Knaus Caravan Mattresses

Bespoke Knaus Caravan Mattresses

There is a certain type of caravan owner who, having once experienced the build quality of a German-made tourer, will never willingly go back to a British-built caravan. Knaus is one of the principal reasons why. Founded in 1960 by a Bavarian architect named Helmut Knaus, the company has grown from a one-man workshop in the small Franconian town of Marktbreit into one of Europe's largest and most successful leisure vehicle manufacturers, producing tens of thousands of caravans, motorhomes, and campervans every year from factories across Germany and Hungary. The Knaus Südwind — launched in 1962 and still in production over sixty years later — is one of the longest-running caravan model names in the world, and it remains the flagship of a touring caravan range that offers more layout choices than most British manufacturers can dream of. If you own a Knaus caravan in the United Kingdom, you already appreciate the engineering that sets these vehicles apart. What you may also have discovered is that when the factory-fitted mattress reaches the end of its life, nothing from a standard British bed retailer will come close to fitting the bed platform in your caravan.

Helmut Knaus was born in 1920 and trained as an architect and master builder. Even during the Second World War, he harboured an idea for a compact, lightweight caravan that could be towed behind the Volkswagen Beetle — the car that was rapidly becoming the symbol of Germany's post-war economic recovery. In 1960, together with his sons Helmut and Albert, he founded Knaus KG in Marktbreit, near Würzburg, and the following year presented his first caravan to the public: the Schwalbennest, or "Swallow's Nest," a rounded, distinctive little tourer that caused an immediate sensation. Helmut Knaus designed the company's logo himself — a pair of flying swallows that still adorns every Knaus vehicle built today. At three thousand Deutschmarks, the Schwalbennest cost barely eight hundred marks less than a new VW Beetle, yet demand was extraordinary. When the first Caravan Salon was held at the Essen trade fair in 1962, Knaus went further, launching both the Südwind and the Monsun — two models that would become pillars of the German caravanning market for decades to come.

From Bavaria to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange

The success of those early models drove rapid expansion. New production facilities were added in the neighbouring town of Ochsenfurt in the 1960s, and in 1969 Helmut Knaus invested five million Deutschmarks in a major new factory at Jandelsbrunn near Passau in Lower Bavaria, which opened in 1970 and remains the company's headquarters to this day. In 1973, Helmut Knaus received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his contribution to the industry. That same year, Knaus acquired the competitor Eifelland, followed by caravan manufacturer Wolfbart in 1974, steadily consolidating its position as one of Germany's leading caravan producers.

The 1980s brought further commercial success, with the Südwind and the Azur becoming two of the best-selling caravan ranges in Europe. In 1988, the Traveller became the first Knaus motorhome, winning the coveted "Motorhome of the Year" award from the German trade journal Promobil. The Travel Liner followed in 1996 as the first Knaus integrated motorhome. That same year, Knaus and the premium caravan manufacturer Tabbert — founded by Alfred Tabbert in Schweinfurt in 1953 and renowned for its luxury interiors — began a formal cooperation that led to their full merger in 2001 and the creation of Knaus Tabbert Group GmbH in 2002.

A period of financial difficulty followed the 2008 global economic crisis, but the company recovered quickly under new ownership, resuming production at Jandelsbrunn in March 2009. The turnaround was emphatic. By 2010, Knaus Tabbert was reporting a turnover of approximately €181 million with around a thousand employees. The company floated on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in September 2020, and by 2023 annual revenues had reached approximately €1.4 billion with a workforce of some 4,000 across four production sites: Jandelsbrunn and Mottgers in Germany, Schlüsselfeld (home to the luxury motorhome brand Morelo), and Nagyoroszi in Hungary.

Today, Knaus Tabbert AG operates five product brands, each aimed at a distinct market segment. Knaus itself occupies the core market — high-quality, well-specified caravans and motorhomes at sensible prices. Tabbert serves the premium caravan segment with residential-grade interiors. Weinsberg offers the value-conscious buyer access to the same German engineering at a lower price point — a relationship often compared to that of Škoda and Volkswagen. The T@B brand produces the retro-styled teardrop caravan that holds a Guinness World Record as the fastest towed trailer, reaching 230.97 km/h behind a Porsche Cayenne. And Morelo builds luxury integrated motorhomes at the very pinnacle of the market. For owners of Hymer touring caravans — perhaps the closest German rival — the contrast is instructive: where Hymer's heritage lies in the premium end of the market, Knaus has always sought to deliver the best possible caravan to the widest possible audience, and the breadth of its current range reflects that philosophy.

The Südwind — An Icon Since 1962

The Südwind is the beating heart of the Knaus touring caravan range. No other model in the company's history has remained in continuous production for so long, or undergone so many evolutions whilst retaining its essential character. The name translates simply as "south wind" — an evocation of warmth, freedom, and Mediterranean holidays that resonated powerfully with German caravanners in the early 1960s and continues to sell the dream today.

