Who regularly sleeps up in their SMB penthouse?

[schluchtenflitzer]

Originally Posted by ctb

THANKS FOR THE QUICK ACTION!!! Went to the link and was thoroughly impressed with the scope of your travels...the fun, views, adventure/'ballsy' travel bravery, that it would take to travel to some of those places...I mean, the Alaska and Canada haul roads took us up above the Arctic Circle and we saw very few people....BUT, I am SURE we cold get Ford parts fairly quickly as we spent the time talking in the same language to pass the time away unlike the out in the middle village folk...the village pics were awesome!!!!fun stuff my man!!!

Thanks

[Makalu1]

We just got a E350 RB50 with a manual penthouse and it all looks pretty standard. We want to go with bedding, not sleeping bags in the penthouse. I still don't have a concept of how much room there is between the top of the standard movable penthouse panels you sleep on and the actual ceiling of the penthouse. So are you folks who are using a 2" pad plus bedding like sheets and blankets actually leaving all that in place when you drop the top down? Like it lives up there? The folks who are using Thermarests instead of foam, do you just squeeze some of the air out of them to collapse them or just leave them up there as is, too? We for sure need padding on top of the SMB cushions. Just not sure of the options.

[geoffff]

I have a 2" memory foam pad up there. For storage, I fold it in half, and leave it in the front-half section of the penthouse bed - the section that hangs from the ceiling when not in use. It fits in there OK as the penthouse top closes. The only trouble I have is that on really cold mornings (below freezing), the memory foam gets rather stiff (when it's not being slept on) and the penthouse top can therefore be a bit tight to close, trying to compress that folded 2" memory foam.

I don't think foam would fit in the rear-half section of the penthouse bed, because that padded wood section which holds the penthouse bars lowers the ceiling by an inch or two.

-- Geoff

[geoffff]

I sleep with blankets and sheets, but don't leave those in place. I wish I could, but the comforter is too fluffy to compress, and because the penthouse bed splits in two, there's no way to leave the sheets attached. I use stuff sacks to store away my sheets, blanket, and comforter every morning if I'm breaking camp.

If I'm not breaking camp, I roll all the bedding back, stuffing the sheets, blankets, memory foam, etc. into the rear section of the penthouse bed to get them out of the way, leaving my sheets partially attached to the bed. At night, I just roll the whole mess back flat, and tuck the sheets back in at the front of the bed.

-- Geoff

[boywonder]

I've got a SMB PH top and a home brew bed setup....1" thick wood panels and 4" thick foam cushions. When the top is down you'd need a feeler gauge to figure out the space between the cushions and the headliner.

[LenS]

Our penthouse bed is made from 3/4" plywood and raised another 3/4 inch off of the rails for more headroom below for when the bed is down. It is carpeted and we use 2" Thermorest air mattresses on top of that. We always leave the bed made up.

[phlite]

Nice setup!

It didn't occur to me to replace the bed up there with a more plush, and longer one. It would be pretty easy.

Has anyone come up with a good solution for the liner on the bed "rails" getting worn down?

Chris

[LenS]

Originally Posted by phlite

Nice setup!

It didn't occur to me to replace the bed up there with a more plush, and longer one. It would be pretty easy.

Has anyone come up with a good solution for the liner on the bed "rails" getting worn down?

Chris

The part of our bed base that slides on the rails is carpeted. We have used this for 8 years so far and do not see a problem with wear of the fabric covering the rails. See first pic in above previous post.

[simplesez]

I've got two 20 year old SMB and there is definitely wear on the rail liners on both. Just limit the amount of sliding you do with the mattress and it will not wear much.

[Makalu1]

Geoffff,
and others using 2 inch memory foam up top- we got a 2" pad and folded it in half and pulled the penthouse (manual top) down and it seemed to compress pretty snugly in the front but the top did not come down flush in the back. So we returned the 2" and have just tried the 1 1/2 inch foam. It's pretty close, but the back is still not quite snugged down. How's that 2" foam work for you guys, any trouble getting the top down all the way?
I considered adjusting the rear latch a bit to force it down more but am hesitant to put too much strain on the system, especially not knowing how much tension they can take before the bolts start stripping out.
Merry Christmas to all, too!
-Scott