Soft Sleeping in the Upper Berth

[msinabottle]

Dear Friends,

I had tried, with pretty limited success, to get a good night's sleep in Winston's upper berth. I had removed the foam pad covers, and soaked them in Oxy Clean, then run them through the rinse cycle. I took the pads, sprayed them with diluted Simple Green, then the hose, then squeezed them dry... But the fact was, when I got up there, my side fell asleep and I had a hard time dozing off.

I WANTED to sleep up there-- I thought it might be cooler, and I also thought it would be pleasant watching the dawn through the tent window, which I had successfully repaired with great difficulty. I should still replace the tent, although I have successfully mended it, but a 3-window version does sound pretty good. But I have, in the meantime, solved the problem of those old foam pads up there being too hard.

While visiting Sportsman's Warehouse, I saw the largest green 'self-inflating' mattress pad I'd ever seen. I wrote down the measurements. They EXACTLY (no huge surprise, VW/Westfalia prided themselves on both berths being 'full size' mattresses matched the dimensions of the upper berth. The item number on this pad from Sportsman's Warehouse is:

40184

I bought one. Their price was $89.99.

The idea behind those 'self inflating' pads is that you squeeze the air out of them rolling them up--this one came with three nylon straps to aid in the compression--and then they'll inflate themselves when you open the valves again.

HAH!

The label did say to inflate and de-inflate it several times to get the self-inflating feature to work well, I'm up to four or so and it's still not working. Fortunately, when I tried a full size conventional air mattress up there--it didn't work, no room for my feet against the top! I had bought a small 12v. pump that I can plug into Winston's power outlets. That has has had no trouble at all inflating and deflating this pad. Here is it unrolled in the upper berth:

It inflates to about 2" thick all the way. I got that up there, unrolled my sleeping bag and a pillow, and flopped/slid in.



Good heavens. It was... COMFORTABLE. I slept up there one night at the jobs site as an experiment. It was too much trouble to rig the lower bed the 2nd night... 3rd night... The lower berth has never been better ventilated or cooler before, thanks to the new jalousies, but this was pretty good! Here it is with the sleeping bag and pillow:

I got pretty good at bending the pad up, then raising the fold-down section of the upper bed to get my headroom back. The thing's stiff, but you get the hang of it. I wish I'd rigged my Coleman tent light to the bar up there, I converted that with an LED bulb and the magnet holds it on very tightly. But I managed without the light.

Most of those electric inflaters have a 'suction' feature, you just attach the nozzle to the air intake, that drained the thing pretty well and the straps worked to compress the final bit of air out of it. It stores pretty well in the passenger compartment, and if you don't want to use it while camping, you can slide it forward in between the two front seats.

Cheap (relatively), functional, rugged... I thought it was too good and useful not to share.

Best!
_________________
'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence."

[riceye]

We picked up a 2" thick memory foam mattress pad at a local department store for the rediculously low price of $20. It's for a full size mattress (48" wide) and fits nicely in the upper berth. It is about 2" too wide for the lower, but does cram in to fit pretty well. One nice feature about the memory foam is that it is very non-slip. Reduces pillow migration, which is key in that we sleep with our heads forward in the upper berth. Just a little claustrophobic with my head towards the rear!

I've found that the pad can be folded over twice and stored at the rear of the upper bed. You may want to try that with your self inflating mattress, Rob. There is a generous amount of space for it there.

Sweet dreams!
_________________
'87 Westy Weekender - daily driver on salt-free roads

There's gonna be some changes made.

“I find that things usually go well right up until the moment they don't.” - Ahwahnee

"Quality isn't method. It's the goal toward which the method is aimed." - Socrates, later quoted by R.M. Pirsig

[STEPHENLAY]

Nice find! How is the length? I would like a little longer for my, not yet built, bed extension?

[TheBlueTurtle]

you sleep with your head towards the back?
_________________
84 Westfalia (Goldie)
GoWesty 2.2

[Vanagon Nut]

msinabottle.

Great score.

Thanks for posting model number etc. I searched their store, and elsewhere but....

Any other markings that might direct one to finding this mattress elsewhere?

I've been packing an extra Westy foam piece due to my engine conversion. Major PITA.

I just bought 2 Thermarest "Base Camps" for the lower bunk, but a one piece solution makes way more sense.


Thanks!

Neil.
_________________
1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA

1988 West DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[allsierra123]

For my rear bed i just purchased a queen sized futon matress and then roll it up and put it away when not in use.
_________________
95 GMC Yukon 6.5 TD 2 Door Tow pig/ Daily driver.
91 Vanagon GL. 1.9TD Conversion Sold
81 Vw rabbit 1.6 Diesel. Sold

[msinabottle]

Some answers...

1)No, I don't sleep with my head toward the back, not enough room or air. But I did shove things back there when I pulled myself up to take that picture.

2)The length is PERFECT, for the matteress as it is. Comes just a bit over the edge, no further.

3)Perhaps a Sportsman's Warehouse could order one, since it's their product? I couldn't find anything quite like it on line, and I searched for quite some time for the sake of making a comparison. It's a 'Made in China' product, so there is a chance that some other retailer is selling it. The stock number would probably be similar.

4)No need for foam or anything else. I'm a very light and fussy sleeper, this pad worked perfectly for me on top of the old upper berth foam. The advantage of this pad is that is DOES shrink and stay shrunk once you remove and force all the air from it.

Best!
_________________
'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence."

[Vanagon Nut]

[debbiej]

we got that matteress, and yes, you can suck all the air out to fold it up, and so far it is the best compromise I've found. but I still find it a big pain to not be able to fold back the bed in the morning so that we have headroom. and that is the only way to fold that matteress, is to pull the air out. what I'd like to find is a really high quality foam to replace the original. it seems like dense foam, but after almost 25 years, it has to have lost some of it's structure and strength. I think the design of the upper bunk to be such a great idea, it is frustrating that the foam is not enough padding...

anyone know of a foam that is good enough to be comfortable at the thickness of that bed?

[dobryan]

Try contacting Jonce Fancher at

http://fanchers.com/59/VW%20Stuff.htm

He's done some research on foam types and can likely make a recommendation for you.

Regards,

Dave O
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[debbiej]

thanks, I will do that!

[Ophir]

I just bought the Sportsman Warehouse mattress. I am so psyched to try it out. It looks like it will be much better than the memory form that GW is selling.

[randywebb]

[lucianosanchez]

Is this the one you purchased?

http://www.sportsmanswarehouse.com/sportsmans/Kamp.../cat100852

How small does it get when deflated? Where do you store it?

Thanks
_________________
1983.5 Aussan Brown Westfalia | 2016 to 2020
1983.5 Beige Westfalia | 2019 to Current

[dlb154]

This looks similar. Just need to confirm the size will fit. Less money.
https://www.amazon.com/KingCamp-DELUXE-DOUBLE-Self...&psc=1

[oldschool84]

I don't know whether the Sportsman's mattress is slippery for the pillow or not but you might experiment with putting some strips of the KT stretch cloth athletic tape on it. My guess is it would stick well and help reduce the sliding factor a bit. I've not tried this, but thought it might be of interest.

[WestyWanter]

[vwwestyman]

Seems like one could open the air valve and then flip the bed up without having to suck all the air out. It should deflate enough for the bed to be flipped up at least partially for headroom.
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing