Eriba Caravan Mattresses

Eriba Caravan Mattresses

There are very few products in any industry that can claim genuine cult status. The Porsche 911. The original Mini. The Fiat 500. And in the world of caravanning, there is really only one name that belongs in that company: the Eriba Touring. With its unmistakable aerodynamic profile, its pop-up fabric roof, and its aircraft-inspired tubular steel construction clad in aluminium, the Eriba Touring has been in continuous production since 1957 — making it one of the longest-running production designs in the entire leisure vehicle industry. It looks like nothing else on the road, it tows like nothing else on the road, and the beds inside it are shaped like nothing else on the road. That last point is rather important if you are trying to find a replacement mattress.

The Eriba story begins in the small town of Bad Waldsee in Upper Swabia, southern Germany. In 1957, a talented engineer named Erich Bachem partnered with Erwin Hymer — whose father Alfons had operated a repair workshop in the town since 1923 — to build their first caravan. They called it the Troll, and its rounded, streamlined shape drew directly from aircraft construction principles: a robust steel tube cage with aluminium skin panels, designed to cut through the air rather than fight it. The brand name ERIBA is a portmanteau derived from Erich Bachem's own name — ERIch BAchem — and it has endured for nearly seven decades.

Mass production of the Touring programme began in 1958, with Hymer handling fabrication and Bachem's Eriba company managing distribution. The range quickly expanded beyond the original Troll. The tiny Puck arrived as the smallest model in the family — a two-berth caravan with a body length of barely three metres, light enough to be towed by almost any car on the road. The Faun, Pan, and Familia followed, then the mid-sized Triton, and finally the larger Titan. All shared the same distinctive design language: the rounded bow, the low roofline that rose when the pop-up roof was cranked open, the aluminium panels, and the compact, meticulously engineered interiors where every centimetre of space earned its place.

Tragedy and Reinvention

In the spring of 1968, disaster struck. A tiny spark caused by static electricity ignited a fire that burned the entire Eriba factory to the ground. Production continued in makeshift temporary facilities whilst a completely new plant was constructed — and the rebuilt factory, fitted with modern machinery and more rational production methods, ultimately proved more capable than what had been lost. Erich Bachem himself had died unexpectedly in 1960, but his design philosophy lived on. In 1970, production of the Touring models was relocated to a new factory in Thann, in the Alsace region of France, whilst the Bad Waldsee plant concentrated on the larger Nova series — a more conventional fixed-roof caravan range that brought a touch of luxury to the Eriba name. The Nova went on to become one of Eriba's most successful model families, eventually offering 21 different layouts.

In 1980, the Eriba and Hymer companies formally merged, and the combined group went on to absorb Dethleffs, Bürstner, Niesmann+Bischoff, Laika, and numerous other brands to form what became the Erwin Hymer Group. In 2018, the entire group was acquired by Thor Industries, the American recreational vehicle giant — making Eriba a distant corporate cousin of brands like Airstream. Closer to home for British caravanners, the Erwin Hymer Group also owns the Explorer Group in Consett, County Durham, which manufactures Elddis, Buccaneer, Compass, and Xplore caravans.

The Touring Range Today

The current Eriba Touring range has moved from the old model names — Puck, Familia, Triton, Troll — to numeric layout designations, though the fundamental design remains instantly recognisable. The 2025/2026 collection comprises layouts numbered 310, 320, 420, 430, 530, 540, 542, 550, 560, 620, 630, and 642. The first digit broadly indicates the body length class, and the second and third digits distinguish different internal layouts within that size.

Available in two equipment lines — Legend and Urban — and in a choice of exterior colours including the eye-catching Harbour Blue, Tango Red, and Nugget Gold special editions, the modern Touring has never looked better. But beneath the fresh paint and the contemporary interior fabrics, the engineering principles remain those that Erich Bachem and Erwin Hymer established in the late 1950s. The pop-up roof still uses canvas side sections that zip open for ventilation. The construction is still based on a tubular steel frame with PUAL composite wall panels — aluminium outer skin bonded to a foam core with plywood interior — that provide excellent insulation without thermal bridges. The overall height with the roof lowered remains under 2.3 metres on most models, giving the Touring its characteristic low, sleek profile on the road and significantly reducing wind resistance compared to conventional caravans.

Beyond the Touring

Whilst the Touring is the model that made the brand famous, Eriba's current range extends well beyond it. The Feeling is a larger pop-top caravan that offers up to five sleeping places and greater interior volume than the Touring, with a more conventional caravan layout but the same pop-up roof principle. The Novaline (which has replaced the older Nova Light) is a fixed-roof caravan with full standing height, comfortable accommodation for up to five, and premium cold foam mattresses as standard — a more spacious proposition for owners who do not need the low towing profile of the pop-top models.

