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Enjoyment of the whispering winds, the zephyrs, the airstreams of the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin areas of the United States in a recreational vehicle.

My Airstream Bed

by Randy Grossmann

The bed in our Airstream has been the most uncomfortable bed I have every had the misfortune of sleeping on. Halfway through the night my body would be aching. Airstream obviously installed the cheapest mattress they could possibly find. The mattress is so bad that I would not expect to find it in any RV. I purchased a three inch memory foam mattress topper at Costco and it converted the bed from the worst to the best I have ever slept on.

While I was on a roll I decided to procure some bedding that actually fit the mattress with its two rounded corners. I put in a call to Airstream about their custom bedding because we saw an ad in the Blue Beret for such. That was several weeks ago. I'm still waiting for them to get back to me. In the meantime I found a company on the internet called Quality-Time that makes custom fitted sheets and related items. I got a cushy feeling talking with the Quality-Time people on the phone. They patiently and completely answered all of my questions (of which there were many). I sent them a CAD drawing of the mattress and each component I wanted made as well as a template of the corners. The photo attests to the fine job they did. Note how the sheets perfectly fit the two rounded corners of the bed. They also made me a mattress pad with the rounded corners. I certainly recommend Quality-Time to anyone with an odd shaped Airstream bed or even a standard shaped bed, Airstream or otherwise.

I cut the memory foam topper to match the rounded mattress corners. It is quite easy to do as long as you don’t mind corners that do not look like they came from the factory. But then who ever sees the topper. I finished the bed enhancement with two down pillows from Costco. I am now sleeping on a cloud–at least during those nights we are in the Airstream.

MAKING AN AIRSTREAM CORNER BED

WITH A MEMORY FOAM TOPPER INSTALLED

As I have previously written, the memory foam topper I placed on my Airstream corner mattress converted the bed from the worst to the best I have ever slept on. However, a problem with making the bed has now arisen. The conventional thinking about making an RV corner bed is to remove the mattress from its corner position and place it in a location where it is possible to get around all sides of it, and then replace it in its corner position with the bedding already installed. However, I can no longer get the mattress back into its corner position after installing the bedding. The reasons involve the heaviness of the memory foam coupled with its tendency to slide off the mattress when tilted. The mattress must be tilted at about a 45 degree angle to get it in and out of the corner position.

After a lot of intense thinking I determined that the bed must be made from under the mattress rather than from the top of it. I subsequently came up with a really good method. I first place the fitted mattress pad on top of the mattress and tuck the sides half way down the sides of the mattress. I then wedge my body between the mattress bottom and its plywood base. While on my back and holding the mattress up with my two feet and head I use my hands to pull the fitted mattress pad sides down and around to the bottom of the mattress at one end of the mattress. I then turn my body around 180 degrees and do the same thing on the other end of the mattress. At this time I come out from under the mattress and repeat this entire process with the fitted bottom bed sheet. I then repeat this process a third time with the fitted top sheet. Finally, the bed spread installation requires a fourth iteration of this process. The result: a perfectly made bed!

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