Learning To Sleep In A Camper Van

When you choose to live in a 21 foot camper van, a Winnebago Travato 59K in our case, you have to do things to make it as comfortable and efficient as possible.  Not everyone would believe that we could sleep on these beds for 3-4 months at a time but thanks to a few changes we can easily do just that.  When you’re living in a Travato you have the choice of a 59K or a 59G.  In this video we not only show our bed modifications but also discuss why we thought the 59K was a better fit for our travels over the 59G, even though the under bed storage of the 59G fits our lifestyle a little better.

When we first purchased our Travato we thought using sleeping bags would be the best way to make the most of the space. Sleep in them at night and stuff them in the pillow cases during the day and you have a couch instantly. So we went out to Dick’s Sporting and bought 2 mummy bags. We both hated them and the next day packed them up and headed back, swapping them for square sleeping bags. They worked pretty well but we still had a hard time getting them up around our chins like a blanket so we headed back to Dick’s and bought oversized square bags. I nearly broke my neck as mine almost slid into the floor that first night… they were just too big for the bed. So, you guessed it, back to Dick’s we went.

This time we left there and went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought a mattress topper, sheets and a comforter. The passenger side bed takes a Trin XL and the drivers side bed takes a regular twin bed. That combination worked for several months, especially for Lynn’s side. Owen’s side had a section in the middle of the bed where the hinge for the under bed storage opened left no room for the Frollie bed “springs”. That plus the fact that you could feel the hinge was not comfortable. So when we decided for sure that we were committed to this van lifestyle and we were definitely going to sell our 5th wheel RV we took the memory foam mattress topper off of that bed and proceeded to cut it in half and put them on the beds in the Travato. Whew! That did the trick. The only issue that remains is the beds are now way too high to comfortably use as couches during the day since the toppers add another 3-4 inches to the height. But that’s an acceptable compromise for us.

So if you are wondering about whether you can sleep comfortably in such a small camper van, we think the answer is a definite YES! You may not end up creating your sleeping solution the same way we did, but if you keep searching you’ll find something that fits you nicely!

Here’s the latest video: