14' Series Making the bed

[Catstevens]

G'day all, my wife Kim and I have owned an Expanda for about six months now and are extremely satisfied with it. The only problem we have is making the bed. We have a double size innerspring mattress which folds in the middle, we find trying to lift the far corners of the mattress to put the fitted sheets on is very difficult. If anybody has some suggestions we would love to hear them.

Cheers Steve.

 

[Drover]

My wife solved the problem by making me sell our Expanda, a drastic measure for sure............... I had informed her of my opinion, just don't make the bed, throw the sheet over and be done with it, never used them in our tents days, we sold the van end of story.... My idea doesn't work at home either.

 

[Catstevens]

My wife solved the problem by making me sell our Expanda, a drastic measure for sure............... I had informed her of my opinion, just don't make the bed, throw the sheet over and be done with it, never used them in our tents days, we sold the van end of story.... My idea doesn't work at home either.

Thanks Drover.....I think.

 

[MDS69]

What about putting the sheet on mattress before you flip it over.

 

[Catstevens]

What about putting the sheet on mattress before you flip it over.

Yeah we have had a little success doing it that way, just thought there might be something we are missing.

 

[KECL]

Putting the sheets on is a pain; I am lucky in the wife does this whilst I do other tasks when first arriving at the site. One trick though is to use fitted sheets as these do not need to to be tucked in all around (in my opionion) although would probably differ.

 

[Brente1982]

It's a fitted sheet, it's hard enough to do at home. It's naturally going to be 4 times as hard in a van

 

[Bluey]

The wife makes ours before we leave its like magic i put out bed ends hay look at that beds made just chuck the doona on

 

[MikeC]

We put the sheets on ours a couple of days before we leave, fitted sheet and flat sheet and then like Bluey we chuck a doona or cover on when we get where we are going. On the last morning before home we strip the sheets off before folding the mattress up. Makes it easy to chuck everything in the wash when we get home. Unless you have a van with an island bed you will always have some work to do. The boss hasn't complained too much about it.

 

[Crusty181]

Ive been away on my own fishing down the coast with my dog, in the van. Good times.

I had the awesomely fun job of not only making the bed but also sorting the maiden voyage of the brand new doona cover.

I dont devote a lot of time thinking about how often ive made that bed over the many years, but i now realise its been about, oh, i dunno roughly ...... never (clearly)

It was fairdinkum like wrestling a giant fat squid, upside down inside a gravity free rubbish bin with a broken arm ... and the squid easily winning. What a dead set pain in the ar$e

I now know that in 11 years of Expanda ownership ive never made that bed; i know this because if i had i would have sold it 10 years and 3 weeks ago.

The Princess arrived this afternoon, and commented on the lovely new doona cover. I did not speak single word of my personal struggle, nor the toll it took. But .... never again

 

[Drover]

There was a time a bed I made you could bounce a 20cent coin on it, the corners were perfection, then I got promoted so no inspections and my bed was just chuck and tuck, when I changed my calling to MR, the bed making became just chuck, except at times when I get yelled at......................double sleeping bag unzipped and thrown over mattress, Perfection....still get yelled at.

Why do women have this fobia about bed making.....??????

 

[Drover]

The Princess arrived this afternoon, and commented on the lovely new doona cover.

@Crusty181 I can see sarcasm in that statement and you wisely bit your tongue, you certainly are getting close to requirements needed for retirement ...... Placing a high value on survival.....

 

[The white rhyno]

Is it possible to get rid of the split mattress and installing a 1 piece custom mattress that you can make the bed and still fold it up ?

 

[Crusty181]

Is it possible to get rid of the split mattress and installing a 1 piece custom mattress that you can make the bed and still fold it up ?

Hello, welcome and no, it has to be split (or totally removed before closing the bed ends). Many folk hate the zipper, but in your case if its only for being to able to leave it made up, we only remove the doona and pillows from our when packing it up, the overlay, mattress protector and sheets all stay attached when we fold up the mattress to pack up.

 

[The white rhyno]

Thanks heaps, have you found a good mattress topper ? I have egg shells and still struggle to walk the next day after sleeping on these crappy mattresses, I was hoping I could get a good custom 1 piece mattress made and leave it set up,

 

[Drover]

Thanks heaps, have you found a good mattress topper ? I have egg shells and still struggle to walk the next day after sleeping on these crappy mattresses, I was hoping I could get a good custom 1 piece mattress made and leave it set up,

We did what @Crusty181 did as to leaving it partially made to fold up, we also tried all sorts of wonder mattress toppers, they all failed, well I was informed they failed (I have been accused of sleeping soundly on the floor of a C130 ) seems we sorted it with an inner spring mattress but had to buy another van.....You can get a mattress made to suit but a tad expensive I think.......... You do have problems closing it up if you have it too thick so you have certain dimensions that must be kept to...............

 

[Crusty181]

Thanks heaps, have you found a good mattress topper ? I have egg shells and still struggle to walk the next day after sleeping on these crappy mattresses, I was hoping I could get a good custom 1 piece mattress made and leave it set up,

Good, yes ... but only for us possibly. Its only the egg shell. What year is your van? The earlier Expanda models had solid foam mattresses, with the innerspring an upgrade option. Many people refused to upgrade only to later find the foam a bit hard. When they reluctantly replaced the foam they often gave them away, not that I suggesting they would fit yours but possible worth looking into. Those foam mattresses were 2 x piece, but no zipper, they were sewed together where the zip would be and folded up the same way, if you cant find one it wouldnt be impossible to have one made up

 

[The white rhyno]

Thanks, I have the 2017 model, - 18.52-2, and yep it’s the zipper innerspring version, I mite try hitting up captain snooze or 40 winks or even the mattress factory and see if I can get a quality custom folding mattress made, it’s the only remaining issue to address,

 

[Drover]

My 2009 14.44 had an inner spring job...it was a wrestling match to try and move it.