Hi HeavySleeper11,
I just talked with Jeff at Mattress to go who read the forum topic and emailed me to let me know that the specs you listed are incorrect. The models that end in 500 are two sided mattresses and aren’t tufted while the models that end in 000 are one sided and are tufted. He also said that the specs he initially received from his factory weren’t correct so this is where the confusion may come from.
Having said that … a two sided mattress also improve the durability of the materials in a mattress (as long as you flip and rotate it on a regular basis … see post #3 here) so my comments would be similar if you replaced the word “tufted” with “two sided” in my original reply and it would still be a suitable and durable choice for your weight/BMI range … just for different reasons.
That also explains why the 3500 is more costly than the 3000 which has an extra inch of latex because the 3500 has foam layers on both sides of the mattress.
Phoenix