The current Südwind is available in no fewer than sixteen layouts, making it one of the most comprehensively specified caravan ranges on the European market. Body lengths span from under seven metres to over eight and a half metres, with widths of either 232 or 250 centimetres depending on the layout. The range encompasses virtually every bed configuration that a British or continental caravanner could desire: lengthwise French beds, transverse island beds accessible from both sides, twin singles with extending mechanisms, bunk beds for families, and convertible lounge areas that transform into additional sleeping places. Layout designations include the 420 QD, 450 FU, 460 EU, 500 FU, 500 QDK, 500 UF, 500 PF, 500 EU, 540 FDK, 540 UE, 580 QS, 580 UF, 580 UK, 650 PXB, 650 PEB, and 650 UDF.

The Südwind's interior features double-walled furniture construction in an integral design, energy-efficient LED lighting throughout, and Truma heating systems — either the VarioHeat blown-air heater or the S 5004 gas heater depending on layout. The exterior combines a high-strength GRP roof, revised CatEye evolution rear tail lights in full LED technology, and a timeless silhouette that has evolved gracefully through six decades. For 2026, Knaus has introduced the Black Selection trim for the Südwind, adding a distinctive aesthetic option to an already generous specification list.

The Knaus Sport

Sitting below the Südwind in the range, the Knaus Sport is positioned as a lightweight, value-oriented tourer that punches well above its price point. The Sport offers ten layouts — 400 LK, 400 QD, 420 QD, 450 FU, 460 EU, 500 KD, 500 EU, 500 QDK, 540 FDK, and 580 QS — spanning from a compact four-metre body length to a spacious seven and a half metre family tourer. Body widths are 232 centimetres across the range, accommodating between two and six sleeping places depending on the layout chosen.

The Sport embraces a minimalist design philosophy with clean lines, flat-fronted cupboards, and a pared-back aesthetic that lets the build quality speak for itself. Despite the lower price, the Sport retains the same fundamental Knaus construction standards: hot-dip galvanised chassis, GRP roof, bonded sandwich body panels, and the company's ten-year leak-proofness guarantee. The Caravan and Motorhome Club has regularly shortlisted the Knaus Sport in its annual Caravan Design Awards, noting its strong build quality, excellent storage provision, and competitive weight figures that make it suitable for smaller towing vehicles.

The Sport&Fun — Something Completely Different

The Knaus Sport&Fun is perhaps the most distinctive caravan in the current UK market. Described by Knaus as "the extreme sports athlete of caravans," it is a lifestyle-oriented tourer with a large rear tailgate that opens to reveal a cavernous garage area, capable of swallowing bicycles, motorcycles, surfboards, and camping equipment. The living space and sleeping accommodation fold and transform around this cargo area, making the Sport&Fun a genuine dual-purpose vehicle — part caravan, part transporter. The current Sport&Fun is available in the 480 QL layout, featuring transverse beds that use the full width of the vehicle for beds up to 210 centimetres long, and an innovative sliding bathroom with a rotating toilet and pull-out shower tray that extends into the living area.

The Deseo

A close cousin of the Sport&Fun in spirit, the Knaus Deseo takes the lifestyle-transporter concept even further. First announced in 2005 and substantially redesigned in 2017, the Deseo uses Knaus's revolutionary FibreFrame technology — a self-supporting plastic frame that replaces traditional timber and aluminium construction, enabling radical flexibility in the interior layout. The variable room arrangement allows two full-sized motorcycles to be transported within the body, with the living space transforming around them. The Deseo is a twin-axle caravan despite its relatively compact six-metre length, providing exceptional towing stability. It remains one of the most unconventional touring caravans sold in Britain and a testament to Knaus's willingness to challenge caravan design conventions that other manufacturers would never question.

The StarClass

At the top of the Knaus touring caravan hierarchy sits the StarClass — or at least it did until the range was discontinued in recent years. The StarClass represented Knaus's most UK-friendly offering: lighter than many continental competitors, with layouts more closely resembling British-made caravans, and featuring premium fixtures throughout. Models included the 480 (a two-berth with full-width end washroom), 550 (four-berth end washroom), 560 (fixed double bed), 565 (fixed singles), 690 (twin-axle island bed), and 695 (family layout). The StarClass sat on a BPW chassis (later Al-Ko) with alloy wheels, ATC electronic trailer control, and the AKS hitch stabiliser, and all models gained NCC approval for 2018 — a significant endorsement for UK buyers. The 2.5-metre-wide 690, with its U-shaped lounge and 190-litre fridge-freezer, was reviewed as offering "a fabulous package of solidly built luxury." Although the StarClass is no longer in current production, large numbers remain in active use across the UK and the demand for replacement mattresses is considerable.

