A Good Night's Rest

[SeaDawg]

Our Oliver cushions use a really good quality, higher density foam that many campers, which gives great support when seated, but after a few trips, seemed a bit too firm for sleeping comfortably. However, they provided a good base for the cozy "down alternative" mattress topper that I bought five years ago, which has provided a really good night's rest for a number of years. Outside of camping season, I move it to the guest bedroom.

Because the box stitching of the topper creates really big boxes, the fiberfill tends to shift and migrate, and though I've moved and flipped the topper every time I make up the bed, it's starting to show its age, and not quite as comfy as it once was.

I've read that memory foam toppers can be too hard in cold weather. Any experience here, or did that only apply to the first generation of memory foam topppers? They've been around awhile now.

When we had new cushions made for the sailboat berths, the upholsterer glued two inches of memory foam to a good dense foam, like a built-in topper on a good quality mattress. Our boat doesn't leave the warmer weather of Florida, however. With the travel trailer, we tend to chase the cooler weather, escaping to the mountains or Canada in the summer months.

I've thought about simply replacing the cushions with a mattress, since we leave the rear dinette made up as a bed all the time, but it would limit access to the big storage areas on the side unless I went for the more expensive custom hinged mattress made for boats. Even that might be really heavy to deal with when refilling the water tank manually, digging out the coats and boots stored in the back, etc., and the cushions still look and feel new, so it would be kind of a waste to replace them.

Any recommendations? I noticed the new owners of the Oliver 17 from Quartsite were looking for recommendations, too, on another forum.

Sherry

[allenpamela]

We also found the cushions not very comfortable for a bed. We talked about getting a 2" foam mattress to put over the cushions when we realized we had a couple of Thermarests that would work. They aren't the perfect fit but the difference was unbelievable. They are a little spendy so I'm not sure I would buy them for that purpose but we already had them. They are very comfortable and if we want to put the table up they are easy enough to roll up and stow out of your way.

 

Pam

[SeaDawg]

Thanks, Pamela,

I think the Thermarests are memory foam. Did you use them in colder temps? Just curious as to whether the old advice on memory foam being hard and uncomfortable in cold temps was still true.

Sherry

[Oliver Travel Trailers1571927901]

Hi Sherry,

 

I have used a foam topper on my small bed in my vintage trailer up until now and it doesn't get hard when cold. I know from experience as we live way up here in the frozen north. And no, I don't camp in the winter, but I do in the fall and it gets down to below freezing some nights. I read all the posts to my bedding question and I think I'm going with another memory foam topper for our new Ollie. I was also looking into ones that are organic so it doesn't give off gases. They are very spendy though.

Good luck. It's nice to know the cushions are of such high quality. But I do like a good nights sleep.

Karen.

[allenpamela]

A Thermarest is a backpack pad that rolls up. When you open it up air fills it up so it's about a half inch thick. It seems to be just enough to give you a little cushion. If I didn't already have those to use I would probably go with memory foam.

 

Pam