Can a mattress be too heavy?

[AnnaP]

My husband and I move every year due to employment, and we finally decided to be on our own by investing in a new 5th wheel-toy hauler by keystone. We have only had it for a month yet, so we are NEWBIES! We’re going through the whole trial and error and taking advice where we can get it. The answer I can’t seem to find right now is can a mattress be too heavy?

Just like most 5th wheels, our bedroom is in the upper level. Our concern is can a mattress be too heavy for this area? We are going to by a stabilizer, but I can’t shake the worry. We already replaced the thin king mattress that came stock with our regular queen orthopedic mattress, which I swear weighs a ton and then some. It fits perfectly and actually gave us more walking-around room. Should I be worried? Or will it be ok?

 

[Lee-C-JAY]

I wouldn't worry about it in the least. I know some folks have sleep number beds in their fiver. Watch the area for the struts beneath the bed platform to ensure it won't start needing beefed up due to the added weight. Other than that, should be no problem at all.

See this was your first post, so welcome!

 

[Mikendebbie]

We bought a good foam mattress from Sams and we have a 3” topper. It was in our previous RV that we traded in on the Montana. We had dealer get the OEM mattress out and put our “heavy” Sams mattress into the Montana that day. I would say that the only question of weight should be “Can the old man handle it to get it up the steps and set in place on the bed platform?” I had placed the Sams mattress into our old RV by myself and I knew it was heavy and very difficult to maneuver for me by myself. The mattress has not been a weight issue for the RV.

The bedroom slide is usually a Schwintek slide mechanism and the end of the bed has rollers on the floor that you can’t see easily. The mattress weight is supported - not cantilevered over thin air.

 

[phillyg]

Wouldn't concern me at all.

 

[Monte421]

My queen size Purple is 115 lbs.

 

[DutchmenSport]

Not a problem with a heavier mattress. We replaced ours (our bedroom is in the rear though, bed on a cable driven slide) with a Helix Mattress. (Absolutely not cheap). It's 12 inches thick of solid foam, heavy as a house.

There is a down-side to swapping out the factory mattress for a heavier, thicker, better one .... and that is the fact, if you have storage area under the bed, lifting the access door lid and the heavier mattress can be a real challenge. If you have struts under your bed, then I strongly advise replacing those struts with much stronger ones, because it takes both of us to get under the bed now. One to lift and hold it up, the other to dig inside to find what we need or want, or to store something else. One person by themselves? It's a challenge that I can't win.

 

[mlh]

If you wont a heavy foam mattress that will NEVER be saggy check out a natural latex foam mattress. Unlike other foam mattress they will last forever. Most if not all mattress have lets say Walmart foam in them. Natural latex isn’t cheap Walmart foam. It’s heavy dense foam that supports you without pressure points.
Lynwood

 

[dallasrules]

Two things I haven't seen touched on here. 1) Depending on the quality of the wood in the platform, you might have to beef it up. Ours was thin osb with a few reinforcement pieces screwed to it. The wood started to bow in the middle. I took it apart and rebuilt it to be more substantial. I can't say that I blame this on the heavier mattress though. Both my husband and myself are around 250lbs. My son is closer to 350. It was a cheap build though.

I am more concerned about the stabilizer your mentioned planning to buy. If it is the tripod type you put under the king pin, then that is ok. There is debate whether they do any good or not. I like mine. On the other hand, if you are talking about a stabilizer jack that would go under the slide, then those are bad news and can damage your slide under some circumstances. I haven't really seen these for a high slide like a bedroom slide, but they are out there for the other slides. I am sure there are a lot of discussions on this forum about slide stabalizers. Please read them before you go this route.

 

[Ram2013]

In reading the reply’s to mattress weight I find it interesting that no one mentioned the added pin weight to the truck. Could add a couple hundred pounds.

 

[DutchmenSport]

In reading the reply’s to mattress weight I find it interesting that no one mentioned the added pin weight to the truck. Could add a couple hundred pounds.

Unless you have a front living room / rear bedroom model (like mine). But, I never noticed any difference at all. (Tongue - King Pin hitch) weight? Well, that might be different with a front bed room.

 

[sourdough]

One has to be aware of the weight you are adding. The platform, an open area the size of a king/queen bed with a 1/2" plywood platform as the support for your mattress has limits or the plywood will bow. Some have indicated there is no problem no matter what, IMO that isn't the case.

I replace every OE mattress before I take possession. I buy very nice mattresses that are heavier. I do not however buy 300lb. mattresses due to the above. The little "support" board across that platform just pulls the screws out if you have too much weight. It has to be beefed up. Be aware of the weight and limitations of the bed platform and base...because it has them and they are not that much. I have added supports to mine, stronger struts etc. Just to say they aren't capable of supporting "whatever" on them without incurring problems.

