Mattress Upgrade - Ever wonder why your Jayco mattress was so bad?

[Schneewittchen37]

I can tell you why.

DH and I just completed our first upgrade to our new-to-us 2018 Jay Flight SLX 267BHS. Of course the trailer still had the original Simmons Residential Sleep System exclusively for Jayco mattress. I can confirm is it literally a piece of trash.

Here's the mattress in our rig, does it look familiar?


Well, here's what it looks like on the inside after DH removed the cover:


That's recycled foam bits all pressed together. Not even a solid piece! DH cut up the mattress and fit it in a few garbage bags. No coils, no support, no wonder it's so terrible. Thor/Jayco/Simmons should be ashamed. That's no better than a dog bed.

We ordered a 10" Gel Memory Foam Mattress, Short Queen #115334 from Camping World. It seems nice and soft so far. Won't get to try it out until March, but I'm hopeful.

[Route 66 Traveler]

We have an expensive King mattress on our bed at home. We actually both sleep better on the Queen mattress that came with our Starcraft trailer. Not sure of the make, will look next time I'm in the trailer.

Please post a review when you get the chance.

[TaftCoach]

Buyers get caught up on the name brand. A "piece of trash" Simmons sells better than a better quality mattress without the brand name. I wouldn't be surprised if Simmons (or Serta etc) just buy crap and charge RV manufacturers to put a quality mattress name on it.

[SmokerBill]

The original mattress in my 26BH was unusable after only a few weeks. I replaced it with an older full size mattress my mom was getting rid of and it was OK for a few years, but finally got a big, permanent dip in the middle.

A few years ago I bought a full-queen size residential mattress. It's 8" thick, and all foam (no springs). But it's made well and hasn't deteriorated at all in the time I've had it. And I full time, plus the bed is my "couch" when watching TV, so it's got a lot of hours on it! lol

Since it's a full queen, I replaced the hinged section of plywood under the mattress with a piece 6 inches longer so it would support the extra length.

I think it cost a little under $300 when I bought it. It probably weighs 3X as much as the original, but that's not a problem.

[Murff]

If you buy a foam mattress topper, and own a Murphy Bed, be sure to put the mattress cover on both pieces before you flip the bed up in the travel position.

Don't ask how I know.

Murff

[RogerR]

After our 4 night trial run camping we "retired" our short queen to the garbage it was. Felt like shredded newspaper. We didn't cut it up to see. After the first use we had a permanent 2 1/2 inch dent in the mattress and tried to get Jayco to adjust it for us. No way, just said not proved. Jerks!!!
Got a 10 inch Zinus and now replacing our house mattress with a Zinus also. Extra weight but great sleeping!

[Quantum]

Originally Posted by Route 66 Traveler

We have an expensive King mattress on our bed at home. We actually both sleep better on the Queen mattress that came with our Starcraft trailer. Not sure of the make, will look next time I'm in the trailer.

Please post a review when you get the chance.

Is your expensive King a traditional "old" style mattress with springs?

We have found that nothing compares the new memory foam mattresses that have taken over the mattress market by storm.



We are going to upgrade our Jayco "ultra, world's best, blah, blah, blah" mattress this year. We threw a topper on it for a couple of years, but now we're going to order a memory foam mattress.

[spoon059]

Yup, we tossed our Denver Mattress immediately and replaced with a cheapo (about $150 I think) memory foam mattress that lasted 6 years. We finally bit the bullet and got a decent memory foam for the camper this fall. First trip with it comes later this week, so hopefully we like it!!!

[CAG]

I seldom recommend. That is a trap. What you like I may not like and visa-versa. In this case I recommended a topper and someone here bought it too. They loved it.



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I found that this was one of those bed toppers that when I went to sleep, I stayed in one position all night long and I do not do that even with a $9K Select Comfort.

[TCNashville]

Originally Posted by CAG

I seldom recommend. That is a trap. What you like I may not like and visa-versa. In this case I recommended a topper and someone here bought it too. They loved it.



