer said to get a feather filled topper but we cannot find one that will fit. Does any one have any ideas or should we just buy a new mattress? And if so any recommendations on a good one. If I could figure this I would be camping for longer periods of time. Thanks Ted Byster

[Jerry713]

Originally Posted by tbear711

We have a 2015 Jayco 23 rb Jay flight. I cannot sleep more then 2 or 3 days until my back really hurts. We have tried a foam topper which was much too warm when sleeping and did not help. We just were at the RV show in Cleveland and a dealer said to get a feather filled topper but we cannot find one that will fit. Does any one have any ideas or should we just buy a new mattress? And if so any recommendations on a good one. If I could figure this I would be camping for longer periods of time. Thanks Ted Byster

I’ve been down this road with mattresses at home and in the RV. Tried mattress toppers from 50-300 bucks and none were the solution. I recommend just getting a new mattress.

In terms of asking for recommendations there’s no way to provide valid feedback without knowing what you like in terms of firmness to softness, if you’re a side, back or stomach sleeper, etc. Otherwise you will be chasing recommendations that work for someone else but may or may not work for you.

What we did was went to a sleep number store and spent some time laying on their mattresses and establishing a sleep number. We did later buy a sleep number mattress for the house but knowing our sleep number really helped us select a mattress for our RV. We ended up spending about 1500 on a mattress from Mattress Firm and we absolutely love it. I had to get a small step stool for my wife to climb up in bed but that’s not an issue with her.

[Jayhawk 29]

I went with the firm memory foam from Mattress firm myself, a very reasonable investment for the same camper. The larger, more expensive ones which is much thicker adds additional weights on the tongue.

[JFlightRisk]

Our original mattress was a back killer for more than a two-night outing. We replaced it with a Zinus from Amazon on a hope it would be ok, not knowing anything about them, and have been happy with it for several years now. Just what we did to solve the problem.

[dvspl]

Search for "mattress" on this site. It's been discussed many times so you'll find LOTS of recommendations. Choose the one you think will work best for you.

[Camper_bob]

We did the same as JFlightRisk, but our story is a little longer.

We spent one horrible night on the OEM (Denver) mattress in our 28BHBE (note I didn't use the word "slept", that was intentional). Next day went to Wal Mart and bought the thickest memory foam topper we could get, I think it was 4". That worked ok for about a year and a half before we could feel the plywood base again. I knew it was a stop-gap, so we were ready for this.

Did a TON of research and concluded a Zinus was our best bet, so we pulled the trigger on a 10" short queen. Slept on it a while, and it was GREAT. Not quite perfect, so we put on a 2" (IIRC) topper. This was the "magic" formula for us, it sleeps VERY well for us. So well in fact that when the time came, we replaced ALL of our mattresses at home with various Zinus models.

When we traded our trailer for the motor home, I took that mattress and topper out ahead of time, and had dealer put new mattress from motor home into the traded-in trailer, and put our mattress in the new motor home when we got it home.

Toppers don't have to sleep "hot", we look for the "cooling" toppers and have had good luck there. I tend to get hot easily in bed, and have never had a problem with our newer "cooling" toppers. I believe all our toppers are from Zinus as well, but not entirely sure on that one.

A mattress is such a personal choice. IMO, you can use toppers to "soften" up the sleep experience if it's too firm for your preference. We are bigger people, and we're side sleepers, so we generally need a relatively firm and very supportive mattress. But we like a "cushy first layer", so we put toppers on.

That's just one family's experience though. As they say, YMMV.

[435-fht]

Did a TON of research and concluded a Zinus was our best bet, so we pulled the trigger on a 10" short queen.

I'm interested in a better mattress, and am interested in Zinus. What Zinus did you get? Memory foam or Hybrid? Their website lists several models.

Also, how did you get a "short queen"? I didn't see that size listed.

[colby]

Before we bought our trailer, I spent a long time going through these forums, and one of the often repeated issues was the poor quality of mattresses that are included. Ours didn't make it one night, before we picked it up, we ordered the 8" Zinus Green Tea short queen from Amazon and put it in and gave away the unused OEM mattress. We went with the 8" because of the weight of the mattress, and even with the lighter weight than a 10", I still changed out the lift struts to a larger model to help with the mattress and bedding. We've had this for 5 years now (going into our 6th season) and it's served us well (and I'm a big guy at 6'2" and 240#.

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by LukeDagny

I'm interested in a better mattress, and am interested in Zinus. What Zinus did you get? Memory foam or Hybrid? Their website lists several models.

Also, how did you get a "short queen"? I didn't see that size listed.

All from Amazon:

"Zinus Deluxe Memory Foam 10 inch RV mattress, Short Queen": currently listed as "Temporarily out of stock" on Amazon, but may also be known as "Zinus Sleep Master Deluxe"?

I think this is as close as I could get today: https://www.amazon.com/Zinus-Ultima-...51&sr=8-5&th=1

"Zinus 3 Inch Green Tea Memory Foam Mattress Topper ... Short Queen": This shows to be in stock, but there is a "new version" apparently that is 4". If I were shopping today, I might consider getting the 8" mattress and the "newer" 4" topper?

https://www.amazon.com/4-inch-Mattre...26&sr=8-2&th=1

ETA: "Short Queen" because ours is in a slide and I didn't want to deal with interference issues. It's taller, so it still blocks the "closet" doors when slide is closed. It's still possible to access that space with the slide closed, but it's a serious pain in the butt.

[Jayhawk 29]

We did purchase the full size queen and modified my support plywood so that it would support the mattress. The plywood pieces are run across the bed width. So there is a seam that allowed a new piece add on to be fastened to the under bed 2x2 pieces running lengthways.

