Our motorhome, Tiffany, was four years old when we bought her in May 2015. She had two previous owners and neither used her very much. We were pleased with the condition of the mattress, although we hated the thought of a “used mattress.” We washed the fully enclosed cover it had on and we bought a new mattress cover. Either we are getting older, or the mattress has finally worn out – we are both waking up with new aches and pains! Actually for the past six months we’ve noticed it. Buying a replacement RV mattress is NOT easy. We are experienced, we had to do it for our 5th wheel as well. But that hasn’t helped us other than for us to know it was going to be hard to do since we are moving targets.

We faithfully read “Roughing it Smoothly” – the magazine for Tiffin Owners, the maker of our Tiffany. We keep seeing the ad, “Bed in a box.” It says it is especially made for RVs. You see, our mattresses are not the same size as mattresses for houses. We have a king sized bed, normally 80″ X 76″. But for an RV, it’s 80″ X 72″.  We just couldn’t imagine buying a mattress without laying on it. We looked for outlets or factories where we could test one out. While we were in Myrtle Beach a few months ago, we saw a mattress truck make a delivery to our neighbors. They said the store had what they needed. We almost went to the store, but they told us they weren’t happy with what they bought!

Once we got back to Fredericksburg, the pain was getting to us so we looked again for a retailer and found one less than an hour away. So off we went to lay on it! Ahhh, such comfort. Problem was that it takes a month to make one to our specs (we honestly thought they must carry them due to the ads we have seen) and then it could take a week or two for shipping. We wouldn’t be there long enough to order it. So we decided we’d order it in March, and have it shipped there for when we arrive this April.

We were watching Gone with the Wynn’s recent post about their catamaran boat, Curiosity, which featured a section on one of their mattresses. We started following them when we first began to think about going full-time. They were a wealth of information and actually inspired us to name ourselves the TumbleLees. We liked their play on words with their last name. They have traded in their RV for a boat….but we are hooked on their fun attitude towards life and still read their blog and watch their amazing videos. But don’t worry, we’d never hit the water. We love adventure, but we’re not that adventurous. But we sure enjoy going on along with them virtually. They use a drone and their videos make you feel like you are there! Now we are so glad we continued to follow them since they showed us one of their new mattresses.

We looked the company up, Mattress Insider, and read all the reviews. Could this be for us??? Long story short, YES! And we are staying in one place long enough to have it shipped to us. We ordered it Thursday, February 2. It was delivered three business days later, Monday, February 6. What a GREAT experience it was.

The customer reviews, coupled with what the Wynn’s said, gave us confidence we could buy a mattress without laying on it. These people are pros. They know how to help you pick out what you want in a mattress. We described what we have and what we now need. And you know what, they hit the nail on the head! We are so pleased, it is just perfect.

But the obstacles: What if we didn’t like it? Money back guarantee! We have a full 120 days to try it out. But if after a month, most people know if it is right or not.  We can still get our money back any time up to the 120 days. Here is the winner idea – we know to ship it back would cost an arm and a leg, not to mention, how will we get it back into a box? They say to just donate it and send them the receipt for it. We’re not sure who takes donated used mattresses, but we liked the idea.  And they would also do it as an exchange and would help us figure out why we didn’t like it. They know they can satisfy their customers. It also comes with a 20 year guarantee. Wow!

So how did it work to get it here? First of all, we are on the east coast, where the factory is so that helped with the shipping timeline. We bought one of the “popular” models so they are ready to make it quickly. They sent it Fed Ex. I called the office where we are staying, Emerald Beach RV Park, and asked about the protocol for a delivery. They assured us one of their maintenance workers would bring it to us!

Our next obstacle was what to do with the used mattress?  They do have dumpsters here, but they seem to always be full. In fact, this campground is fully booked up! We could take it to the county dump, but there is a $40 fee and it’s a good hour or more drive there. We just don’t have a spare hour to do that! My sister lives nearby so we checked with her trash service. They picked up large household items at no extra charge. But to get it to her house, 20 miles away. Not sure how that would work.

Where there is a will, there is a way! It arrived Monday morning around 9:00 am. The employee helped Bill carry it in. So now what to do? He said the dumpsters would be emptied around noon so we could just put it out there! WOW! Nice.

We ripped off the mattress cover and began to dismantle the foam mattress. We forgot what they looked like since it’s been nearly three years! It was two foam mattress glued together. We just started pulling it apart…it was semi-rotting so came apart pretty easily. We easily got it down to the dump!

By 10:30, the mattress was unrolled and on our platform. Now to just wait for about three hours for it to decompress. It was fun checking it….it kept getting harder and harder, to just what we desired!

Best. Night. Sleep. Ever!

I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustains me. Psalm 3:5

UPDATE: 13 months later we are still sleeping soundly! We’ll up date yearly.

UPDATE: Nearly two years later, the mattress began to fail. We called Mattress Insider customer service and we were treated like gold! They are now sure what happened but they offered to replace the mattress. We are now VERY happy with our new mattress as it is as good or even better than the first one. We were close enough to Greenville, SC, we decided to get it two days sooner, we’d just go pick it up. It went very smoothly. Then we realized they custom make sheets – so we ordered a set and they are fabulous. The reviews were very good so we decided to try and we are VERY happy. If we order another set, we will increase the depth size by one inch, from 8″ to 9″ for our model bed as they are very tight. We like tight but perhaps another inch would be easier to make. As a courtesy to us, very happy customers, they are offering any of our referrals a 5% discount. Click here to be taken to the website for the discount and to begin shopping.