The Yaseo — Built for Electric Vehicles

Launched at the 2023 Düsseldorf Caravan Salon, the Knaus Yaseo represents the future of lightweight caravanning. Developed from the ground up to be towed by electric vehicles, the Yaseo is an all-electric caravan — gas-free as standard, with an induction hob, compressor refrigerator, Dometic Freshwell air conditioning, and Truma electric water heating all running on mains electricity or the towing vehicle's Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) connection. The body is just 220 centimetres wide (narrower than any other Knaus caravan) with a tapered nose for improved aerodynamics, and the construction uses ultralight materials throughout. Two layouts are offered: the 340 PX (a compact two-berth just 3.48 metres long, weighing 905 kilogrammes ready to tow) and the 500 DK (a multi-functional five-berth). Both feature Knaus's ingenious Murphy bed system — a 200 by 160 centimetre double bed that folds down from the front wall over the face-to-face seating area, with the dining table folding away to create space. The 500 DK adds an expandable sliding bathroom that doubles in size to create a full shower room, and an optional folding bunk bed above the lounge for additional sleeping places.

Earlier and Discontinued Models

Knaus has produced an enormous number of caravan models over its sixty-five-year history, many of which remain in regular use on British roads and campsites. The Azur was a premium range that sat above the Südwind, featuring FibreFrame technology, a cocooning interior design, and a dynamic exterior with self-healing body panels — small scratches on the FibreFrame surface would repair themselves without intervention. The Lifestyle was a mid-range tourer offered in the early 2010s in layouts including the 550 LK. The Monsun, launched alongside the Südwind in 1962, was a stalwart of the range for decades. The Travelino, introduced around 2016, was an ultralight caravan built on a self-supporting FibreFrame chassis — one of the first production caravans to abandon conventional construction entirely. The Eifelland and Wolfbart brands, acquired in 1973 and 1974 respectively, contributed their own model ranges to the Knaus portfolio during the 1970s and 1980s. And the Südwind Exclusive was a higher-specification variant of the standard Südwind offered through the 2000s and 2010s, with layouts including the 450 FU, 500 EU, 500 FU, 550 UF, 580 FDK, 580 UE, 650 UDF, and the substantial twin-axle 750 UKF.

Construction and Build Quality

Every Knaus caravan is built using what the company calls TVT — Top Value Technology. This is a functional sandwich construction system that bonds lightweight aluminium outer panels to XPS or EPS insulation with polyurethane plastic reinforcements, with the entire structure glued rather than screwed together. The result is a body that is more stable, more resistant to corrosion and weather damage, and more durable than conventional screw-fixed construction. The roof is made from high-strength GRP with a fibreglass content almost three times higher than standard GRP, providing exceptional protection against hailstones and impacts. The Pro.TEC Frame — a heavy-duty aluminium profile strip — connects the side walls, front wall, rear wall, and roof, improving structural stability and incorporating a sealed chamber for sealant compound. The chassis is hot-dip galvanised with semi-trailing arm axles and oil-pressure shock absorbers as standard.

The furniture is built to similarly exacting standards. Full-extension drawer slides allow access right to the back of every drawer, with soft-close mechanisms that are designed to last the lifetime of the vehicle. Work surfaces and table tops use high-pressure laminate (HPL), whilst furniture fronts use continuous-pressure laminate (CPL) — both materials that are specifically rated for heavy-duty use and exceptional scratch resistance. All of this is backed by Knaus's factory-issued ten-year leak-proofness guarantee on the body — not an insurance-backed warranty, but a direct manufacturer's guarantee that is transferable to subsequent owners.

Why Knaus Beds Require Bespoke Mattresses

This is the section that brings most Knaus owners to our website. German-engineered to metric dimensions, manufactured in German and Hungarian factories, and designed with a fundamentally different approach to interior space than any British-built caravan, Knaus beds simply do not correspond to standard UK or even standard European mattress sizes. The dimensions are awkward by any country's measurement system, and many of the beds are not rectangular.

Consider the bed sizes recorded at the Caravan and Motorhome Club's annual Design Awards across various Knaus models. A Knaus Sport 500 UF has a front double measuring 2.0 metres by 1.38 metres, with a rear double of 1.98 metres by 1.51 metres narrowing to 1.25 metres at one end — a tapered bed that is neither rectangular nor any standard size. A Südwind 580 QS has a front double of 2.06 metres by 1.46 metres, a mid double of 2.14 metres by 1.12 metres, and fixed rear bunks of 1.9 metres by 0.70 metres and 1.9 metres by 0.74 metres — note the two bunks in the same caravan are different widths. A Südwind 650 PEB has a front double of 2.28 metres by 1.47 metres tapering to 1.40 metres, a fixed French bed of 1.99 metres by 1.39 metres, and two bunks each measuring 1.99 metres by 0.77 metres. The StarClass 690 has a front double of 1.98 metres by 1.59 metres tapering to 1.53 metres, with fixed rear singles of 1.98 metres by 0.86 metres.

