Egg Crate question...

[TroutBum]

DW and I are heading out Sat morning for our first trip since I dewinterized the camper. (Reno for 2 nights visiting DW's aunt and then on for 4 nights at the Bothe-Napa Valley SP in California)

Quick question...

We bought an egg-crate matress pad (tired of feeling the wood with my hip). We were told not to leave anything on the bunkends other than the poles... but I just know that someone out there must have tried leaving one on a bunkend at some point.

I want to either learn the lesson from somone else's SPUT, or hear that "Oh... we all leave them on... it is just the dealer doing a little CYA".  

Which is it?

Thanks.

[Recumbentman]

Easiest thing to do, is the old tissue box trick. raise your roof about 6-8 inches place a tissue box on the bed and then lower top. raise back up and see how much if any is the box crushed. different models have different height's inside their closed up PU's

[tlhdoc]

Who told you not to leave anything on the bunkends?  If there is room between the roof and the bed you should be fine.  Do the tissue box test and see.  It save a lot of time if you can just leave the bedding on the beds when you popdown.  Have a great trip.

 
PS:  My DH has caught 36 trout so far this year at Poe Valley SP, DS has only gone out once and caught 12 but only kept 5.

[Turn Key]

Have been out of PU's for a couple of years but had the egg crate on our last one.  Left it under the mattress with no problem.  The "tissue box" test is a great way to find out how much room you have under the roof.  Big thing is, if the roof will close with know trouble with the "crate" in place, your golden.

Happy Camping!

[Camping Coxes]

We added about 1" dense foam under our mattresses and have no problem with leaving it on.  Egg crates aren't much higher (in spots they're lower!).  One thing to think about with the egg crate though -- if you have it basically crushed when closed, it's going to lose it's density real quickly.  Those raised spots may not stay raised.

[champ521]

We use a double-wide sleeping bag as bedding and have always left it on the bunkend when popped down. No problems.

[Gone-Camping]

If the entry door to your camper is anywhere near the middle of the trailer, you should be able to open up the door while it's popped down, and stick some fingers (or a tape measure) up between the closed bunk ends and see exactly how much room you got up there! That's how I figured it out, I left the egg crates in place in all 3 of my PU's.

If push comes to shove, you can always leave the egg crate in place and pop down and see what happens. Worst case scenario would be the top doesn't come all the way down and won't be able to fasten the clips. This really shouldn't be much of a problem though since the egg crate will squash down anyway!!

[DrJ]

We had a '94 Coleman Arcadia with an air conditioner and used to leave one, or maybe two, egg crates on the bunks. We developed a leak from the roof and I believe it came in from around the air conditioner that was held up by the crates. I don't know for sure what caused the leak but that is all I can think of. So, if you have an air conditioner, make sure to do the tissue box test under it. My 2 cents.

[tlhdoc]

We had a '94 Coleman Arcadia with an air conditioner and used to leave one, or maybe two, egg crates on the bunks. We developed a leak from the roof and I believe it came in from around the air conditioner that was held up by the crates. I don't know for sure what caused the leak but that is all I can think of.

Did you ever check to make sure the bolt holding the AC in place were tight or if the seal was bad?  They are common causes for leaks around the AC unit.

[DrJ]

Hi tlhdoc...As I recall, I did check those things. It seems like the dealer may have suggested we do these things at the time but by then it was too late. I am recreating this from memory though since we traded the Arcadia on a hard-side back in '99 and my old brain doesn't work like it used to . Now I am thinking of trading for another pu...leaning toward a Fleetwood Niagara.  I do remember that neither the dealer nor Coleman/Fleetwood would accept any responsiblity at the time and, if the egg crates caused the leak, they were right not to. Anyway, I wouldn't store the egg crates on the bunks if I get another PU. Better safe than sorry.

[cjpoppin]

We have and keep memory foam pads on our bunk ends....Thank goodness our Jayco has the extra room..Good luck hope it works for you.....sure does help the hip bones,etc........