Full size Queen Air bed in Adventurer 38J

[swyates]

I don't know how many people have this issue, but our 38J was designed for the "short queen" mattress. We had the dealer upgrade to the sleep number bed and they installed the full queen mattress. We initially thought this was great (no feet hanging off the end of the bed), but had some problems when retracting the bed slide. My solution was to make a sliding support for the end of the air mattress. This keeps the mattress from sagging and getting stuck between the bed and the drawers.

I used 1/4" lauan plywood. (I thought about using heavy sheet metal, but didn't have a good way of making a good right angle bend that wide, and was worried about sharp edges) I first cut a piece as wide as the mattress overhang and slightly shorter than the bed width. Then a second piece was cut the same length, but about 6" high for the end. These two were connected together using angle brackets. Use something like tee nuts on the back side of the lauan, otherwise screws will protrude through (plus 1/4" lauan isn't strong enough to hold wood screws). To mount the slide support to the bed, I used 4 1/4" carriage bolts (I had to cut to the the correct length so I wouldn't have too much poking through). I cut slots in the slide support the width of the the carriage bolts so the bolts could freely slide in the slots. Then I mounted the lauan support using the carriage bolts with large fender washers on both sides of the lauan. To cover this ugly mess, I bought the cheapest mattress cover from WalMart and attached it to the lauan using 1/4" staples.

We've been using this for over 4 years so far without a mishap. We are careful not to sit on the end of the bed since I don't trust 1/4" lauan for too much support. When retracting the slide, it slides in effortlessly without assistance, and usually the mattress will push it back out when extending the slide. After long periods of storage, or when the mattress is completely deflated (like when crossing high mountains), we will have to manually pull it out, or wait until we pump the mattress back up.

Side view - support slid into travel position


Top of support


Support Extended


Support in travel position


Bed with slide extended


Bed with slide retracted. Notice slight compressing of air mattress.

[AFChap]

Interesting & creative solution ...the full size queen is much better than the short one. But I probably would have to use heavier plywood as I WOULD forget not to sit on the end of the bed. Oh, and we have been from sea level to some of the highest mountain passes in the US and have NEVER let air out of our Sleep Number bed except to adjust it when going to bed. When I asked a Sleep Number exec about it he confirmed that the bed has safety valves, and will not/cannot be damaged by over-pressurization when you go from low to high altitude w/o letting air out.

[swyates]

That's good to know about the safety valves. I've always felt it was unlikely that the mattress would be damaged, but have played it safe. It does make a considerable difference in the stiffness when changing altitude, even just a few thousand feet.

I was thinking a about the "sitting on the foot of the bed" problem. It might be possible to add some 1x2" hardwood legs to the end of the sliding platform with rollers on the bottom to add support. I'd be worried about them getting torn off the lauan.

[Doug Sage]

I wonder if the Sleep Number company has different models with different features or has made a design change along the way. I say this because the written material that came with our sleep number bed emphatically says at least 2 or 3 times that we must reduce the air pressure when going to higher elevations. This is an expensive bed to risk because I am too lazy to follow the written instructions.

[FDchief]

Interesting topic. I have often thought of a way to extend my queen. However, I see no way a regular length queen will fit when the slide is in. Mine is up against the cabinet now.

[swyates]

Our bed frame comes right up to the cabinet also, but when the sliding support pushes in, the air bed compresses a bit. The last pic in my post shows how much the mattress pushes up. This hasn't caused a problem for us in the 5 years we've used it. But I'm sure the Sleep Number people wouldn't recommend it. I definitely wouldn't do this with an innerspring mattress!

[FDchief]

It looks like a viable option. It is on my short (no pun) list of upcoming mods.