The extension of the platform also helped us grab the end of the platform when lifting the bed for access the storage area under the bed. We still have room to walk by the end of the mattress between the wall that divides the two areas from the couch in the 23 rb.

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by colby

Before we bought our trailer, I spent a long time going through these forums, and one of the often repeated issues was the poor quality of mattresses that are included. Ours didn't make it one night, before we picked it up, we ordered the 8" Zinus Green Tea short queen from Amazon and put it in and gave away the unused OEM mattress. We went with the 8" because of the weight of the mattress, and even with the lighter weight than a 10", I still changed out the lift struts to a larger model to help with the mattress and bedding. We've had this for 5 years now (going into our 6th season) and it's served us well (and I'm a big guy at 6'2" and 240#.

Oh yes, these mattresses are quite heavy. I never did upgrade the platform or add struts, and we paid for that our last trip out when I had to replace the water pump while on the road at a campsite. We used the bunk ladder to hold it all up, but DW had to use her feet to anchor it; she only dropped it on me once LOL!! I also purchased a Lithium battery on sale before Christmas, and have not installed it yet because getting to the converter to make the necessary changes involves lifting the bed up, and that's just such a pain that I keep putting it off.

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by Jayflight 23

We did purchase the full size queen and modified my support plywood so that it would support the mattress. The plywood pieces are run across the bed width. So there is a seam that allowed a new piece add on to be fastened to the under bed 2x2 pieces running lengthways.

The extension of the platform also helped us grab the end of the platform when lifting the bed for access the storage area under the bed. We still have room to walk by the end of the mattress between the wall that divides the two areas from the couch in the 23 rb.

Agreed. Get the full-length queen if you have the space at the foot of the bed, upgrade the platform and let 'er rip 'tater chip!

We do not have that space as our slide goes out the side, and while I could fabricate an adjustment to the platform in various ways, I didn't want to have to mess with it every time the slide went in/out. Short Queen works fine. I put myself WAY up hard against the "head board", and DW doesn't care about her feet hanging off a little.

[Jerry713]

In my experience for those who are side sleepers and tend to experience hip pain on certain mattresses a foam mattress, regardless of thickness may not be the best option. I tried a Zinus foam mattress and gave it away. For me it wasn’t much different from the factory mattress that came with the RV.

[norty1]

We invested in a Sleep Number about 8 years ago. Still sleeps great!

If you go with a foam/Gel mattress be aware that as stated, the weight will increase which may cause some increased tongue weight and stronger lifts if you have under bed storage.

We have one at home and it is almost to heavy to rotate.

[Jayhawk 29]

I have some really tall friends that camp and they have dealt with the lengths of the mattresses over the years. They would slide their mattress down a wee bit when going to bed and place pillows in the small area between the walls in the exposed mattress end setups. This gave them the advantage of having a longer sleeping platform and then they just pushed the mattress back in the morning.

[JFlightRisk]

Originally Posted by LukeDagny

I'm interested in a better mattress, and am interested in Zinus. What Zinus did you get? Memory foam or Hybrid? Their website lists several models.

Also, how did you get a "short queen"? I didn't see that size listed.

This is the short queen mattress we bought back in 2017. I should have put the link in earlier for you.

https://www.amazon.com/Zinus-Ultima-..._t3_B006LAK9A4

There have been several good places members have bought replacement mattresses in the past.

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by Jerry713

In my experience for those who are side sleepers and tend to experience hip pain on certain mattresses a foam mattress, regardless of thickness may not be the best option. I tried a Zinus foam mattress and gave it away. For me it wasn’t much different from the factory mattress that came with the RV.

Any other members care to chime in on this with their experience? This has not been my experience at all. Quite the opposite in fact. Wondering if others have experienced the same and thinking I'm doing it wrong or could be doing better?

[norty1]

I weigh 110 lbs more than my wife so no matter what we purchase there are problems.

With the sleep # we are both happy!

[Russc25]

Bedding is about the most subjective thing I can think of.

toppers and dressings on an RV mattress is polishing a turd, minus the polish. Any bed needs a solid foundation and RV mattresses are a swamp you're trying to build a castle on (so I rebuilt it, then that one sank in the swamp!)

I'm 6-5 and have ranged from 220 to 275 back to 250 while my wife is 5-5 and other than pregnancy stayed around 110. I've always needed firm-as-a-board mattresses and any conventional mattress was unable to be slept on after 2-3 years. I'd layer towels and blankets underneath to support my hips and shoulders. Several years ago we got a sleep number and have never looked back. Our camper came with a very nice, firm, foam mattress the PO upgraded to but it's only a full, our temporary fix was stuff a couple pillows by the head to space it out 8 or 10 inches. My inlaws basically bribed us to stay at their place for the holidays with a sleep number in the otherwise unsullied basement (they live like 2 miles from my parents but the whole family comes to my parent's giant house for a noisy happy family while my wife's parents house is just them... and the baggage). We also recently picked up a second-hand sleep-number queen for the camper to replace the foam slab.

so what I'm getting at is... sleep number!

[Laura LaDue]

Originally Posted by tbear711

We have a 2015 Jayco 23 rb Jay flight. I cannot sleep more then 2 or 3 days until my back really hurts. We have tried a foam topper which was much too warm when sleeping and did not help. We just were at the RV show in Cleveland and a dealer said to get a feather filled topper but we cannot find one that will fit. Does any one have any ideas or should we just buy a new mattress? And if so any recommendations on a good one. If I could figure this I would be camping for longer periods of time. Thanks Ted Byster

Dump your current mattress and get a regular mattress. A Sealy or Serta are great choices.