Making A Warmer Truck Camper Bed

[Camper_Jeff___K]

Today's Project, Making A Warmer Truck Camper Bed.
Cedar Lattice For Ventilation. SIKA 1" Insulation Board To Keep Mattress Warmer. Flannel Sheets To Be Warm And Cozy In Bed.
I've seen others on the RV.NET forum do similar projects in the past. This is my attempt at it. I'll be traveling in some cold areas, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, the next while and based upon my last winter trip to these areas, I decided I better try something to make winter life in a truck camper a little more comfortable. Getting some electric booties to keep the tootsies warm while sitting at the dinette. I did a test with a couple thermometers last trip and found a 30 degree difference from the floor to the sink countertop, 40 floor, 70 countertop. The feet were very uncomfortable. The furnace is doing a lot of work to keep the temperature up.
I'm open to suggestions for improvement.
J&K





Video Link for those who are interested.

[valhalla360]

JimK-NY wrote:

2oldman wrote:
Heated mattress pad.

The typical heated mattress pad is going to use about 80-120 AH per night. Plus the ones I have seen are all 120 v so you need a larger inverter to use one and the inverter will waste considerable extra power.

If your rig is hooked up, fine, but I would just use a space heater in that case.

5-10min before bed to prewarm and then good for the night. Your body heat will be enough to keep comfortable with decent blankets.

[Camper_Jeff___K]

Reality Check wrote:
Interesting thread.

We camp alot in the winter. Just spent 4 days in 0-5F degree weather. Never really had an issue with the mattress or cold. Condensation, can be an issue, but it's a super easy solution. Got to have air movement. I usually just crack the kitchen window a bit and open the bathroom vent slightly (fan stays off). An example, two days into the camp, no condensation at all, windows being the best indicator. Cooked breakfast for three extra adults and two kids (squeeze them in..!) and after a bit over two hours, the windows were covered in condensation. It's our breath. Turned the fan on when they left and half hour later, camper was cleared up.

A suggestion for under the mattress. One needs air movement but most can't afford the height loss. Pick up a piece of Miradrain or equivalent. It's a composite drain product, and it will keep an open airway under the mattress. About 1/2" tall, plastic and fiber, water proof.



Last... skip the flannel sheets. They're only warm 'after' you get in and warm them up. Go fleece. Tell them I sent you...! There is no comparison.

The foundation dimpled sheet would work very well. I actually have a roll of it in my shop.
I talked with Joe Chi Ochi, Matt, who foil tape sealed a foam board down in his cabover and wrote a post about it back about 2007 with good results. I'll keep an eye on the current setup to see how it performs. Rather than the foil tape, there is a PVC tape which is stronger and more flexible than the aluminum tape. I'll keep you posted on results.

[dieseltruckdriv]

2oldman wrote:
Heated mattress pad.

This.
I tested our heated mattress pad and found it used half the power of our electric blanket. I don't remember the numbers anymore, but that and the foam pads that someone posted between the mattress and plywood let us go below zero F in our S&S.

[Reality_Check]

Interesting thread.

We camp alot in the winter. Just spent 4 days in 0-5F degree weather. Never really had an issue with the mattress or cold. Condensation, can be an issue, but it's a super easy solution. Got to have air movement. I usually just crack the kitchen window a bit and open the bathroom vent slightly (fan stays off). An example, two days into the camp, no condensation at all, windows being the best indicator. Cooked breakfast for three extra adults and two kids (squeeze them in..!) and after a bit over two hours, the windows were covered in condensation. It's our breath. Turned the fan on when they left and half hour later, camper was cleared up.

A suggestion for under the mattress. One needs air movement but most can't afford the height loss. Pick up a piece of Miradrain or equivalent. It's a composite drain product, and it will keep an open airway under the mattress. About 1/2" tall, plastic and fiber, water proof.



Last... skip the flannel sheets. They're only warm 'after' you get in and warm them up. Go fleece. Tell them I sent you...! There is no comparison.

[n0arp]

We found a memory foam mattress provides much better insulation than innerspring. Any garden variety queen fits in our AF1140. We stayed in single digit temps several times last year and never felt that our bed itself was cold. The floor, on the other hand, can get a bit chilly but rugs help to manage that - anti-fatigue mats are great to walk on and provide decent insulation. Like Bedlam, I found that the single pane glass in our entry door is the worst offender and we keep it covered with a thick vinyl snap-on cover that came with the camper, which seems to help. We've never had major condensation issues and check under the bed every sheet change for mold and moisture, but never found any.

