Gym mat bed

[bennelson]

Hi folks!

I haven't been here in a while but wanted to let you know about my latest update.

I recently loaned out my trailer to a friend of a friend, and wanted the trailer to be comfortable for her. I also have a seven-year-old daughter who loves gymnastics. I had just recently gotten her a gym mat for the garage (we don't have a basement) to do tumbling in for the winter.

It turns out that the gym mat fits perfectly in the teardrop. I already had a memory foam mattress in the teardrop, but if I sleep on my side, my hips and shoulders can sink through that pretty easily.

This is a 4'x8' mat, but the actual measurements are a little LESS than 4' width. I built my trailer on a 4x8 Harbor Freight utility trailer, so the actual interior dimensions are a little short of that. For length of the sleeping compartment, I designed it to be 6' (how tall I am, and more than long enough for my wife...)

Since the mattress is 8 foot long, it folds into four 2 foot sections. I put the gym mat in the trailer, but with the last 2' section folded up. It fit super-well and added a lot of padding!

Gym mats are durable, multipurpose, and foldable, so maybe not bad for a trailer at all! Anyways, it worked well in my experiment and I just wanted you all to know!

-Ben Nelson
300MPG.org

[John61CT]

YES

Living overseas in less-developed countries, this is exactly what I used for decades.

The tough outside covering, very durable easy to care for last forever, very good for your back given a flat platform.

People who need softer can add a pad or topper, probably need replacing every few years but the base mat's good forever.

[Shoebone]

So .... are you saying you put the memory foam on top of the gym mat ?

[John61CT]

Yes, the heavy firmer dense stuff always goes under, lighter fluffy on top.

[bennelson]

Yes, like John said, firm on the bottom, fluffy on top.