I've been using a normal double air bed for my camping needs, but been thinking about trying a raised air bed,can anyone recommend one for a 20 stone chap ?
I know about camp beds,buf it's a question of transporting them,my car is rammed full when I go camping I evenhsve a very Largs rood box because we always take fishing tackle too
We used to have a low double air bed when we had the tent and replaced it with an extra high air bed from Costco as it was easier to get in and out of but what we found was that the low height airbed pumped up nice and firm and gave us a good sleep whereas the double height bed, probably because of the massive amount of air inside, always felt like we were sleeping on a bouncy castle, no matter how firmly it was pumped up. Therefore, there was a lot of roll together on the high one but not so much on the low one.
Definitely not cheap by any means but these are the best and will easily take your weight and they also pack away really small and are very lightweight….
I too gave up airbed when my trusted double airbed developed a leak mid trip over Christmas in 2011!
Changed to camp bed + SIM after that.
If I were to buy a camp bed now, it would be a Outwell Posadas or one in similar design (Kampa and Hi Gear make them) for its ease of putting up.
One would need to take into consideration about whether it would fit inside a tent without touching it to minimise the risk of wicking effect.
I used my Outwell Laguna XL camp bed width-way across the inner tent, and would not have enough room for 2 side by side without touching the tent.
Bring some metal jar lids to minimise the feet from damaging the ground sheet as they would dig especially if the ground is soft.
DK
------------- * Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest And Play! *
- 2025 - inc. FR & DE
- 2024 - 10/56 inc. FR & NL
- 2023 - 48 inc. FR
- 2022 - 49
- 2021 - 34
* Ex-tenter & solo female camper *
* Treat life events like a dog: If you can't eat it, play with it, or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away! *
Often overlooked, the higher you are from the floor, the 'smaller' the tent gets 'cos of the usually sloping walls! You may find that the extra height bed means your bed and even your head/feet/elbows are in hard contact with the tent walls!
Just spent 5 days in a small tent (never been used before) on a very comfortable double decker air bed (Lidl some years ago), but a bit too close to sweaty condensation dripping walls to be ideal!
Measure the dimensions of your tent at the elevated bed height to ensure it fits well.
Has to be said, whilst I'm more than happy with air beds from use/comfort point of view, not come across any in recent years that don't leak to some degree, between leaving you on the deck in a couple of hours to needing a bit of a re-pump each day. Only reliable air bed I know is my ancient (1960's) rubberised canvas genuine LiLo, but can't help but feel it's got to fail sooner rather than later at that age!
Quote: Originally posted by TraceyD on 13/7/2022
We always make our beds so the pillows are towards the inside door rather than the sloping tent end.
Interesting, as I had always made mine with the head at the sloping end!
Might have been something to the days when I was at boarding school and slept in dorms with my head in the sloping end of the bed.
DK
------------- * Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest And Play! *
- 2025 - inc. FR & DE
- 2024 - 10/56 inc. FR & NL
- 2023 - 48 inc. FR
- 2022 - 49
- 2021 - 34
* Ex-tenter & solo female camper *
* Treat life events like a dog: If you can't eat it, play with it, or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away! *
Both myself and a former partner are both on the large side and I converted to a Coleman extra durable raised air bed. It took our combined weight of about 37 stone but to get the best out of it we used to let a little air out of it during day and pump it firm at night. Very happy with it.
Sorry tried to attach a link...Halfords £80; Amazon £75
Oh, forgot my other 'go to' sleep system: 2 Decathlon air mattress with slats coupled together with individual 10cm SIMS ....again, perfect night's sleep.
Me and the OH are not lightweights and up and till last year I would have sworn that King sized Areo beds where the bees knees as we've used the same bed for years until something ate it in the loft. Bought the same make and model and it was rubbish as it wouldn't stay inflated. This year we're trying an Active Era king sized raised bed which has a weight limit of 250Kg
We now use the Active Era King as my wife has had both knees done in the last 10 months, never, ever, ever going back to sleeping on the ground again, unless I am wild camping on Dartmoor where I live.
Never slept better in a tent, a five person Vango.