An interesting discussion about mattresses

[bncinwv]

One of the things we are trying to get is a Sleep Number bed for our new 3850. The RV King premier series is listed as 11" and the deluxe series is listed as 8". The factory supplied RV King in our rig measures at 9" in the middle and 8" around the seams. I originally thought this was an 8" mattress so was concerned that due to the nature of the 3750 and 3850 slides I only had an inch or two additional height that would allow clearance when the slides closed. For those who are unfamiliar, when the two bedroom slides close, the bed platform and the mattress close against the full wall closet and drawers and actually press the drawer assembly 8" beneath the closet (measured in the room). The nine drawer assembly comes with a front that is spring loaded allowing it to be compressed beneath the closet. I finally went to the rig today (3750) and closed myself up in the bedroom and had DW close the slides so I could see and measure exactly what was occurring. When the slides were retracted, I measured the eight inches that the foot of the bed went beneath the fixed closet. In addition, I measured two inches above the mattress surface to the bottom of the fixed closet. So this meant that 9" plus the extra 2" and it would seem that an 11" mattress would work but it would be tight. Remembering a previous thread where another MOC member had mentioned that they had a Premier Sleep Number in their 3750 and that it fit beneath the closet with no problems. Being the curious sort, I PM'ed them to verify that they did indeed have the Premier mattress which the Sleep Number shows as being 11" thick. That PM got them wondering whether they actually had the premier model after they measured the thickness of their bed, so they went to the Sleep Number site and engaged in a live chat with unbelievable results. The reason they decided to question Sleep Number is they measured their premier mattress that was reported to be 11" thick and it measured an astounding 9" thick. Sleep Number gave some convoluted explanation that the measurement is done by some "industry standard" laser measurement before the bed is even assembled that cannot be recreated by the consumer. Say what??? So, the lesson I learned from all this is that an 11" mattress is not 11"! It appears the Sleep Number Premier bed is the same actual thickness as the factory supplied mattress. Now, obviously, we will report the actual results to verify that our installation is the same when we take delivery and get the mattress installed. I have never stressed so much over a mattress as I have during this investigation process, but the information is considered worthy of posting in the respect that it may help someone in the future. I am still totally bewildered how something that seems so straightforward can become such an ordeal of confusion.
Bingo