Earlier Eriba ranges that are no longer in production but remain widely owned include the Nova and Nova S, the Nova Light (in layouts 425, 442, 465, 470, and 515), the Exciting (aimed at younger campers), the Moving (a premium fixed-roof model), and the Eribette (a compact wooden-construction alternative to the Touring). Each had its own distinctive interior dimensions and bed configurations.

Why Eriba Beds Are Different

This is where Eriba ownership and mattress replacement collide head-on with reality. Eriba caravans are German-engineered to metric dimensions, manufactured in continental European factories, and designed with a fundamentally different approach to interior space than any British-built caravan. The beds are not simply non-standard — many of them are not even rectangular.

The distinctive V-shaped bow of the Touring means that front sleeping areas taper noticeably. A front single bed in a Touring 310 measures 1.98 metres long but narrows from 73 centimetres at the wide end to just 60 centimetres at the narrow end. A front bed in a 530 tapers from 98 centimetres to 94 centimetres. Even the rear fixed beds in many layouts are not perfectly square — the Touring 620's rear bed, for instance, measures between 2.10 metres and 2.0 metres in length depending on which side you measure, and 2.05 metres in width. The flagship Touring 820 has a rear double of 210 by 198 centimetres and a front bed that narrows from 198 centimetres to 137 centimetres due to the sofa lengths on each side.

Then there is the pop-up roof bed — an optional sleeping space in the raised roof section that measures approximately 2.0 metres by 1.38 metres. This is not a standard size by any country's measurement system.

In the Feeling range, the front single bed is 2.0 metres long and tapers from 1.30 metres down to 0.99 metres — a significant taper of over 30 centimetres across the length of the bed. The fixed double measures 1.93 metres by 1.35 metres. The Nova Light models vary by layout number, with each configuration producing its own unique combination of bed dimensions.

None of these measurements correspond to any standard British mattress size. A standard UK single is 190 by 90 centimetres. A standard double is 190 by 135 centimetres. The Eriba beds are longer, narrower, wider, tapered, or otherwise shaped in ways that make off-the-shelf mattresses completely unsuitable. You cannot simply order a single or a double and expect it to fit — and because many of the beds taper, even a mattress cut to the right length and average width will leave gaps at one end or bunch against the frame at the other.

Cold Foam and the Case for Upgrading

Eriba fits multi-zone cold foam mattresses as standard across its current range, which is a step above what many caravan manufacturers provide at the factory. The mattresses come with removable drill fabric covers that can be washed — another thoughtful touch. Eriba even sells branded fitted sheets and mattress toppers through its original parts catalogue, custom-made to each vehicle's serial number. This is not a manufacturer that treats sleeping comfort as an afterthought.

However, cold foam mattresses have a finite lifespan, and the combination of caravan storage conditions — seasonal temperature swings, condensation during winter lay-up, long periods without ventilation — accelerates that decline. After five to ten years of use, even a well-made cold foam mattress will have lost a significant proportion of its original support and resilience. For owners of older Touring models from the Puck, Familia, Triton, and Troll era, the original mattresses may be decades old and well past the point of providing meaningful comfort.

What We Recommend

For the Eriba Touring range, where weight is a genuine consideration and every kilogram added to the caravan affects towing stability, our CoolPlus™ memory foam mattress is an ideal choice. It delivers substantially better comfort than the standard cold foam original whilst remaining light enough not to upset the carefully calibrated weight distribution that makes the Touring such an accomplished towing caravan. The temperature-regulating properties of the CoolPlus™ foam are particularly beneficial in a pop-top caravan, where the canvas roof sections mean the interior is more exposed to ambient temperature changes than in a fully insulated fixed-roof model.

For the larger Feeling, Nova Light, Novaline, and Nova models, where weight is less critical and the fixed-roof construction provides better insulation, our Imperial Elite™ pocket sprung mattress brings domestic-grade sleeping comfort to what are already well-appointed and spacious caravans.

For pop-up roof beds and convertible dinette sleeping arrangements, a reflex foam mattress provides the right combination of comfort and flexibility for occasional-use sleeping spaces.

Every mattress we make is cut to your exact measurements — including tapered and irregular shapes — in our Birmingham workshop, and delivered free to any UK address. When you order, simply provide the measurements at each corner of the bed platform and we will cut the mattress to match. Call us on 0121 663 6114 with your measurements, or order online using the product links below.