How do you modify a mattress?? Help!

[Joe & Cherie]

We have decided its time to get a real mattress instead of the 3 layers of scrounged up stuff we've been using! I read on here people buy memory foam mattresses at walmart or amazon and cut them down. I also understand an electric carving knife works best.

So - my questions lie here: It seems the mattresses have a covering, is it safe to assume that ALL the brands will have zip on/off covers? Are some sewn on and need to be cut off? Once the mattress is cut to desired size, I assume you need to sew the cover smaller to meet the new shape? The ones with multiple layers (cooling foam etc) still are just foam and can be easily cut?

I've never owned a memory foam mattress. Can one elaborate on the entire process?

[mary and bob]

We have found that memory foam gets stiff or hard in the cold. Not all mattresses have a removable cover. We bought a Southern Mattress for our Casita and love it. Previous owner had a modified futon mattress that did have a zipper cover. We recut that mattress and put it in our Uhaul. From the time we called and ordered the Southern mattress to when we received it was less than a week, NC to upstate NY. Saved $100 by having it shipped to a friends business location. Total cost was around $700.

[Joe & Cherie]

One thing I forgot to mention, we will need to buy a California King, then cut it. We have 84" length but only 53" width. I could put in a standard full and get the width spot on, but then have 9" gap at bottom (and still need to cut rear corners to fit the big radius).

So I don't think the just buy it and install it option will not work for us. Will need to modify.

[Nor Cal Mike]

I am not sure if you are a total do it yourselfer or want to spend the money on a custom foam mattress but when I built our little teardrop trailer about 15 years ago (I can't believe it has been that long already), We ordered a custom size mattress to fit from an online company, It came with a zippered cover that was also custom made to fit our dimensions. Now that we have a 16ft. Casita that is getting an extensive remodel including a dedicated wider bed, I plan to do the same this time around. Because of the amount of time that has past, I forget the name of the company that I bought our mattress from. They were fast, reasonably priced and the mattress provided was great even to this day. Most of these companies advertise free shipping. I found several of them by doing a "custom foam mattress" search. Here is a link of one company.

https://www.mattressinsider.com/cust...attresses.html

I am not sure if they are the best. I only chose it because of their straight forward website. According to the site, they will create any shape mattress that you want based on a paper pattern that you send them.

As for the memory foam, it custom contours to your body shape when you lay on it. Based on having slept on memory foam pillows, I personally don't care for it. I prefer a moderately firm mattress. Perhaps a mattress made of a layer of 2" memory foam over 4" of regular foam would be the ticket.

[Civilguy]

Joe,

We bought ours from MattressInsider.com and really liked it.

I let the manufacturer do the modification as we had two round corners in the back of the Casita. They radiused the corners of the foam, (and of course the cover fabric).

They also provided a "hinge" that I requested in the middle so the mattress could be folded up lengthwise in the center. While the hinge was "okay", I wouldn't do it again as it did tend to be a bit less supportive than the rest of the mattress.

Ours was not memory foam. Obviously, lots of folks like memory foam. My one experience with memory foam staying for a week in a rental near Yellowstone was that it was like that old song;

I want to love you. Feel you. And wrap myself around you. I want to squeeze you. Please you. I just can't get enough.

Personally, that experience was not for me.

Here's the description from when we sold the Casita:

• $600 Custom Mattress with 2” Talaly latex over 5.75” of soy-based HD foam with a cotton quilted cover from Mattress Insider

As best I recall, it was some 50(?) lbs, but I may be wrong. It arrives rolled up in a box. I wrestled the box into the Casita and opened the box there. It expanded quickly.

They have a variety of options pricewise, and it cost very little (~$30?) for the customization. I worked with a guy named Tim on the phone and he was very patient and helpful.

[thrifty bill]

In our case, we just went to a local foam shop, bought a large piece, and cut it down with an electric knife. Picked up the knife at Salvation Army, would not want to use it to cut Thanksgiving turkey.

As far as a cover for it, we just used a fitted sheet. Put a comforter of your choice over it, and it looked fine.

If you decide to go with one of those mattresses in a box, critical, don't open the box until you have the mattress inside the trailer. You will have a problem getting it through the door once you open the box.

[Alf S.]

Originally Posted by Joe & Cherie

We have decided its time to get a real mattress instead of the 3 layers of scrounged up stuff we've been using! I read on here people buy memory foam mattresses at walmart or amazon and cut them down. I also understand an electric carving knife works best.

