I’ve found adventuring in a folding camper incredibly fun, but I’ve slept on comfier beds. Unfortunately, folding camper beds aren’t the comfiest. You can make your nights in a camper much more comfier with a few modifications.
If you find that sleeping in your folding camper isn’t very comfy, follow the tips in this article. You will find that sleeping in your camper becomes way more comfortable.
Tips For Increasing Your Comfort
Use Mattress Pads. Folding camper mattresses are usually thin and devoid of much padding, which is the primary reason that they’re often not comfortable. Adding mattress pads to the beds in your folding camper is a cheap yet effective way to increase your comfort when sleeping in your camper.
Mattress pads are small enough to not take up too much room in your folding camper. Even in the largest folding campers, space is limited. For that reason alone, mattress pads are a good way of increasing your comfort in your camper.
I personally use the OEX Traverse IMX Sleeping Mat. I find that their sleeping pad is perfect to travel with because it is so lightweight and compact. I also like the nylon ripstop outer fabric, especially since it is waterproof. You can find this sleeping pad on Go Outdoors.
Use An Air Mattress. Although mattress pads are an inexpensive way to make sleeping in your folding camper more comfortable, they’re fairly thin, and they won’t make your camper really comfy. If mattress pads haven’t made your folding camper comfortable enough, consider using an air mattress.
An air mattress is far comfier than the standard mattress that you get in a folding camper. Air mattresses come in single, twin or larger sizes, so you’ll be able to choose the mattress that suits the size of your camper bed best.
There are multiple types of air mattresses. You can use a hand pump to inflate your mattress or a battery-operated pump that makes the job much easier! Most battery-operated pumps will be able to rapidly remove their air from your mattress too. This is advantageous when you are trying to pack your folding camper up quickly.
One of the best Air mattresses, in my opinion, is the Outwell Dreamcatcher Self-Inflating mattress. Since this is a self-inflating mattress, you don’t need a pump. Once the mattress has been unfolded, it inflates a lot quicker than some of the other self-inflating mattresses on the market. You can find this air mattress on the Camping World website. Click here to find out more.
Use Sleeping Bags. Sleeping bags tackle two issues: the cold and the discomfort of your folding camper’s mattress. In a previous post, I put together some tips for keeping your folding camper warm. Using sleeping bags is another way to ensure you have a good night’s sleep.
Top-quality sleeping bags are both insulated and padded, so they’ll help you to sleep comfortably when in your folding camper.
Depending on who you’re going away with, there are several sleeping bags that could meet your requirements. If you and your partner are going away in your camper, you might want to invest in a spacious double sleeping bag. If you’re adventuring alone, there are plenty of ideal sleeping bags available.
My favourite sleeping bag to use in my folding camper is the Outwell Contour Lux Sleeping Bag due to its Isofill insulation, which keeps the sleeping bag nice and warm. It also has a two-way zip which maximises airflow when it gets too warm.
Use Memory Foam. Memory foam can increase your comfort tenfold when you are sleeping in your folding camper. You can buy memory foam fairly cheaply depending on where you look, and it will make a massive difference to your comfort at night.
If you want your memory foam to perfectly fit the size of your folding camper bed, measure your bed and then Google ‘Memory Foam [height] x [width] x [length]’ and see if the right size memory foam comes up. If not, you can purchase a memory foam mattress and cut it to the right size.
To cut your memory foam mattress to the right size, there are some tools that you’ll need. You’ll probably have most of these tools lying around the house already, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to cut your mattress to size:
- Utility Knife
- Heavy-Duty Scissors (depending on the thickness of foam)
- Marking Pen
- A Flat Surface
The best memory foam mattress I have used in my folding camper is the Duvalay Comfort Custom Topper. This is a memory foam mattress topper that makes your folding camper bed a lot more comfortable to sleep on. Since this is a custom topper, you can enter your folding camper make and model into the website and purchase a memory foam topper that is designed to fit your folding camper’s bed perfectly. Click here to find out more about the Duvalay Comfort Custom Topper.
With all of the above, you will have all you need to cut your memory foam mattress to the right size. If you need some guidance on cutting your mattress to the perfect size, there are plenty of guides on YouTube. Here are some basic tips that give you a rough idea of how you can cut the foam:
- #1: Remove any excess material covering the foam.
- #2: Measure the space the mattress is going into and use a marking pen, so you know which parts of the foam to cut off.
- #3: Cut the memory foam mattress with care. Using either a utility knife or an electric knife, cut slowly to ensure the cleanest possible cut. If you cut too fast without care, the results may be choppy.
How To Sleep Comfortably When It’s Cold
Folding campers are often cold at night, even during the summer months. I’ve found that even when my family and I travel during the summer holidays, we’ve had to use several solutions to keep our folding camper warm.
If you’re finding that your folding camper is too cold at night, here are some tips for keeping it nice and toasty:
- Insulate Your Folding Camper
- Use 500w Oil-Filled Radiators – Or Fan Heaters
- Pitch In A Protected Area
Insulate Your Folding Camper. Folding campers don’t have much insulation built in, which isn’t ideal when travelling during the winter months. To keep the inside of your camper warm, you’ll have to insulate your camper after you’ve reached your destination.
There are a few ways to insulate your camper, but here are some quick tips:
- Use Rugs and Carpets To Insulate The Floor
- Use Underskirting Under Your Camper
- Line The Windows With Insulation
Insulating the floor of your folding camper is essential. Heating your folding camper is often a waste of time if you haven’t insulated the floor. Lining the floor of your camper with rugs and carpets, your camper will retain heat better. Cheap rugs will do the job; there’s no need to spend a fortune on carpets and rugs.
Insulating underneath your camper is really important, particularly during the winter. During winter, cold air will circulate underneath your camper. This cold air will cool your camper despite your efforts to heat it internally. Using under skirting is pivotal to keeping your camper insulated in the winter.
You can use a material such as reflectix to line the windows of your folding camper. It keeps the warmth in your camper and prevents the cold air from getting into your camper. Just open one of your windows slightly to prevent condensation from building up.
Use 500w Oil-Filled Radiators – Or Fan Heaters. An oil-filled radiator will heat up your folding camper and maintain its heat throughout the night. You can leave an oil-filled radiator on overnight safely, so once your camper is heated up, an oil-filled heater will keep it warm.
As I said in my previous article on keeping your camper warm, If you are stopping at campsites in the UK, it’s imperative to remember that most campsites give you a maximum of 16 Amps to power all of your electrical items. If you have a 2000w radiator taking 230V, it will draw approximately 8.6 Amps. Most campsites in Europe and the US only have a 10 – 16 Amp supply available, so a big radiator would use virtually all of your energy. That’s why you should use radiators up to 500w maximum.
Fan heaters will heat your folding camper much quicker, but you can’t leave a fan heater on overnight. So if you quickly need to heat your folding camper, use a fan heater. Just remember that you can’t leave one on overnight, so you’ll have to use an oil-filled radiator to keep your camper warm.
The Outdoor Revolution Eco Compact Electric Heater is my personal favourite heater to use while camping. It is very affordable, safe, and quickly heats up your caravan awning. You can find this heater on Winfields Outdoors.
Pitch In A Protected Area. Always try to find an area protected from the elements when you are using your folding camper during the winter. The insulation you use will be far more effective if you pitch in a protected area where you won’t be as badly impacted by rain, wind and snow.
There are 3 key steps to pitching in a protected area. Follow these, and your camper should be in the perfect pitching position:
- Choose level ground
- Look out for an area sheltered from the wind
- Make sure that there are no overhead hazards, such as trees
