Wes Tausend
Bismarck, ND
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For most of us... how would we know our bed is sagging? It may just seem like the mattress is getting softer, and more comfy, in the middle. Now a man could convince his best friend to lie under the bed with a tapemeasure and a flashlight. BUT... there is a better way to check this precisely without involving Facebook.
The only sane thing to do is an old trick used by race car drivers for years. You'll have to measure "suspension travel". These race car drivers would place snug rubber bumpers on the shaft of their shock absorbers, right up against the cylinder. Then after driving the track, they would look to see how far the rubber bumper had moved and stuck in a new spot, indicating maximum travel achieved. I know this may sound a bit kinky, but that is not how, or why, I started the story. Anyway.
In the case of the bed, a couple of sticks clamped lightly together (slideable) can be stood on end directly under the exact dead center of the plywood, and the bed lowered so that the plywood "crushes" the combined end length (slides the rods together) to the exact clearance when the bed is empty. Then take the stick assembly out and measure this static length. Write it down.
Now put the stick assembly back under the bed and get on the bed with your wife. Act normal. Now take the stick back out and measure the new, loaded length. Subtract this new length from the first measurement. This is the deflection your combined weight causes in the plywood. Now look up allowable plywood deflection rates for the type of plywood used on your bed. If it approaches, or exceeds, recommended design limits... you might want to calculate what size joists you need to correct it.
There is no need to be scared anymore. 
You can't just come on this forum and ask a simple question without somebody offering an "over-kill solution". Heck, we take turns coming up with increasingly complicated advice. Thought it was my turn.
Wes
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Days spent camping are not subtracted from one's total.
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#40Fan
Colorado
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I wouldn't worry about it one bit. My sister and BIL's GCWR is well over the 650 lb. mark and their bed hasn't left them sleeping on their FW tank.
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mowermech
Billings, MT
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Have you ever seen the center supports of a king size water bed?
Just a couple of pieces of 3/4 plywood, notched so they can be put together to form a big "X". They are usually about 4 feet long, and the height of the bed deck. There are two of those "X"s under the average water bed. I have never heard of one collapsing. Rupturing the bladder, yes, but never collapsing the deck!
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CC Crabman
Corpus Christi, Texas
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This has been my favorite post for the month of September!
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louiskathy
Oregon (presently)
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Sleep Country sells a support for the mattress called a "Bunky Board". It's about 2" thick, covered with cloth and has supports built into it.
After four years in the Winnie.... our Beauty Rest mattress died. I truly believe one cause was lifting the mattress to get to the storage under the bed. There's a piano hinge that runs across the platform about 24" or so??? down from the top. So when we'd go into the storage area under the bed, the mattress was being bent (ever so little... but bent)...in the same place over and over again.
Another cause of death was it's a pillow top and can't be flipped...only rotated. It's a chore to do that and so, it doesn't get done as often as it should have.
Another cause of death was that I have sleep apnea and the way I am "tethered" to the machine makes me stay in one place all night long. I sleep on my side so my hip is breaking down the springs in the same place night after night.
Hubby had tried to put support blocks of wood down in the storage area (under the board we have to lift)to keep that board from giving...but I swear I could feel a depression every time I got into bed. That board was breaking down the same way the mattress did.
SO we got a new mattress (Double size) last week from Sleep Country and they had a 2" thick BUNKY Board on the showroom floor. I'm thinking it was $179 for it but we got it for under $100 because we bought a mattress and it was part of the deal we made.
We have a queen size platform but we have only put a double size mattress on it. With the double size bunky board between the mattress and the storage board , it all works just fine. The bunky board really supports the mattress well (keeps it from bending) and does not interfere when we go into the storage area.
Kathy
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redwake
Visalia, CA
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consider that the mattress is going to distribute the weight a bit.. mine isn't sagging... yet
if it was i would probably just throw a board down the middle to split the weight in half.
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3&acat
Whitby, Ontario Canada
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My buddy & I bought the same camper & he is a BIG guy. The dealer as part of the deal added extra support for the bed area under in the storage & also the shower base.
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Gjac
Milford, CT
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I noticed that I would always roll into the center of the bed. I thought it was the mattress at first and put a rolled up towel in the middle. Mattress is 15 years old. After a while I finally realized that it was the thin ply wood underneath that was sagging. I built a 3 ft I beam from 1 in thick oak and put it right down the center line of the bed on top of the generator compartment. This worked well and supported the plywood base.
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Ole Man Dan
Gadsden, Alabama
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BarneyS wrote:Usually all they are is a sheet of plywood with a mattress on top sitting on a square box made of plywood with a couple of gas supports to help lift it. I doubt it would collapse but if it would make you feel better, perhaps you could screw/glue some 1x2 supports across the bottom of the plywood. There are a lot of us "pretty big guys" on the forum here and I have not heard of a problem in this area.  Barney
I re-enforced my queen bed and it works great. (1X10s)
I'm a light weight at 270. I've seen several guys I would call big that didn't appear to have issues with their beds.
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dougwhite
Midland, TX
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PapPappy wrote:The wife an I probably top out at just under 500 pounds, and we've been "frisky" without damaging the bed
 Oh man.....Pappy, now I can't sleep!
Doug & Gail
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