Permanent Bedding

[remington850]

One of the many decisions the wife and I are having to make with our new Burro is whether or not to keep the back bed area permanent or not. The previous owners removed (but kept) the hardware that allowed the back area to be used as a lounge/eating area.

I am pretty sure we want to keep it permanently a bed but don’t feel the existing cushions are thick enough to be comfortable for sleeping. The previous owners had an additional 4" foam padding there but we plan on discarding it due to possible health/sanitation reasons. Does anyone have suggestions for making this area more comfortable? We were thinking some memory foam (expensive) or maybe just adding a thick comforter or two. Thanks in advance.

Darin

[Roger H]

Darin, I had an '87 Burro widebody, and left the large bed as a bed also. I also bought a 2" memory foam pad to add to the foam cushions. I highly recommend that!

Roger

[remington850]

Thanks Roger, we looked at the memory foam stuff at Sams club, what size did you use?

[pjanits]

The previous owner had had a mattress made for the bed, so we leave it up all the time.
The bunk/sofa/dinette area stays as a small dinette.

I put 3/4 inch plywood under the mattress and hinged it at the rear so we could lift up the bed to get to the under seat storage. It's pretty heavy so we put our least used stuff under there.

[Roger H]

Thanks Roger, we looked at the memory foam stuff at Sams club, what size did you use?

The Queen fits quite nicely.

Roger

[Gina D.]

I have only been inside one Burro 17, and they had a permanent bed set up. They had it so the bed looked like it was in it's own room and it was very cozy looking.

I did a permanent bed/ front dinette mod in my 13 and don't regret it at all. Don't miss setting it up and down every day.

Try to think of a way that you can put it back up as a dinnette again quickly if you like. No law says it has to stay a bed.

[Per Walthinsen]

Darin:

I believe Gina referred to ours, and we sleep left-to-right and I will step over my wife's legs to get to the bathroom as long as I am mobile enough.

She sleeps closer to the bathroom with head curbside so that it is easier to curl her legs up to avoid being trampled (the bathroom sticks out more than the clothes cabinet).

We at first added a 4" foam mattresses to the original cushions. Was comfortable, but too high. Removed the cushions and added an eggcrate and 1" memory foam to the 4" foam. Bonded together with a spray adhesive for foam. My wife sewed a cover with velcro or zippers to help getting them laundered more easily. Two sets of twin sized so that getting them out is relatively easy. Fine for us.

I have two battery boxes, AC installation, subwoofer, converter, and amps under there, so I tried to make it easy to get things out to check and work on them. Therefore I cut nine planks of 1x5 inch wood to serve to bridge the gap under the matresses, numbering them for quick installation because they needed to be of slightly different lengths. (The are actually 4 1/2 inches wide and 3/4 inches thick of course. I used KD Douglas Fir because it is exceptionally strong and stiff.)

This setup is at least as comfortable as the bed in our home.

[David & Terry]

In our 1987 Casita, the cushions needed a little help, so I got a futon mattress made of thick cotton batting. I opened the cover and shaped the edge of the batting to match the curve of the Casita. Then, I cut the futon at the 1/3 of its length point, resewed the covers so it was in two pieces. That way it could more easily be moved if access to under bed storage was needed. We liked the firm support. It worked well for us.