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Posted

Longitudinal double beds are common in narrowboats and many have a loose 6" filler to increase the width from 4' to 4'6".

I'm wondering how people who have this arrangement work with it?

= Leave the bed made up and squeeze by when needed

= Make the bed up each night, one sheet over the ensemble

= Sheet the filler separately, so that it can be instantly thrown into action

And who (which side) gets the filler?

Similarly for cross beds...

 

By the time I'm ready for bed, I'm not normally in the mood for jig-saws or making up beds.

Posted

Depends where the bed is in the boat...

 

If it's at one end (e.g. bows like mine, reverse layout) so you rarely (never) need to walk past it, leave it down. If it's at the stern so you need to get past it all the time, you'll probably want to take it out during the day.

 

Mine's next to the cabin wall, so I get it -- fitted double sheet covers mattress and filler, but then I never have to remove it... 😉 

 

Similar applies to cross beds except these are totally impassable when down, anywhere except the bows you have to put them up during the day.

Posted

On the old shareboat that had this arrangement, on arrival we'd pull the base out and make-up the bed with the filler in place, then fold/roll the filler back on top of the mattress with fitted sheet still attached and then slide the base back in. It was then just a case of sliding it out and pushing the filler back in when the good lady wife went to bed (she's usually first, and i stay up watching rubbish once i'm allowed the remote).

Obviously, i got the filler/wall side of the bed. I still get the wall side now, but i'm not gonna argue, she's a redhead :(:D 

Posted

I remember my early caravanning days, before fixed beds. Somehow the 'mattress' joins always seemed to occur in the wrong places - where you needed to press a knee or elbow when turning. Now we were able to have a fixed bed, we enjoy a mattress without gaps, made for sleeping on, and the seating can be designed for just that, without compromise.

If I had a bed with a filler, I'd probably leave the bed in its extended position and buy a 'proper' bed mattress for it (if I could squeeze that size into the boat).

Posted
28 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

On the old shareboat that had this arrangement, on arrival we'd pull the base out and make-up the bed with the filler in place, then fold/roll the filler back on top of the mattress with fitted sheet still attached and then slide the base back in. It was then just a case of sliding it out and pushing the filler back in when the good lady wife went to bed (she's usually first, and i stay up watching rubbish once i'm allowed the remote).

Obviously, i got the filler/wall side of the bed. I still get the wall side now, but i'm not gonna argue, she's a redhead :(:D 

 

We did this on our shareboats. Our current boat has a cross bed with split mattress, and we do the same. It takes 39 seconds to slide the base out and drop the filler into place.

Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, rogher said:

I remember my early caravanning days, before fixed beds. Somehow the 'mattress' joins always seemed to occur in the wrong places - where you needed to press a knee or elbow when turning. Now we were able to have a fixed bed, we enjoy a mattress without gaps, made for sleeping on, and the seating can be designed for just that, without compromise.

If I had a bed with a filler, I'd probably leave the bed in its extended position and buy a 'proper' bed mattress for it (if I could squeeze that size into the boat).

I thought of doing that -- the problem is that you then *can't* pull it back if you want/need to. Also Ricky said he had one hell of a job getting a 4' wide heavy pocket-sprung/memory foam mattress into the boat, he reckons one 6" wider would have been well-nigh impossible...

Edited by IanD
Posted
5 minutes ago, rogher said:

I remember my early caravanning days, before fixed beds. Somehow the 'mattress' joins always seemed to occur in the wrong places - where you needed to press a knee or elbow when turning. Now we were able to have a fixed bed, we enjoy a mattress without gaps, made for sleeping on, and the seating can be designed for just that, without compromise.

If I had a bed with a filler, I'd probably leave the bed in its extended position and buy a 'proper' bed mattress for it (if I could squeeze that size into the boat).

 

The mattress on our bed is thick memory foam and the joint is at 90 degrees to the occupants in a 1/3, 2/3 split. You honestly cant feel it when in the bed. 

Posted
13 minutes ago, rogher said:

I remember my early caravanning days, before fixed beds. Somehow the 'mattress' joins always seemed to occur in the wrong places - where you needed to press a knee or elbow when turning. Now we were able to have a fixed bed, we enjoy a mattress without gaps, made for sleeping on, and the seating can be designed for just that, without compromise.

If I had a bed with a filler, I'd probably leave the bed in its extended position and buy a 'proper' bed mattress for it (if I could squeeze that size into the boat).

