Elkmont Queen Mattress

We're expecting to take delivery of a '11 Elkmont 26 in a few weeks and found the Elkmont mattress a tad firm. Has anyone purchased a pillow topper for it and successfully softened it up some?

One of the nice things about the Elkmont is that it doesn't fold down like the other Trailmanors. So you can put anything of any thickness you want on the bed!

We find the mattress a little weird as it holds your shape for a long time after you roll over and move to a new position. So we picked up a topper from IKEA that helps quite a bit. But it's too big (maybe the bed is bigger in the 26' Elkmont) and doesn't have the rounded corners. One of these days I'll take a razor to it.

[cochise]

Originally Posted by Shandysplace

We're expecting to take delivery of a '11 Elkmont 26 in a few weeks and found the Elkmont mattress a tad firm. Has anyone purchased a pillow topper for it and successfully softened it up some?

We have an Elkmont 24, and we also found the mattress to be a bit hard, We got a 2" "topper" from Walmart, ($ 98.00) and that made a world of difference. One CAVEAT! Once this topper has been placed on the bed, the hydraulic struts may not support the bad in the open position any longer. You can oipen it but if you let go, the bed will come down. I went to Lowe's and got a 48" section of 3/4" PVC pipe, and fitted one of those rubber dingies for a walking stick or chair on the tip and we now use that to hold the bed open. Works fine.

We also found the matress in the elkmont to be quite firm and topped it with first, one, and then two hospital grade eggcrate foam toppers. That is about the right amount of padding for us. Since I am tall, we also added two swim noodles between the matress and headboard to lenghten the bed a tad. Has worked very well for us this year.

I don't think the mattress is firm at all. Conversely, it is a thin 4" foam sheet, that we find we sink right through, and the "firmness" is really us feeling the hard sheeting underneath. We tried a foam topper which really didn't help.

So we bit the bullet today and spent $340 on a short queen Parklane Eurotop mattress from the local Camping World. We installed it and really like it. We'll be camping next weekend and I'll file a report once we've tried sleeping on it.

Not cheap and looks like it hangs over the corners? But yes, I don't like that "sink right through" the mattress either. Do tell us how it works.

Originally Posted by brulaz

Not cheap and looks like it hangs over the corners? But yes, I don't like that "sink right through" the mattress either. Do tell us how it works.

After 1 night, I'm sold. Excellent support. 2 minor negatives: the mattress does have a smaller radius half-round at the corners, so the mattress sits over the edge of the corner by a few inches (no bother to us) - otherwise it fits perfectly; and the extra weight of the new mattress is too much for the piston to keep the bed base up when trying to retrieve items in storage underneath. I need to make a propping stick of some sort like Cochise did.

But we are quite pleased with the mattress.

I got new air cylinders to support the bed in the upright position. The old ones were rated for 40 lb. lift and the new ones are 80. They went in easy as pie and the only challenge was keeping the bed down while I put the mattress back on the bed. The new cylinders hold the frame / mattress up perfectly. I got them on eBay for $30 for the pair.

Make, model, etc. or anything else we need to obtain something similar.

Many thanks.

Originally Posted by Shandysplace

Make, model, etc. or anything else we need to obtain something similar.

Many thanks.

I bought these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-GAS...#ht_4307wt_948

2 GAS SPRING PROP ARMS - 36", 80 LBS, Model C16-10944