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I found that this was one of those bed toppers that when I went to sleep, I stayed in one position all night long and I do not do that even with a $9K Select Comfort.

I still have the original mattress that came with my Eagle. it's ok and I slept pretty well on it but....I purchased the topper mentioned above and it's a whole new sleeping experience. Before you replace your entire mattress, you might give this a look.

[JaycoMLOK]

The DW put a memory foam topper on ours. She said it's much better now. As for me well it really doesn't matter. I can sleep fine on a concrete floor. LOL

[Midnightmoon]

Originally Posted by Murff

If you buy a foam mattress topper, and own a Murphy Bed, be sure to put the mattress cover on both pieces before you flip the bed up in the travel position.

Don't ask how I know.

Murff

Our current mattress is so bad that it falls in to the Murphy bed abyss when we travel and takes the foam topper with it.

[MontanaRick]

We tried the topper route. You know, if you put lipstick on a pig, you can still turn it into bacon, but that mattress was not redeemable for us.

I always worry when buying a new mattress because you'll never know if it works for you until you sleep on it at least one night. Reviews help, but everyone is different when it comes to mattresses. We ended up spending a bit extra ($600) and got a standard Casper queen from Costco so that we could return it if we didn't like it. 12 inch memory foam and 60 pounds, so we have less cargo capacity by about 40 pounds compared to the stock mattress, but it's almost as good for us as our home Tempurpedic. We did have to lengthen the bed frame. Best mod we've made.

[Chamdaddy]

We replaced(burned) the "Serta" mattress after one trip. We bought a 10" memory foam Queen/Short by Lucid. My wife is a very picky sleeper, it is as comfortable as any bed we have ever owned and it was under $300.

[deepsea5]

We gave our OEM Serta mattress to a friend who was putting together a weekend ice fishing shack. Note: the SLX 175RD uses a residential size queen mattress.
We ended up replacing it with a Sealy Posturepedic residential queen mattress, similar to the one we have in the house. Only paid about $300.00 for it at a discount liquidator.
The new mattress is very comfortable.

[brewcrew22]

We pick up our new jayfeather 24bh in a few weeks and have already purchased a full queen for it. We went with an 8” memory foam called the nod by tuft and needle. Purchased on Amazon. Much lighter then some on the market and is a very solid cheap mattress. I will be replacing the lift up plywood under the bed to accommodate the extra 5 inches of mattress.

[TaftCoach]

Eventually mattresses will be optional with new RVs.

[Trapper2020]

We did not even leave the dealer lot before we removed mattress. Told dealer they could keep it. Brought new one with us at time of pick up. Mattresses in new rigs are so bad I don’t know why they even have one in the rig. Safe travels

Enjoy the journey

[Vista]

Subscribed! Some good input in this thread.

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by Trapper2020

We did not even leave the dealer lot before we removed mattress. Told dealer they could keep it. Brought new one with us at time of pick up. Mattresses in new rigs are so bad I don’t know why they even have one in the rig. Safe travels

Enjoy the journey

LOL!! We did the same thing!

Spent one night on the OEM Denver in our Jay Flight. Next day we put a thick topper on it from WalMart (4" memory foam IIRC). That worked for a couple years okay. Finally put a Zinus in there and trashed the old one. Put a smaller topper on the Zinus (DW likes a "plush" top, and the soft topper fit the bill perfectly). Absolutely LOVED it!

Before we left to trade in the TT on the MH, I took my Zinus out. Had the sales team at the dealership take the new mattress out of the MH and put it in our traded TT. Installed the "old" Zinus when we got home, and haven't looked back.

In fact, we've replaced almost all the mattresses in our home with Zinus. They're a good quality mattress for what you pay. I figure if it lasts 5 years, I might have to replace it every 5 years, I've come out ahead over the Sealy we had before that cost many times what the Zinus cost and only lasted 8 years (and the last 2 of that was miserable).