There is something magical about sleepaway camps. Anyone who has been away at a scout camp, a religious retreat, or attended a camp in grade school, knows that growing up and encountering nature in a new way is an indelible part of coming-of-age. We also know that it can come with less-than-ideal sleeping situations. When beds are crammed into a room, or they have bed bugs, or they have dangerous raw metal exposed, it can destroy a camper’s experience.
Camp owners have a unique calling of providing the structure for these types of experiences to occur. But camps get lived in hard. In order to provide these types of life-changing moments, the infrastructure of the camp needs to be durable, safe, high-quality, and also economical. Inevitably this involves finding the manufacturer with the finest, most cost-effective camp bunk beds. A camp owner wants to be sure his or her campers are sleeping soundly and dreaming of their next hike, not worrying about a creaking, sagging bed, or bed bugs in the frame.
When choosing a product such as a comfortable bunk bed the question of a camp owner’s is twofold:
- Does the manufacturer offer a durable, high-quality camp bunk bed?
- Does the manufacturer’s offer make sense economically?
The question of camp bunk bed durability
A camp bunk bed should be able to stand up to anything. A camp owner should look for a bunk bed that has impervious welding on every joint to make sure the bed is firm and secure. It should have an indestructible steel frame to withstand the roughhousing and shenanigans that inevitably occur at a sleepaway camp, and should safeguard against bed bugs that can ruin a camper’s experience.
In order to avoid sagging over time, a camp bunk bed should have at least six box section cross members, and metal mesh panel. These types of features ensure that the bed will not dent and will last many years. All of these design features also ensure that the bed can hold a lot of weight. It is not unreasonable to expect a camp bunk bed to have a weight capacity of 500 lbs.
A camp bunk bed should be simple. It shouldn’t have capped metal posts, raw metal edges, or anything else that could potentially injure a camper. To be optimized for space, it should not have ladders that jut out from the bed in any way. A ladder that is seamlessly designed into the frame is ideal. A camp bunk bed needn’t be unattractive, but ought to have a streamlined design for intensive use, space-efficiency, and safety.
The question of camp bunk bed cost-effectiveness
Wood beds and army style beds may be attractive because of their price, but a high-quality, metal bed is a better long-term investment. Wood beds tend to be inexpensive and feel sturdy, but they are difficult to assemble, and can splinter and decay in a way a metal bed cannot. Overseas manufacturers might offer you a good deal, but may not meet US and UK entrapment hazard standards. If you plan on keeping your beds for many years of happy campers, quality and durability are also a wiser economic choice.
A camp owner should trust that he or she is making a good decision, and the manufacturer should support this decision with a multi-year structural warranty. The manufacturer you choose should care about making the sleepaway camp it is serving the best experience possible for its campers, so its customer service should be quick, caring, and responsive.
A camp owner can sleep soundly when she knows his or her campers are sleeping soundly in a durable, safe, and high-quality bed.
