Hi, The 15-month old mattress in my caravan has deformed due to bad design and poor mattress support (flexi-slats, not a solid base) and is slowly destroying my wifes back. We live permanently in our van so I have to resolve the issue ASAP as every medical person my wife has seen believe the mattress is the cause of her problem. I have made the under mattress base a lot less flexible and now intend replacing the mattress. Our old mattress is a Bonnell spring / innerspring unit and all the caravan mattress makers bar one say to go to a pocket spring mattress system. A great idea for comfort and spinal support but with one major drawback and that is a lot of additional weight over and above our current mattress. We are already teetering on our weight limits so I have had a look at a type of foam mattress using a material called Hydro Flex 200 which weighs about the same as our current mattress. My question is does anyone out there have a mattress using this material and if so are they any good? Any suggestions to solve this problem of replacing my Bonnell spring with something more supportive while not increasing weight in the van would be appreciated. Cheers

Hello Donesailing, and welcome here.  Thanks for your question. Whilst not being able to answer your direct question, I have some info for you. Although my new caravan mattress had not deformed, it was way too hard and was giving me a huge backache, making it unuseable. I purchased a memory foam Mattress Topper which somehow magically turned the mattress in to one that is very comfortable and gives me a great nights sleep.

Cheers, John.

Hello donesailing and a very warm welcome. Just wanted to say hello. Our mattress was uncomfortable so we got an egg shell topper from clark rubber. The one with the 5 or 10 year warranty. Cannot remember which But the most expensive they have.  I looked at cheaper ones but did not think they were very good. Anyway, no more problems. Also, i found with our old caravan that was single beds, i sat on it during the day and that caused the mattress to dip where i sat. turned mattress over, stopped sitting on bed during the day n bought egg shell foam topper. All better. Also, the slats under the bed where my hips lay, they r adjustable. The boards can b made hard or flexible by moving the thick rubber band that  surrounds them. Good luck finding your solution. 

-- Edited by the rocket on Monday 20th of February 2017 02:38:32 PM

My wife and I both have bad backs so we got a mattress and topper from makin mattresses. Only used the topper once as the mattress was very supportive. They have a special mattress for caravans so you can still lift the bed up for storage.

If they are in your area go and have a talk and try their product. Cheers

Hello Donesailing.

We have a Sealy Posturepedic, Pillow top. Cost $2500.00, on a Ikea slate bass lift up with struts. (seperate cost)

I built my van and the design included a full size double.

It is heaven.

Regards.

Hetho.

We went egg shell memory foam . I found it only ok to start , then got the idea to put mem foam on bottom.

Herself found it still ok , then I did hers . She likes it even better now as well.

So , we use the memory foam as a base & the original van mattress on top of it.

I also have a Very crook back .

I'm not familiar with the type of mattress you are referring to, but sold furniture and 100s of matts

Be aware that ALL foam and latex matts do not dispel body heat, but absorb and then reflect them back into your bodies. If youre staying in cooler areas they are great, but wouldn't have one in the tropics or dry hot areas (about half of Australia)

Depending on how much money you want to spend, you can buy "medical" mattresses designed for people who are in bed 24/7 and are designed to avoid pressure points (bed sores) - they are essentially a rubber type blow up bed which has a small pump (which would run off your Anderson plug, in house batteries or solar panels no problem.

These beds are made to shape themselves into the contours of each persons body without causing sag at the hips, but feeling like youre floating on air (which you are).

You would need to google medical mattresses and see the wide range available and their prices.  

 And being deflated like a blow up bed, theyre very easy to get into the van and lay out before turning on the electric motor.  Has very little current draw, does make a slight humming, but people adjust the background noise very quickly

-- Edited by Bruce and Bev on Tuesday 21st of February 2017 12:09:38 AM

We go overseas a lot. Hotels mainly.
and speak to staff.
Most beds are HARD (harder the better for me). Commercial style. long term hard.

No matter where we go, the general staff concensus has been.
There are a lot who complain about too soft beds. Very few complain about the hard beds.

Hard or soft. Do NOT buy a cheap one. they'll ALL sag.
Nothing much under a grand and you'll be fine.

We have two home size Orthopaedic 8in singles in this van. A Grand each.
Perfect sleep every night.
Caravan ones in bin.
Never had a bad Roadstar mattress though.

Also.

we did try one of those super duper (try 3 grand a pop) 

multi foams onea few yrs ago.

Comfort fine.

But as others we've tried.

ALL foam ones (no matter the density.)

feel HOT\warm. up here in tropics.

We have a new mattress it's a queen as we had the same problem as you are having,  we got ours from here www.mister-mattress.com 

the one we got is the Ruby Deluxe have a read of the description of it . 10 year warranty cost us a bit $1000 but boy oh boy what a difference. I used to get up after a nights sleep and my hips used to ache wife's back would ache and we both used to get pins and needles in arms and according to the doc this was the mattress not supporting our necks and upper back . So saying all that these problems have been totally eliminated since we had this new mattress took a couple of weeks to get used to it like any new bed but it has been worth every penny we are in our van 24/7 too a good nights sleep welll it's money well spent. Have a look at the web site it has quite a bit of info. Best of luck 

We have a fully sprung double mattress in our caravan but the 4'' thick double foam mattress in our off-road camper-trailer is way more comfortable. 

An example of, expensive is not always the best option.

We had the foam custom cut for our caravan mattress. 3 inch memory foam topper with a firm 5 inch foam base. It's lovely.

Hi.  Just wondering if you ever purcahsed the Hydro Flexx 200 and what your thoughts are after all this time? Thinking of buying one for our van