The lengthwise French beds found in the Südwind and Sport ranges offer lying surfaces up to 200 by 157 centimetres. The transverse beds that use the full vehicle width provide beds up to 210 centimetres long. The queen-sized island bed in the Südwind 650 PXB measures 200 by 144 centimetres. The Yaseo's Murphy bed is 200 by 160 centimetres. Even the convertible lounge beds — which use roller-slatted frames to create the sleeping surface — produce double beds with dimensions that match nothing in a standard bed catalogue.

None of these figures correspond to a standard UK single (190 by 90 centimetres), a UK double (190 by 135 centimetres), a UK king (200 by 150 centimetres), a European single (200 by 90 centimetres), or a European double (200 by 140 centimetres). A Knaus bed measuring 2.06 by 1.46 metres is larger than a UK king but smaller than a European king. A bed of 1.98 by 1.51/1.25 metres is a trapezoid that no standard mattress can possibly fit. And the bunk beds — at 1.9 by 0.70 or 0.74 or 0.77 metres — are narrower than any standard single. The conclusion is inescapable: every Knaus caravan mattress needs to be made to measure.

The challenge is compounded for owners of older Knaus caravans and models from the sister brands. Adria, another continental European touring caravan brand with a strong UK following, presents similar sizing challenges for British owners — but Knaus, with its sixteen Südwind layouts alone, offers perhaps the widest variety of non-standard bed shapes of any single caravan brand sold in this country.

Motorhome and Campervan Owners Welcome

Although this page focuses on Knaus touring caravans, we make mattresses for Knaus motorhomes and campervans with equal enthusiasm. The same principles of bespoke metric sizing apply — indeed, motorhome beds are frequently more complex than caravan beds, incorporating island beds with curved or angled corners, overcab platforms with restricted headroom, drop-down beds with weight limitations, and rear lounge conversions with irregular shapes. If you own a Knaus Van TI, Van TI Plus, L!VE TI, Sky TI, L!VE Wave, L!VE I, Sun I, or any Knaus Boxlife or Boxtime campervan, we can make a mattress to fit. The same applies to vehicles from the Weinsberg and T@B sister brands. Simply mention that yours is a motorhome or campervan when you place your order, as the bed depths and weight constraints are often different from touring caravan beds.

What We Recommend

For the Knaus Sport range and the convertible lounge beds found throughout the Südwind, Sport&Fun, Yaseo, and earlier Lifestyle models — layouts where the sleeping surface is created nightly from daytime seating using roller-slatted frames — our CoolPlus™ memory foam mattress is the ideal upgrade from the original factory cushions. The temperature-regulating foam manages the condensation and humidity fluctuations that are inherent in caravan use, and the lighter weight makes the bed-conversion process noticeably easier than wrestling with dense, heavy foam cushion sections. For owners of the Yaseo, where the Murphy bed folds down from the wall, the CoolPlus™ is particularly well suited — it is flexible enough to accommodate the folding mechanism without adding unnecessary weight or bulk.

For the larger Südwind and former StarClass layouts with permanent fixed beds — the French beds, island beds, and fixed singles in models like the 500 FU, 540 FDK, 580 QS, 650 PXB, 650 UDF, and the StarClass 560, 565, 690, and 695 — our Imperial Elite™ pocket sprung mattress delivers the domestic-standard sleeping comfort that a caravan of this build quality deserves. When the manufacturer has invested in high-pressure laminate work surfaces, full-extension soft-close drawers, and a ten-year body guarantee, the mattress ought to match that standard. The Imperial Elite™ offers individually nested pocket springs with a luxury quilted cover, providing the kind of support and comfort that rivals the best high-street mattresses — cut precisely to the metric dimensions of your Knaus bed, including any tapers, angles, or irregular shapes.

For bunk beds across the range — and Knaus offers double and triple bunk configurations in several Sport, Südwind, and Sport&Fun layouts — and for occasional-use dinette beds and Eriba-style convertible sleeping arrangements, a reflex foam mattress provides the practical durability and flexibility these spaces require.

Every mattress we make is cut to your exact measurements in our Birmingham workshop and delivered free to any UK address. If you are uncertain about measuring a tapered, shaped, or Murphy-style Knaus bed — and with sixteen Südwind layouts, ten Sport layouts, and numerous legacy models in circulation, the variety is extraordinary — call us on 0121 663 6114 and we will talk you through the process. Order online using the product links below, or ring us with your dimensions and we will take care of the rest.