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RV Mattress Replacement – If You Are Tired Of Being Tired, Read This

Published on May 21st, 2021 by Patrick Buchanan
This post was updated on June 2nd, 2021

Sponsored By Artisans Custom Mattress

tired camper leaning on steering wheel

RV Mattress Replacement – If You Are Tired Of Being Tired, Read This

One of the positive attributes of RVing is the ability to sleep in your own bed every night, no matter where you travel. Those mystery nights on an unknown hotel mattress are less appealing than in times past. Too often, however, the mattress included with your new RV is a corner-cutting attempt at providing a padded horizontal surface. As a result, most RVers end up searching for an RV mattress replacement.

Having a bad RV mattress means you don’t sleep comfortably and you don’t feel rested when you wake up. This will leave you tired and irritable for the next leg of your journey. Driving or towing an RV isn’t something you want to do when you are stiff and fatigued after a bad night’s sleep. This can result in poor judgment and slow response time, something you can ill afford when piloting your RV, and your family, down the road.

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A Good Night’s Sleep Matters

“Proper sleeping conditions start with reducing mental stress, one of the key reasons for boating and RVing in the first place.”

The Science of Sleep

It’s not just your mind that suffers. A rough night on a bad RV mattress can leave you with physical aches and pains as well. We’ve all woken up with a stiff neck or a sore back from “sleeping wrong.”

At home, we tend to address that problem head on and replace our mattress. When we take that RV vacation, however, we accept whatever soft pad was tossed onto that plywood base and hit the road. No doubt the phrase, I need a vacation from my vacation is at least partially rooted in a bad RV mattress.

RV Mattress Replacement

Spend any time in an RV Facebook group and the topic of a replacement mattress will come up often. It’s almost a given that you can expect to replace the mattress in your RV, especially if buying a pre-owned RV. A cheap mattress costs the RV manufacturer less, and might even be helping them get under a weight threshold. A simple foam pad weighs much less than a quality mattress. 

There are a few important factors RVers must consider when looking for an RV mattress replacement:

Weight

The cheapest of the cheap mattress foam will weigh about 1.5lbs. per cubic foot. Compared to a Tempur-Pedic foam, the gold standard we all want in our RVs, which is 8.0lbs. per cubic foot. A cheaper, lower quality mattress will weigh less. As you begin to look for a quality mattress for your RV, realize that you may have to rearrange a few things in the bedroom. Instead of keeping your barbells in that secret compartment under your bed, you might opt for spare pillows and linens instead. The difference in weight is not dramatic, but it should bear consideration as you add weight to a bed that is almost always on a slideout.

It’s possible that adding a memory foam RV mattress to your travel trailer or motorhome will add 100 pounds to your bedroom. Most RVs can handle this with no issue, but again, move those emergency water bottles or spare folding chairs out from under the bed.

Price

Surprisingly, while price is always a consideration, it only takes a few nights on a crummy RV mattress to ruin a vacation and throw price out the window. Like any RV accessory you buy, price is always associated with the value you ascribe to it. In most cases, price will not be a deterrent to getting a quality RV mattress.

Fit

The biggest challenge in finding a replacement mattress is the size and shape. RV beds often have unusual sizes, some even with a corner cut off to allow passage through the bedroom or hallway. Others are rounded on one end, to account for the shape of the travel trailer. As RV manufacturers continue to try to add more convenience and value to the RV, the ill-fated mattress is often the loser, getting crammed into unusual places and bearing unusual shapes. 

The typical RV consumer simply doesn’t know where to look to replace those odd shaped and sized RV mattresses.

RV mattress
An RV mattress can have an unusual shape

The Best RV Mattress Material

The best RV mattress material is open-cell heat activated visco-elastic polyurethane, or what we all know as memory foam.  Memory foam is superior at supporting your body while simultaneously allowing your body to breathe through the same supporting layer. In hospital testing it was proven to significantly reduce bed sores. Memory foam is comfortable, breathable, hypoallergenic, dust-mite free, and reduces pressure points and numbness in arms and shoulders.

Good Enough For NASA

Many technological innovations are byproducts of NASA’s space program. We’re all familiar with some of the obvious ones, such as freeze dried foods and lightweight materials. But did you know that you can include memory foam in that list?

“Memory foam was originally invented as a pad for astronaut seats that would mold to their bodies during the high forces of takeoff and landing, then return to a neutral state. This eliminated the need to customize seats to individual astronauts’ body sizes.”

USA Today

The result of NASA’s work was the creation of an open-celled, viscoelastic, temperature sensitive material that adjusts to the body weight and temperature of the user and absorbs most vibrations for unsurpassed comfort and support. A material called TEMPUR was born, and in May of 1998, NASA invited Tempur-Pedic, Inc. to attend a press conference in their honor to award them with a plaque of recognition from NASA.

Custom Mattresses for Your RV

Artisans Custom Mattress is THE authorized customizing firm for the Tempur-Pedic company.  This means that after they have customized your mattress, retaining all of its original materials and features, you can still enjoy the Limited 10-year warranty.

How does it work? 

The first step is to find a Tempur-Pedic retailer and check out the various memory foam options. Choose from Tempur-Pedic models such as TEMPUR-Adapt®, & TEMPUR-breeze°. Once you have settled on a TEMPUR style, measure your current RV mattress. Measure as if it were a perfect rectangle, even if it has a rounded or cut corner or goofy shape. A proper measurement would be to measure the longest and widest dimensions of your RV mattress. 

If your RV mattress has a complex shape, Artisans will provide a measurement kit that includes materials and instructions to create a pattern from your existing bed deck to ensure an excellent fit. 

How do I order a custom RV mattress?

Contact Artisans Custom Mattress for an estimate to replace your worn or insufficient mattress. A custom Tempur-Pedic® RV mattress crafted by Artisans Custom Mattress is the quality standard for comfort and service. Experiencing the world close up and personal is best enjoyed when we are rested and alert. Artisans can help with the Tempur-Pedic advantage. Artisans is the only custom mattress company with a 10 year limited warranty.

Conclusion

Innerspring systems are over a hundred years old and should be retired. Air mattresses, water beds, latex, and closed-cell foam all do a decent job of supporting the body yet they do not let the body breath thus they must rely on a mattress pad. In addition, air and water beds create a hammock effect that distorts musculoskeletal alignment.

An Artisans custom RV mattress uses the highest quality Tempur-Pedic memory foam mattress to create a custom RV mattress that fits perfectly and provides the perfect sleep in your RV. With their exclusive 10-year warranty, you’ll not only increase the quality of your sleep, but the value of your RV as well.

Take your first step towards better sleep, and a RV mattress. Visit Artisans Custom Mattress.




22 thoughts on “RV Mattress Replacement – If You Are Tired Of Being Tired, Read This”

  1. We are in need of a new mattress. Ours has a cut corner. I will fill out the information below and wait to hear from you hoping we can afford the price of your new mattress.

    Reply
  2. I can attest to replacing the original mattress that came with my RV.
    Found Artisan Custom Mattress and was able to purchase a quality mattress-Tempur-Pedic that was adapted to fit in our Airstream.
    This was the tipping point of whether I was going to keep the RV or not. Having a restful sleep should not be compromised. 2+ years later and living in trailer FT, I have no regrets and only praise the experience I had with Artisan.

    Reply
  3. The article does not mention anything about heavy weight folks who have difficulty turning over on memory foam mattresses. My therapist recommended a hybrid mattress to get the support I needed that is not provided by foam mattresses — no matter how high quality. Why are automotive seats not using memory foam instead of wire/spring supports? Even my RV dinette seating is spring supported, not solely foam. There are obviously a few situations where the quick response of innersprings, combined with foam, is preferable.

