Fixed vs drop down bed comfort levels

[CarlandMandy]

Not sure if this a daft question given bed comfort is very subjective, but interested to hear any thoughts of relative comfort levels of fixed vs elec drop down beds? We have seen and sat on a few and generally all MH beds seem on the firm side, but a Chausson drop down we tried felt like rock. I'm guessing a fixed bed with slatted base will take more weight in terms of buying a more comfortable mattress or using a topper, whereas a dropdown might be thinner and on a base with less give and we might have to be careful about weighty upgrades?

We are used to a medium mattress at home and I'm thinking I might hunt down a mattress upgrade when we find our MH, but any thoughts welcome. Also interested if there is much difference between MH manufacturers. We are looking for a 4 berth that might end up as 2 x drop downs (eg burstner 744) and would like to avoid a hard bed that can't be adapted.

 

[Terry]

Hi, You can buy a mattress to suit your preferred softness / made to measure for a couple of hundred pounds. I would be more concerned with layout

 

[Jake Royd]

We have a oldish Chausson with a fixed bed. Original bed was a slatted base with a 125mm thick mattress.
No good for me even with a topper.

I replaced it with a 250mm memory foam mattress from custom size beds. Medium hardness.

This is very comfortable.

One thing to consider with a drop down bed is can it be upgraded with a thicker mattress in terms of parking upwards and perhaps headroom.

Weight would be a consideration also for the lifting mech.
For me the replacement was no heavier than my original plus topper.

 

[Shrimp]

Layout is important but so is a good nights sleep!
Fixed bed to some-me inc-means ‘waste of space’ this is purely a personal view!
Drop down bed you can put different mattresses-and/or toppers-up there but be aware of weight and if your mattress is too thick the bed won’t go up as high!
We love our drop down bed as it gives us more daytime space and when down & in use we still have most of the van accessible, we have a fairly thin mattress that sits on slightly sprung slats and a Memory foam topper, with upgraded gas struts our bed goes up well when not in use!

 

[Lenny HB]

Both our fixed beds and the drop down one are are fine in our van. They all have plastic springs under them.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[MalcMc]

Our drop down is firm, but I would say comfortable, OH prefers it to our own bed, subjective subject toppers easy solution and light weight.
My opinion no issue at all, never looked back just go for it, whatever you choose.

 

[Bailey 15]

Drop down bed very comfortable and spacious
be careful as many fixed have cut off corners to them, had one and my leg kept dropping off

 

[Zoobec]

We’ve been building our own van and we have used an IKEA latex mattress cut to size and shape, with a bread knife. Then I’ve sewn the mattress cover to the correct size and shape too. It’s very comfortable and not too thick/heavy too. Our bed is part fixed and the end part forms the back of a sofa for daytime. So you could always replace the mattress if needed in any case.

 

[AndyPK]

Drop down bed very comfortable and spacious
be careful as many fixed have cut off corners to them, had one and my leg kept dropping off

Poor you!
Do you hop now…….?

 

[Lenny HB]

Drop down bed very comfortable and spacious
be careful as many fixed have cut off corners to them, had one and my leg kept dropping off

Our first Hymer had a French bed no problem, the bed was 7ft long.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Spriddler]

....my leg kept dropping off

That would irritate me. I'd try to find somewhere else to leave it overnight.

 

[Andy MacD]

I’d say it depends on the mattress more than type of bed. Our Benimar drop down bed was in theory fine but the thin mattress horrible. Probably as they had to fit a thin mattress to allow the bed to go up high enough to open the wardrobe door so no clearance for decent topper. Simple design fault spoilt the van and we ended up selling for van with fixed bed where we could add toppers or change the mattress if we wanted.

Life’s too short to spend half of it trying to sleep in an uncomfortable bed

 

[CarlandMandy]

We have a oldish Chausson with a fixed bed. Original bed was a slatted base with a 125mm thick mattress.
No good for me even with a topper.

I replaced it with a 250mm memory foam mattress from custom size beds. Medium hardness.

This is very comfortable.

One thing to consider with a drop down bed is can it be upgraded with a thicker mattress in terms of parking upwards and perhaps headroom.

Weight would be a consideration also for the lifting mech.
For me the replacement was no heavier than my original plus topper.

Thanks Jake - yes it's thickness as well as weight with the parking mechanism, will need to be careful.

 

[CarlandMandy]

Layout is important but so is a good nights sleep!
Fixed bed to some-me inc-means ‘waste of space’ this is purely a personal view!
Drop down bed you can put different mattresses-and/or toppers-up there but be aware of weight and if your mattress is too thick the bed won’t go up as high!
We love our drop down bed as it gives us more daytime space and when down & in use we still have most of the van accessible, we have a fairly thin mattress that sits on slightly sprung slats and a Memory foam topper, with upgraded gas struts our bed goes up well when not in use!

Thanks - absolutely re a good night's sleep. We are completely set on getting the right layout, of which double drop down beds is one to give daytime space - but it will only work if we both get a decent night's sleep. Useful to know re upgrading the gas struts if needed.

 

[CarlandMandy]

I’d say it depends on the mattress more than type of bed. Our Benimar drop down bed was in theory fine but the thin mattress horrible. Probably as they had to fit a thin mattress to allow the bed to go up high enough to open the wardrobe door so no clearance for decent topper. Simple design fault spoilt the van and we ended up selling for van with fixed bed where we could add toppers or change the mattress if we wanted.

Life’s too short to spend half of it trying to sleep in an uncomfortable bed

I saw a review for a Benimar with drop down bed and it mentioned very hard uncomfortable mattress - that's what prompted me to ask on here. Like you say, if they had just allowed the mechanism to cope with a deeper mattress you could have "fixed" it. That must have been frustrating having to change the van if you liked it otherwise.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

It's certainly a good job motorhome manufacturers didn't follow in the footsteps of Henry Ford, and his assertion about what colour [ sorry color] cars can be!! It seems peoples choice of van is the ultimate best there is, and it's probably a moot point, as we're all right and all picked the best van because it was available for us to pick.
Mike