I HATE the Bamboo mattress with every fiber of my being. Not only is it uncomfortable, but it’s difficult to get out of and a super pita to change the sheets. I basically have to pull the mattress out about 3 feet, then crawl onto the carpeted section under the head of the bed where I start with the corners and then pull and tuck waaaaaay under (because I still don’t know what size sheets fit it). Then I crawl off the mattress, slide it back in place, and begin the tugging and tucking and cursing until it’s as neat as I can get it. After wrestling to get that sheet on, the rest is somewhat easier, but not without their own unique frustrations. By the time I’ve finished I’m drenched in sweat and cranky. My reward is sliding between cool crisp sheets tucked tight like my cot in basic training. Call me crazy, but there’s not much better than climbing into a bed of freshly washed sheets; however, the joy only lasts until the sun comes up and I awake to find the top corner(s) have come undone and are now halfway down the mattress. Ugh. I’ll have to start all over before getting into bed again. SMH
Funny things is, I recently found it necessary to sleep on the fold out couches for a couple of weeks while the hubby was recovering from foot surgery and wasn’t able to go up and down the steps and I was surprised to find it far more comfortable - I slept better than I had in months… and putting the sheets on was so much easier. Nevertheless, we can’t convert the living room into a bedroom - that would be weird for sure. Nor are we going to move one of the couches into the bedroom, although that would give us more space to practice our breakdancing routines….
What type/brand of mattress has worked for you and yours? I prefer firm and my husband prefers something a little softer. A hybrid mattress possibly?
Also, has anyone converted their king to a queen? and how did you accomplish it?
Agree with you on changing the sheets, it is a PITA. My wife found some clips on Amazon I believe, that secure the sheets pretty well. Similar to these sheet fasteners.
We have a few different mattresses from the Bamboo supplied by Vanleigh to a couple of the bed in a box types. All of them were too soft or felt like sleeping on a trampoline. We finally decided to buy a real mattress and got a Tempur-Pedic supreme from Costco when they had a sale. It’s been a couple of years now and it’s been great to sleep on.
We ordered our Beacon specifically with the Queen bed option as we wanted the extra room along the sides of the mattress and the small shelf on each side. If you have a King size, you could just buy a Queen mattress as that’ll fit into the same space.
We had the original mattress that was king size and it was a terrible mattress and it was tight along the sides. We replaced it with a queen size mattress and cut down on the bottom support to give some room on the sides. So much better and easier to put the sheets on. I would say that the mattress we bought is not the best but it doesn’t take much to be better than the original mattress. So in the future we will probably be replacing it. But at least we can make the bed without being a contortionist. I prefer the semi firm mattress and not to soft! I can’t say one brand over another but get the one that you’re comfortable on if you able to test it out in the store !! Good luck and sleep well!!
Thanks Ralph0808! Glass to hear the queen worked out. We slept in a queen until moving into our Beacon. I was never interested in a king, but thought I’d keep an open mind with this one. If the mattress wasn’t so crappy, I may have been a convert, but I think you just cemented the decision for me - thank you.
We ordered our unit with a queen but found it setup with a king. Luckily we were in the factory when we discovered it and got Vanleigh to convert it. We had been in several units with kings and they seemed too tight to get around the bed - we had no problems with a queen.
As far as that original Bamboo mattress - I didn’t find it that bad but I can sleep on any surface. We probably should have upgraded that thing immediately.
And of course we’re the exception, have the king and love it. Of course we have a big dog and I roll around when sleeping. Original mattress is ok so added a good foam topper and it’s fine. We could have a custom mattress made but don’t see the need to spend the $$. The best custom size mattresses we have ever had made were made by Handcraft Mattress Company. We used them on multiple boats and our airstream. Not cheap but great quality.
Separately remember is you have a king standard king sheets don’t fit well. Do a search on Amazon for RV king sheets. Still a PITA to change but once on they stay on.
We put a 2” topper from the My Pillow guy on our queen size bamboo and find it more comfortable then just the bamboo. We were going to change to a king size but glad we didn’t. Thought about what a hassle it would be to make the bed. Also like the extra space on the side for our reading glasses, clock and phone charger.
It is a bit heavier than the original Bamboo mattress, but we can still lift it up to access underneath. I’ve thought about getting heavier duty struts, but haven’t had an urgent need to do so yet.
Jon, I actually ordered two sets of sheets from Amazon that were listed as rv king - go figure. I did a little research after that and learned that there’s about 4 different sizes of rv king! I then measured the mattress and haven’t been able to find any outside of Camping World with measurements that’ll fit ours. Sure would be nice if the camping/rv industry would standardize sizes. I really don’t want to pay Camping World, and other RV supply retailers the exorbitant mark-ups for every day common items.
We converted the King Bed in our Beacon 39GBB to a Queen Bed. There was almost no room between the Mattress and the Wall on both sides which made it a Real Pain to simply get in and out of and very hard to make up the bed. The conversion adds about 5” more room on each side of the bed. I was able to cut down the Base (the storage area under the bed did not have to be modified). We bought a Casper Mattress from a Local Bedding Store (a standard Residential Queen Mattress is the same length as a RV King Mattress) We love it, the bed is lighter and easier to lift for accessing the storage underneath and much easier to get in and out of it and make it up.
