Our Best Travel Trailer Modification
One of the most important assets of a travel trailer is the ability to get a good night’s sleep wherever you are. Unfortunately, our brand new 2020 Scamp 13’ (with big bed and bathroom) failed for me in this regard. I found the cushions so hard that I was constantly waking up during the night on our first trip.
The first thing I did when we got home was do some online research. I quickly found this to be a common issue among Scamp owners with various solutions posted. Some recommended just putting a foam mattress topper on top of the cushions. So, I ordered a 2 inch topper to see how that would help.
When the topper arrived, I pulled the cushions out of the Scamp and laid them on our living room floor. Then, I put the new 2” foam topper on the cushions. The cushions still failed to be comfortable, even with the topper. It felt like the foam was compressing and I could still feel the hard surface of the cushions.
Other Scamp owners talked about making new cushions from scratch with soft foam inserts. Since we don’t own a sewing machine or specialize in this type of skill; we opted instead to bring the Scamp cushions into a local upholstery shop. The upholstery guy felt the cushions, shook his head and laughed. He said this foam is a “#40” in firmness a “#28”would be much better for sleeping. We told him we wanted to use the existing cushions as a template, but use entirely new foam and coverings. In addition to wanting a softer cushion that is easy to sleep on, we also wanted a material that is easy to clean. The original Scamp cushions are covered in fabric. We chose a faux “leather” material made from vinyl called Pebble Dark Stone (PEB250).
The total price for all new cushions was $1,028: new foam $319, the new faux “leather” material $350, and $359 for labor. Note: our Scamp has the larger 54” bed, so more material was necessary compared to the smaller standard bed. After a couple of weeks, our new cushions were ready. We bagged the original Scamp cushions and have stored them in our attic in case we ever sell the Scamp and someone wants the originals.
We have found the new cushions to be extremely comfortable. We no longer need the 2” foam mattress topper and not having to carry the bulky topper rolled up in our tow vehicle saves space (and we don’t need to transfer the topper back and forth from the tow vehicle to the Scamp every morning and night). Since replacing the cushions, we have experienced a much better night’s sleep! In addition, we’ve found that the vinyl covering makes it easier to maneuver the cushions when setting up and taking down the bed every day since the material is somewhat slippery. Lastly, we’ve found the faux “leather” to be very easy to clean as it is a smooth non fabric surface.
Disclaimer: You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale. These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences. However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer. It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything correctly.