So - my questions lie here: It seems the mattresses have a covering, is it safe to assume that ALL the brands will have zip on/off covers? Are some sewn on and need to be cut off? Once the mattress is cut to desired size, I assume you need to sew the cover smaller to meet the new shape? The ones with multiple layers (cooling foam etc) still are just foam and can be easily cut?

I've never owned a memory foam mattress. Can one elaborate on the entire process?

Hi: Joe & Cherie... Quite simple... Sleep in it!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[curt meyer]

I agree with Michael on the memory foam, I personally don't like them.
We just ordered to custom twin coil mattresses from Mattress Insider and they should be here in about a week. You don't really see the coil mattress when you go to the website, but do a search for the Park Meadow Custom Pocketed Coil to see if you like those.

[ssatkinson]

We bought a combo foam/memory foam mattress in a box to use for a few seasons and cut it with an old electric knife. We used the back cushions to make a template to get the curve right. I just modified the cover to fit back on by matching the seam at the curves. So far we are on the third season, have camped in weather down to the low 30s, no problem. We did add a marine deck tile under the main area so that the foam breathes. We had a futon mattress before that but it was very heavy. Memory foam isn't for everyone, but we like a medium soft mattress so it works for us.

[rbryan]

Mattresses are probably one of the most subjective things around. What's comfortable for one is bad for another. We love our gel memory foam mattress we picked up on Amazon for around $220. Regular queen, radiused two corners to better fit our Escape 19, and voila. So much more comfortable to us than the stock coil mattress.

[madjack]

...what we bought...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
...had a slip on and zip up cover, we pulled it down, trimmed corners with electric carving knife, replaced cover and just tucked in excess...sleeps a treat...haven't had problems with it being too hot or too cold..........
madjack

[Leej]

I bought a Walmart spa sensations ten inch foam mattress. Personally I love it and when company visits I park them in the Casita....across the board they love the bed.
I opened the box and let the bed inflate since it is so compressed. The cover is stretchy and zips off.
I placed the Casita cushions on it so I could get the radius of the corners correct, marked it , then cut the mattress with an
electric carving knife, zipped the cover back on.... the stretchy fabric made it unnecessary to alter the cover.
The most difficult part is getting the mattress into the Casita! Just clear off your counters and stuff!
Hope this helps....I got the mattress delivered to my local Walmart so no shipping charge.
Doesn’t bother me at all that I went ‘cheap’, I got a,very comfortable bed for a reasonable cost.
As far as the heat factor goes, I don’t find it hot at all. I put a nice thick mattress pad on it that I bought at Ross...so my total outlay was very doable.

[Kai in Seattle]

We went to IKEA's AS IS department and bought an all-foam (latex) 7" thick queen-sized mattress and a 7" thick twin all foam mattress.

We paid $139 for the queen, and $79 for the twin.
What you can find in the AS IS department varies; finding two the same thickness at the same time was lucky.

I cut the covers with a scissors, leaving enough along the edges to cover the bare foam, and I cut the foam with a serrated bread knife in the garage, as I find it gets fairly messy.

I left the zipper along one long side of the larger mattress, adjusting it for the new length on the ends.

I marked the covers and cut those first, then pulled them back (not off) and marked the foam with a Sharpee felt marker on both sides. I used a serrated bread knife to cut the foam in a sawing motion, checking frequently underneath to stay as straight as possible. (I don't own an electric knife.)

We had enough foam for two narrow twin mattresses (32" x 77" and 28" x 74") and two 20" x 22" permanent seat covers (making a U in the back, with the wider mattress).

The mattresses are not memory foam. They are 7" thick, so work fine on a metal futon frame taken apart and used half for the back bed/settee and half for the front bed/settee.

Whatever you find, however you decide, best wishes and I hope it works out well for you.

BEST
Kai

[Orlen Wolf]

Originally Posted by Joe & Cherie

We have decided its time to get a real mattress instead of the 3 layers of scrounged up stuff we've been using! I read on here people buy memory foam mattresses at walmart or amazon and cut them down. I also understand an electric carving knife works best.

So - my questions lie here: It seems the mattresses have a covering, is it safe to assume that ALL the brands will have zip on/off covers? Are some sewn on and need to be cut off? Once the mattress is cut to desired size, I assume you need to sew the cover smaller to meet the new shape? The ones with multiple layers (cooling foam etc) still are just foam and can be easily cut?