We're in our fifth wheel now, and recently started using the Eight Sleep Pod Pro mattress cover. We might take it with us when we swap back into the TC. We track all energy usage as we're mostly off-grid, and it uses (AC, not DC) 0.5-2kWh per night depending on ambient conditions and settings. Our overall monthly average so far in January has been 0.998kWh/24hr. For December, slightly more at 1.054kW/24h. Since we're just heating the bed, we need no supplemental heat except to keep things from freezing, so have the propane furnace thermostat on one of the lowest settings. I realize most RV owners (TC especially) don't have large enough systems for this to be a viable option, but I've found it to be one of the most efficient uses of our energy - both for heating, and cooling - where it uses about the same figures as posted above.

[Bedlam]

With double pane windows, I found the most heat leaks from the poorly insulated entry door with single pane window. We do get a little bit of heat loss through the bottom of the side outs, but this is not an issue in the that S&S.

I have foil wrapped bubbles under the mattress and memory foam with quilted top above the mattress with flannel sheets and down comforter, so I do not see much heat loss through the bottom of the cab over. The sides of the cab over do sweat if I keep the closet doors closed - Enough breath gets inside to hit the cold outer wall. Leaving the doors open at night heat up the inside walls enough to not cause this. The front wall and ceiling never had condensation issues but are exposed to more heat. I have not tried insulating the inside of the closet more but wonder if closed cell foam would not be a better choice than foil backed air bubbles.

[Lwiddis]

I cover the floor with washable throw rugs. Helps a bunch.

[JimK-NY]

It seems hard to believe but the area under my mattress was just a raw piece of plywood. I sealed that with a couple of coats of enamel paint so no moisture soaks into the wood. For normal Summer use, I occasionally check but there is never any moisture under the mattress. When the outside temps are cold, around 40 degrees or below, I need to raise up the mattress with a foot stool and then use my 12 volt fan to dry the area. I do that once or twice a week before any serious dampness accumulates.

There are pads that can be used to keep the area dry but I don't want any increase in thickness because the ceiling space over the bed is already minimal.

[opnspaces]

ticki2 wrote:
I think you will find that the foil face insulation directly under the mattress will still condensate , the moisture comes from you body . Better to put the insulation directly on the cab over floor and then the latttice on the insulation for circulation , then the mattress .

Thanks for posting. I do agree with Ticki2 about the condensation but with a twist. I would probably skip the lattice and instead substitute the lattice with three or four pieces of 1 x 2 that run front to back. Then I would sleep with no wood and in the morning lift the mattress and slide the pieces of wood in to vent any moisture all day. Run a long strip of duct tape the entire length of the boards so that there are no splinters or roughness to snag on the bottom of the mattress.

Actually the more I think about it the more I wonder if that clammy feeling is an actual problem. I mean what's the difference between the mattress on the wood deck as it was from the factory vs. the mattress on the foam? I guess the wood might absorb some moisture. But that seems minimal at best. Just some thoughts that might work better as opposed to the loss of headroom in the top bunk from the wood being there all night.

[markchengr]

X2 on heated mattress pad. We use it to preheat the bed before we get in. If boondocking, running on battery, we use an inverter to preheat for about 15 minutes.

[2oldman]

JimK-NY wrote:
The typical heated mattress pad is going to use about 80-120 AH per night.

My pad uses nowhere near that much power, and it doesn't need a large inverter, but it does need an inverter. It's not a high-wattage appliance. For those who have an inverter, it's a good option.

[JimK-NY]

2oldman wrote:
Heated mattress pad.

The typical heated mattress pad is going to use about 80-120 AH per night. Plus the ones I have seen are all 120 v so you need a larger inverter to use one and the inverter will waste considerable extra power.

If your rig is hooked up, fine, but I would just use a space heater in that case.

[jimh406]

We use Reflectix in the cabinets and under the mattress. We use removable Reflectix for the Windows and skylights. We made a small bag to store the removable parts. Makes quite a difference. We do use a memory foam pad on top of the mattress.

We don't have a condensation issue. Maybe we don't breath enough. 😄

[JimK-NY]

I tried Reflectix to seal off some of the vents and windows. It is almost worthless. The R value of Reflectix is 1.0. Fabric covers and window shades are a lot more attractive and perhaps even more effective.

Fortunately my Northstar was built with European windows which are double layer with a layer of air sealed between the layers. They are fairly effective especially if I close the shades which traps another layer of air. If you have single layer windows, I recommend heavy fabric curtains.

Do not cover any vents. You need to use them and exhaust fans whenever you generate a lot of moisture such as using the shower or cooking.

[2oldman]

Heated mattress pad.