Our boat has a fixed bed with just a double mattress, so no filler that i was previously on the join of when in bed. But, it's getting on a bit and in a few places you can feel the springs, like exactly under my hip for example :D 

I can't even sneakily flip it over or round as it has a clipped edge to fit the swim of the boat. Might change it this year all being well.

Posted
Just now, Hudds Lad said:

Our boat has a fixed bed with just a double mattress, so no filler that i was previously on the join of when in bed. But, it's getting on a bit and in a few places you can feel the springs, like exactly under my hip for example :D 

I can't even sneakily flip it over or round as it has a clipped edge to fit the swim of the boat. Might change it this year all being well.

If you do I can recommend this -- we got one similarly made to fit, and it's "extremely" comfortable...

 

https://www.made2measuremattress.co.uk/boat-mattresses/hybrid-memory-1000.html

  • Greenie 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Hudds Lad said:

On the old shareboat that had this arrangement, on arrival we'd pull the base out and make-up the bed with the filler in place, then fold/roll the filler back on top of the mattress with fitted sheet still attached and then slide the base back in. It was then just a case of sliding it out and pushing the filler back in when the good lady wife went to bed (she's usually first, and i stay up watching rubbish once i'm allowed the remote).

This, although on our share boat the filler and mattress tended to split apart. Our last boat had the same with a memory foam topper and no cavern used to open up with that. We always used to say we had our best nights sleep on this.

Posted

We have a 4' 6" cross bed in the back cabin. in and out each day, mattress in 3 parts, one side bench always out, one on the bed flap and one in the hole. These two with pillows and sheets etc all go in the bed hole 

Posted
1 hour ago, cuthound said:

 

We did this on our shareboats. Our current boat has a cross bed with split mattress, and we do the same. It takes 39 seconds to slide the base out and drop the filler into place.

 

39.5, at least try to be accurate 

Posted

Two 2ft3 mattresses from Made to Measure mattresses. Fitted sheet and fold one on top of the other during the day.

Pull out extension and unfold no need to make the bed as such.

If you wanted to get really upmarket you could get M2M mattresses to put a hinge in the middle then no dropping down the gap.

Posted

Because my mattress is in an alcove I had big problems turning it ( as I think is best practice).  I've now got a single mattress. I use the space for storage,  

I dont think I would like to share a 4ft bed.

Posted
24 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

 

39.5, at least try to be accurate 

 

doh, phat phingers strike again... :)

 

  • Greenie 1
Posted
3 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Because my mattress is in an alcove I had big problems turning it ( as I think is best practice).  I've now got a single mattress. I use the space for storage,  

I dont think I would like to share a 4ft bed.

Many mattresses nowadays can't/shouldn't be turned (over) including most hybrid ones, they only work one way up. In addition if they're not quite rectangular (like mine) they can't be turned top-to-bottom either...

Posted
1 minute ago, IanD said:

Many mattresses nowadays can't/shouldn't be turned (over) including most hybrid ones, they only work one way up. In addition if they're not quite rectangular (like mine) they can't be turned top-to-bottom either...

Mine has a base but it gets turned 180 degrees on its base, not flipped over

Posted

A word of warning. Before you buy a filler imagine how you will get out to go to the loo in the night. It's especially tricky if you've got a decent amount of tumblehome. 

 

There probably won't be a problem if your cabin sides are vertical.

Posted
1 hour ago, Cheshire cat said:

A word of warning. Before you buy a filler imagine how you will get out to go to the loo in the night. It's especially tricky if you've got a decent amount of tumblehome. 

 

There probably won't be a problem if your cabin sides are vertical.

I can quite easily walk/shuffle down the side of the bed at night when it's extended, and my boat has a decent amount of tumblehome.

 

That's with a bed which is 4'6" when extended, and a cabin which is 6'1" wide at floor level.

Posted

I'm not sure I've got any pictures but my first boat, Ripple, had a fixed cross bed at the stern, the Semi-Trad deck having an extended walkway over the bed on one side. This did make the back deck a peculiar (but surprisingly sociable) L shape but it worked, good sized fixed double.... 

Posted
23 hours ago, rogher said:

Longitudinal double beds are common in narrowboats and many have a loose 6" filler to increase the width from 4' to 4'6".

I'm wondering how people who have this arrangement work with it?

= Leave the bed made up and squeeze by when needed

= Make the bed up each night, one sheet over the ensemble

= Sheet the filler separately, so that it can be instantly thrown into action

And who (which side) gets the filler?

Similarly for cross beds...

 

By the time I'm ready for bed, I'm not normally in the mood for jig-saws or making up beds.


leave bed,

just use front doors,

I go outside and use towpath to get from one end of boat to other,

 

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