bedding

[dacoachdg1]

Speaking of bedding. Whats wrong with a air mattress?

 

[user 423]

^
OK for temporary use only. Most will eventually leak. My experience anyway.

 

[Trebor English]

They get punctures and leak.  They can be cold to sleep on.

 

[maki2]

They are plastic filled with air.

The air inside of the plastic is going to be close to ambient temperature so in the winter you wont have the layer of insulation under you the regular mattress fillings provide. Because heat move towards cold it will suck the heat right out of you unless you have a very thick layer of insulation on top of the air mattress. But a foam mattress or a fiber filled mattress is that layer of insulation that you need so you can sleep warmly at night thereby reducing the need to use more fuel to keep the ambient temperature in the room warm enough for a good nights sleep.

Air mattresses work fine for camping in the summer time but you want your van to be comfortable year round.

 

[Almost There]

They also respond (and not favorably..sigh) to elevation changes so unless you're stationary all the time, be prepared to constantly have to remember to adjust BEFORE you drive!

 

[highdesertranger]

all great reasons given so far.

i will throw out one more negative. the air inside is also affected by the temp. this can be a huge problem in the high desert where you can have wild temperature swings in the course of 24 hours. an air mattress will expand during high temps and deflate during low temps so if your mattress is inflated to be ok for day time temps it will be flat by the cold part of the night. well not totally flat but close enough to were it's uncomfortable. then if you blow it up when it's cold when it heats up during the day the mattress will blow up or at least put a lot of stress on the seems.

highdesertranger

 

[jacqueg]

Speaking of bedding. Whats wrong with a air mattress?

Sooner or later, they ALL leak.

Also, they're cold to sleep on. Sheets and blankets slide around on them. And - some of them squeak horribly.

 

[dacoachdg1]

Thanks...all good reasons to stay away from air mattress. Suggestion?

 

[jacqueg]

A lot of people like foam, including me.  Among other reasons, you can cut it to fit if your bed winds up to be an odd size, as many van beds do.

 

[Chuck Q]

May I put in a good word for the "Rubber Lady" (air mattress)? 

All the above points are good and valid, however, if room is tight (motorcycle camping) for whatever reason and you need a easily stored, sleepable "bed", I recommend a US Army issue air mattress from the 1990s.   :thumbsup:   What??????

They are difficult to find, almost getting rare.
Insulated (thick wool felt) built in on the top to help with heat retention/insulation.
Made of very thick rubberized fabric, hard to puncture, doesn't leak, doesn't make noise when you move around on it, no crackle.
Blow up to sleeping pressure with 15 lung fulls of air or a few seconds with a pump.
I have been using one for years for camping/backpacking (yeah..it's heavy but it works!), motorcycle camping and as a spare bed for my van camper when needed. I have never had a puncture with one. Sleeps well in summer through fall, lay a insulating blanket/poncho liner over it in very cold winter temps.
Cheap! About $30 (when you can find them).
Warning: You will throw away all your Therma-rest type pads when you use a real "Rubber Lady"!
Compared to other "backbacking" type sleeping pads, the "Rubber Lady" is HEAVY, but, what's a good night's sleep worth to you?

Look in Surplus Stores and flea markets for an Army issued "Rubber Lady", designed back in WWII and used throughout Vietnam war until the 90s. You can't miss them; OD green (of course!), heavy, letters "TOP" on top so the GI could figure out where the insulation was. You'll spend around $30 but it will last you for years. The one I am currently using has been on uncountable camping trips over the past 8 years without problem. Yep...I have two brand new in the box extras if I ever need them! Every person who has slept on mine has commented on how comfortable it is to sleep on,.
"Just like my bed at home", in fact, one of my friends with a bad back now uses one full-time to sleep on as it alleviates his back pain. The trick is to not over-inflate so you're not sleeping on a "bouncy ball".

Here is an example of the famous "Rubber Lady" on EBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-US...067161?hash=item5da2c96919:g:A5QAAOSwQ8VebkIR

NOT going to comment on the price, just to show you what I'm referring to.

I'm a big fan of military surplus camping gear, it's usually overbuilt and works like advertised and will outlast any civilian comparable equipment (in my experiences, but I'm really hard on gear.)

Another great piece of surplus military kit is the shower bucket. Basically a canvas bucket with a large "rain drop sized" shower head mounted on the bottom. Fill up the bucket with whatever temp water you want, string it up a tree limb, turn the shower head clockwise to ON and your in business! Folds down small and can be used as a water bucket, horse feeder, whatever...... It was a big hit a Burning Man coupled with a blow up kiddy pool for a shower drain! (bath water drained out of pool to not get on the playa, dirty water used as dust abatement with a watering can spreader = win/win!)
Here's one on EBay for example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vietnam-Er...990731?hash=item216e08cacb:g:tuAAAOSw5nxelRZp

Happy Trails!
Chuck

 

[doublegregg]

my current plan is a self inflating pad, actually a little too long for me (77", i think), with a little foam insulation built in......it's a thicker pad, prob for car camping..not at all sure how it will work or how comfortable. planned to supplement it with a BIG phat old polyester sleeping bag........ well, that's the current plan.......

 

[Cammalu]

I wonder how the military self inflating mattresses are?

 

[dacoachdg1]

Thanks Chuck...I'll check it out. Believe or not, I sleep on a free flowing waterbed at home due to back issues. When I go camp, I sleep on a air mattress...no back issues.

 

[makenmend]

my current plan is a self inflating pad, actually a little too long for me (77", i think), with a little foam insulation built in......it's a thicker pad, prob for car camping..not at all sure how it will work or how comfortable. planned to supplement it with a BIG phat old polyester sleeping bag........ well, that's the current plan.......

I have 2 of the Thermarest self inflating mattresses since 1999 they still work well and never puctured, doubled up very comfortable, with thick blanket underneath Ok in the cold.
That said I do have 8'' memory foam in my Van.

 

[pure_mahem]

I have had good luck with this Air Pad. It's not self inflating and it's rather heavy for an air pad. It does have a built in pump. I found it best to blow a couple breaths in to get the pump inflated and then just step on it a few dozen times. It's inexpensive and seems to be pretty durable. I bought it and slept on it on my cot for several months to test it out to see how well it would hold up or if I needed to find something else (more expensive). I bought it for a Bikepacking trip that is now not going to happen this year I was worried about the ground being to cold with out an air pad. I found it to be most comfortable after inflating and letting quite a bit of air out to get just the right firmness. 6'1" 380 lbs so when I say it held up It held up! I paid right around $30 and thought this was a worth while gamble. What I found is one of those gems you come across every once in a while. Bonus you could probably use this in the pool to float around on if you wanted to.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W51F7GM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Dingfelder]

Just an FYI -- I have slept on a few air mattresses, not going cheap either. They tend to spring leaks that, contrary to the instruction manuals, are very far from easy to locate and then fix. MANY is the time I have gone to sleep on a full air mattress and woken up on the floor surrounded by two wings of air mattress pushing up from around the sides of my flat back.

Nothing more comfortable.

Until then.

If you get more than, or even as much as, a year out of an air mattress no matter what its price, no matter how great your care, good for you.

 

[LeeRevell]

I liked the air mattresses I used both for MC camping (single size) and the twin size I used in my minivan. Used the smaller one in low twenties F. in winter, never a problem. Doesn't get cold even on the ground if prepped correctly.
Best sleep I ever had was on the Twin in my minivan. But, it would slowly leak down. Had to pump up a bit every three days. Flocked top prevented bedding from sliding. Very comfy.
Tried a coupld different "self deflating" pads, but was a waste of money. Never found one that worked.
Nowadays, foam is the way to go, in a firmer style.

 

[user 423]

I've used a 30" Klymit Static V Luxe air mattress on motorcycle camping trips and it's pretty comfortable. It is noisy though when you move around on it.

I see they now offer an insulated version.

It will slowly lose air to about half it's thickness overnight and I've thought about hooking up an aquarium pump to keep it inflated (while using in my van).

It probably just needs a couple PSI to hold things up.

 

[theinfamousj]

I have been using a special car shaped air mattress since ... When did I join these forums? Three years before then. So since then.

Got my inevitable hole the second week of March. I plan to patch it but...you know...procrastinating.

That is a good run.

I will absolutely echo the concern about the air cooling you from below. My air mattress was uninsulated. It had a flocked top so nothing was too slippery. And I learned to do the double inflation all the air bed companies tell you to do: fill it up big and full a few hours before bed, let the air pressure inside stretch the plastic/rubber/vinyl as much as it is going to stretch. Top it off those few hours later before going to bed. And then you won't have that magic overnight softness as you will come to see that the softness was due to the material stretching and not at all due to overnight air temperature or a slow leak. So sayeth the air mattress companies on YouTube and so confirmith my experience.

In the end, using anything but my air mattress would mean building a rigid structure to support any other mattress material. But as I prefer my car to be quick-change back to a daily driver, since I don't full time, an air mattress shaped to use my car's natural contours as exactly the rigid support structure it needed was the way to go. Plus it stores more compactly than other bed structure materials. So, it is all, as so much is, a question of priorities.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[sneaks]

Japanese futons. Roll up not much bigger than a sleeping bag, pretty comfortable. We use them at home instead of a mattress for the last 3-4 years.