I've never owned a memory foam mattress. Can one elaborate on the entire process?

I also have an EggCamper and did the memory foam thing. We bought our mattresses from IKEA, a double that was 53" wide and a single. Made a cardboard template to the outline of the rear curved section, cut the mattress to fit with a power carving knife and did a little sewing to contour the cover (it was zip on). We made pieces for the end gaps from parts of the single mattress and sewed up covers using the cover material from the small mattress. There was enough foam left over to make decent cushions for the dinette.

BTW - Comments on memory foam getting hard at cold temps are very true. At 0F they are like rock - but they warm up quickly when you get in bed. We also put a layer of Reflectix under our mattress to keep the cold at bay.

73 Orlen

[k corbin]

Originally Posted by Joe & Cherie

We have decided its time to get a real mattress instead of the 3 layers of scrounged up stuff we've been using! I read on here people buy memory foam mattresses at walmart or amazon and cut them down. I also understand an electric carving knife works best.

So - my questions lie here: It seems the mattresses have a covering, is it safe to assume that ALL the brands will have zip on/off covers? Are some sewn on and need to be cut off? Once the mattress is cut to desired size, I assume you need to sew the cover smaller to meet the new shape? The ones with multiple layers (cooling foam etc) still are just foam and can be easily cut?

I've never owned a memory foam mattress. Can one elaborate on the entire process?

The company "Sailrite has a great youtube channel with lots of instructional videos including cutting foam and making cushion covers.
Here is the video for how to cut foam with an electric carving knife.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqodjNexy7w

I bought my electric carving knife for foam cutting at a thrift store. Thrift stores are a great place to get these knives because they tend to sit in peoples cabinets never getting used and then finally because they are not used they get donated. Why pay the price for new when you can get nearly new for very little?

[Glenn Baglo]

Originally Posted by k corbin

Why pay the price for new when you can get nearly new for very little?

Because like cast iron cookware, people say you can get for cheap at thrift stores, but you'll never find any. And, a new one costs $11 at Walmart.

[Joe & Cherie]

Well - its a crap shoot! After two conversations with Mattress Insider, we went with them. The guy talked us out of foam due to my weight of 250, firmness, and longevity. I explained I was tall so it would be less psi, but they really recommend their coil mattress for heavier peeps. So we ended up with the Park Meadow Pocketed Coil.

https://www.mattressinsider.com/inne...-mattress.html

It was a bit pricy but it will be custom fit to the Egg so that's a nice feature. Just open and use. Size ended up being 87"x53"x8" with the two rear corners radius to 14". Its cool they can make those shaped just to size!

I sure hope we like it but it should be ok, as we like firm. THANK YOU for all the advise here, and especially the tip to Mattress Insider. I'll give a review after it arrives and we use it a bit.

Thanks again!

[Civilguy]

Joe,

One thing I like about the factory coil mattress in the Escape is that they left a little bit of space at the sides, so it's easier to make the bed.

The foam mattress we put in the Casita really pressed up against the walls and made it tough to put bedding on.

I hope this turns out to be a good choice; like you say, it's kind of a crap shoot...

Now get back to the salt mines there Monday so you can pay for all this pricey stuff I keep recommending!

[Joe & Cherie]

Originally Posted by Civilguy

Joe,

Now get back to the salt mines there Monday so you can pay for all this pricey stuff I keep recommending!

Ain't that the truth!!!! HA!

[Jim Bennett]

I am a warm sleeper, and do not do good with memory foam as it does not breathe well, though they are developing some that is supposed to work better.

In my Escape 19 I had a foam mattress with a 6" layer of medium/firm density foam with a 3" latex topper, and it was like sleeping on a cloud.

I love a latex foam topper, though it is fairly heavy. When we replace our mattress in our Escape, I plan to do a 3 layer foam mattress, a base about 2 1/2 " of firm density foam, a mid layer about 2 1/2" of medium density foam, and a top layer of 3" of latex foam. A mattress like this pretty much alleviates any pressure points when sleeping, hips and shoulders being the worse.

With foam, it is real easy to set up different densities on both sides should your significant other have differing needs. The only problem is you are then stuck to sleeping on the same side of the be all the time, and that's boring.

Originally Posted by rbryan

Mattresses are probably one of the most subjective things around.

Have you not seen the tire and towing conversations here before?

But you are right, we all have different sleep patterns and needs.