    Reply
  4. I’m a bit surprised that your article morphed into a tempurpedic commercial. There are other options. The Original Mattress Factory in Atlanta made a custom sized inner spring mattress fir my RV, in exactly the firmness I sleep on at home. I’m not a fan of memory foam. Still, I appreciate your article.

    Reply
  5. There is another good custom mattress manufacturer/retailer called Mattress Insider. I have an Airstream with rounded corners. Give them the measurements as they direct and it will fit perfectly and be extremely comfortable and affordable as mattresses go. It will be in a heavy box so put that box where you will use the mattress. Once it “jumps out of the box” it will be too heavy to move.

    Reply
  6. Our Winnebago has two twin beds that convert into a king. While the cushions were adequate, the gaps between them presented a problem for those of us gravity challenged. I tried memory foam and mattress pads. The ultimate solution was a California King pillow topper from MyPillow for $199. There is a one inch gap on the driver side but that matches with a cutout at the foot of the bed. The topper weighs only about 30 pounds but makes our RV as comfortable as our sticks & stones bed.

    Reply
  7. The above article looks like a commercial for the mattress company. Here is a way we have done the application for a RV, since the sizes are all shorter than a residential, The last two, one for a queen in a 5th wheel and recently for our park model was a king, get a mattress that is close in size usually the rv is shorter, than get out your turkey electric knife and cut the new one done to the size you need to fit the space, I’m talking about the foam construction. You should consider the thickness so you don’t need a stool to get in and out of bed. If your skills are off a little, the only one that knows is the owner.

    Reply
  8. IMO – a foam mattress is HOT, HOT, HOT!

    A far better mattress is the Sleep Number air bed where one can adjust either side individually and set or adjust the amount of firmness.

    The company has mattresses in all sizes and yes, that includes RV size.

    Reply
  9. You don’t mention the Froli bed system kits? Maybe three of four pounds and basically gives you a inch and a half box spring that does the job of a regular box spring like a normal bed. Fixes any half decent mattress into a comfortable bed. I bought the queen size kit for around $220 I think. Now the bed is as good one in your house. You talk memory foam, not really good for anyone who weights more than 200 pounds and to hot. This system was developed originally for boats. I installed the kit in our Coachman Concord in a hour or so three years ago. We love it.

    Reply
  10. Another high-quality brand is MattressInsider. That mattress has been the replacement mattress of choice for many of the full-timers with online blogs. We got our advice from Marc and Julie Bennett, of RVLove. It has been the best purchase we have made for refitting our newly-purchased but old 2000 Hurricane.
    Both in our 70s, we have trouble sleeping on anything that doesn’t quite make the Tempurpedic standard. We have been very pleased with the comfort of our new mattress after our first few trips.
    In addition to the quality of the product, the ease of dealing with mattressinsider.com added to the pleasure.

    Reply
  11. what makes this any different from a normal memory foam mattress? The people that we know, including family members that have bought a memory foam mattress did not like them and got rid of them. I’m open to your opinion. Thanks

    Reply
  12. It is crazy! You spend thousands and thousands of dollars for an RV and the bed, a VERY important feature in almost all RVs, that even with a brand name attached like Simmons in my case, can feel like a cardboard box with a cover on it!
    And, the stock bed collapses like a cardboard box that fast too!
    We did the shopping by ratings on Amazon and found a good mattress that is a mix of material and foams and is very comfortable. It was full queen-sized, at least that seems to be a trend on many mid-range RVs now, less of the RV queen-sized, which means 5-inches short and your feet hang off the end. And we’ve had those RV-Queen mattresses over the years in previous RVs.
    We spent about two-hundred-dollars with prices, and thicknesses, all over the place. However, it proved my point to my wife you DO NOT need to spend a thousand dollars for a good, comfortable, mattress!!!

    Reply
  13. We replaced our King size mattress in our new to us motorhome with a Queen size to free up some room. Just went to store and purchased our favorite brand.

    Reply
  14. What about more affordable mattresses? I’m going to go out on a limb and say a custom mattress probably costs an arm and a leg.

    Reply

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