 

[Rondo]

We found the biggest problem with a large mattress is getting it into the unit and up the steps to the bedroom and then getting it turned to put on the bed. We solved that problem totally by purchasing a Sleep Number mattress and will not go back to a regular mattress again. We actually have four of them. We have one in the Monte, one at the farmhouse, and two in our house we call our main house in Omaha. One in our bedroom and our old one in one of the other bedrooms also. The farmhouse is a king and all the others are queens. They are exceptionally easy to move and set up. The only thing I had to do in the Monte was drill two holes in the bedframe to accommodate the two hoses running from the compressor and one for the power cord. The compressor does not run unless you operate the remote control to adjust the pressure to each of the air bladders. The weight of the Sleep Number mattress is actually less than or just over 50 lbs total so that is another advantage besides a great sleep. The only con I can think of is you have to let some air out of the bladders when you go up in altitude when traveling. That can be corrected as soon as you arrive at your destination by setting the firmness for each side to your likings. Think about the Sleep Number mattress you won't go wrong.

 

[twindman]

We found the biggest problem with a large mattress is getting it into the unit and up the steps to the bedroom and then getting it turned to put on the bed. We solved that problem totally by purchasing a Sleep Number mattress and will not go back to a regular mattress again. We actually have four of them. We have one in the Monte, one at the farmhouse, and two in our house we call our main house in Omaha. One in our bedroom and our old one in one of the other bedrooms also. The farmhouse is a king and all the others are queens. They are exceptionally easy to move and set up. The only thing I had to do in the Monte was drill two holes in the bedframe to accommodate the two hoses running from the compressor and one for the power cord. The compressor does not run unless you operate the remote control to adjust the pressure to each of the air bladders. The weight of the Sleep Number mattress is actually less than or just over 50 lbs total so that is another advantage besides a great sleep. The only con I can think of is you have to let some air out of the bladders when you go up in altitude when traveling. That can be corrected as soon as you arrive at your destination by setting the firmness for each side to your likings. Think about the Sleep Number mattress you won't go wrong.

Rondo, do you have to add the foundation for the sleep number, or just put the air mattress stuff on top of the plywood of the bed? We have one at home, but wonder about one in the Monty?

 

[Rondo]

No base needed! We just put the parts that make up the mattress right on the plywood platform after drilling the couple of holes, hook the lines up to the mattress bladders, plug in the silent compressor and sleep like babies on the comfy bed. We did put some larger sheets of the netting shelf liner on the plywood so the mattress does not slide around however. I drilled one hole on the side of the wood bedframe for the compressor cord to come out to plug into the wall outlet and the other in the flip plywood cover at the head of the bed for the air hoses to connect to the mattress. Our plywood bedcover is in two sections with hinged pieces -- one at the head of the bed (a small storage space) and the other is the strut supported storage compartment at the bottom. We keep the compressor in the top storage space. Works great there and not in the way of anything.

 

[DQDick]

On our 2010 the heavier mattress caused the bed frame to pull out of the wall over time. We repaired it stronger (as it should have been) and added a couple of extra rollers and it was fine after that.

 

[MARK A-MOC]

The front of your trailer holds almost half of the entire trailer weight while on the tow vehicle, the mattress won't be an issue. ; -)

 

[R.S.O'Donnell]

Our issue with the bed was using it when we couldn't put the slide out. Since the rollers are on the floor, when you bring the slide in it cantilevers out over the rollers quite a distance with virtually no support. With the slide all the way in I added blocks with felt pads on them that rest firmly on the floor to support the foot of the bed. We now have no worries when we're overnighting in areas where we can't put the slides out.

To clarify why the pads are "in the air".....

All of the pictures are with the slide out. The pads don't touch the floor with the slide out which is why I did all my measurements with it in. When you bring the slide in they all are in firm contact with the floor.

 

[LeftOverParts]

Well, I would say the mattress stand and/or under bed storage area can be over loaded as we did just that by adding a pretty dense mattress pad and storing a bunch of gear under the bed. As RSO mentions above, the bed is cantilevered when pulled-in. Over time our frame loosened from the wall from the weight on cantilever tilting the bed so much and appears that it see/sawed while going over the factory rollers on the floor. Besides re-securing the bed frame, and reducing the gear, we had to take care of the cantilever as RSO mentions. Our solution was to buy another pair of 3-4 inch long rollers like the factory installed ones. They’re available on Amazon for about $30 pair. Installed them on the bed frame/storage area so they support the end of the frame. Picture shows how the rollers sit with the bedroom extended. (The factory rollers are on the right.) I suppose the rollers could impress the floor over time but so far, so good.