Truck Bed Mattress?

Looking for mattress types, pros/cons and different setups/prices?

Getting a truck bed tent and plan on sleeping in the bed, myself and gf, and would like a mattress, reasonably priced nothing crazy.

What do those prefer, air or foam? and why.

Have a 3rd gen long bed and would prefer a mattress that goes over the wheel wells as like I said there will be two of us in the bed plus a dog or two so the more room the better. Do any foam mattresses even cover the wheels or only air? I've seen setups where guys place a sheet of wood in the bed to make the platform and then maybe can use 2x foam mattresses?

 

To get the most sleeping room you would need to build a deck as you mentioned, but you'll sacrifice your ability to sit up, depending on topper. The alternative is that there are several companies that make custom shaped mattresses to go around your wheel wells, both in foam and air.

Air mattress: PRO - light weight, easy to roll up and store for additional cargo capacity during the day. Inexpensive. Even the nicer models that can withstand normal abrasion and doggy claws are half the price of foam. CON - as the temperature drops at night, so too will your mattress. A slightly saggy mattress messes up your back. Can't customize yourself, so you are stuck with either a twin if you go between the wheels or a full if you go over the wheels. Custom width models can be expensive.

Foam: PRO- Amazon has no shortage with varying degrees of firmness, thickness, foam type. You can order either a full or a queen and then custom cut it down yourself using an electric turkey carver. No sag at night. No morning hunchback if you get decent foam. No catastrophe if punctured. CON- Expect to spend 150-200 dollars for baseline decent foam (8-10 inch thick). Can't put it away in the morning. If your topper leaks and your foam soaks it up, you are royally screwed for the rest of the trip.


My personal preference - 8" firm foam wrapped in a waterproof "peepee protector" both top and bottom, and on a raised deck lined with interlocking workout mat tiles, and with several small 1/4" vent holes drilled underneath. Its pricey, but my ass is worth it.

 

I have the rightline short bed mattress for myself. For $80 cant really complain. Seems to hold air very well even in cool weather at least for one night then top off air before the next sleep. Con does not have much R value which is why I have my backpacking sleeping pad on here as well as it has a high R value and adds quite a bit of warmth. Honestly if the wife went with me it would be a bit too cramped. I also have no desire to build up a base to fit something over the wheel wells. Wife is not into camping at the moment, if she does get into it I think I would just end up with a big 4-6 person base camp style ground tent and a queen size inflatable.

 

What about something like a pair of self-inflating foam sleeping pads by Therm-a-Rest or Nemo?

 

Trucks have different size of a mattress, I saw some different sizes of a mattress on Nest Bedding Coupon code when I was ordering my mattress, but literally, dont know that those sizes will fulfill on your requirements or not.