sjs
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Post by sjs on Aug 29, 2020 11:02:00 GMT -8
As a follow up to my thread of "Are Car Camping Questions Allowed", I have a mattress question.
I thought the sleep system would be the most important thing (other than safety) to lure my wife into the camping life so I started with a cot. I didn't know how it would go so started with a cheap 31$ canvass cot from Amazon. It is very heavy and a bit of hard work to put up but when I put my Thermarest Neoair XLite mattress on it, and my Enlightened Equipment quilt on top, my wife found it very comfortable . . . at home. She is not yet ready to actually go camping but I decided to try it out and went car camping and day hiking last week. Except for the weight issue, I am not sure why anyone would pay more than this because this set up was more comfortable than my bed at home.
So, I will buy another one of these cheap cots so we can each have one for car camping but I wonder if a cheaper and bigger air mattress might even be more comfortable for her. So much of what we pay for in BP gear is for light weight, perhaps a heavy but bigger air mattress is more comfy. I have never tried one. Has anyone else?
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Post by Lamebeaver on Aug 29, 2020 11:12:16 GMT -8
I have a queen-size air mattress that my wife and I use car camping. When car camping by myself (elk hunting) I use a setup similar to yours, if comfort is the overriding factor, the cot/thermarest combination is pretty hard to beat.
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Deborah
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Post by Deborah on Aug 29, 2020 11:43:08 GMT -8
perhaps a heavy but bigger air mattress is more comfy. I have never tried one. Has anyone else? Recently, I purchased a twin-size air-mattress that is huge! It has a built in pump and requires 110 to inflate it. I used it at a KOA campground that had electricity close by. It inflates in a couple of minutes and is delightful to sleep on. I have heard people complain of sleeping pads sliding off cots as one moves around at night. That's not an issue with this air-mattress. Plus it's wide enough to stretch out completely. I bought a converter so I could inflate it with the battery of my car, but it did not have enough power. I will need to investigate getting a more powerful converter. |
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sjs
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Post by sjs on Aug 29, 2020 13:03:25 GMT -8
Deborah, what is the brand name of that mattress?
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Deborah
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Post by Deborah on Aug 29, 2020 13:57:25 GMT -8
Deborah, what is the brand name of that mattress? EnerPlex. Ordered it from Amazon. |
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Post by trinity on Aug 29, 2020 14:02:42 GMT -8
For our guest bed at home, we use a cot with an Exped Megamat on top. The megamat is what my wife always uses when car-camping. It is a beast, but incredibly comfortable. |
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jazzmom
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Post by jazzmom on Aug 29, 2020 15:15:37 GMT -8
Cot+pad is great as long as you have a tall tent with sufficient head room. Gets you off the floor with space underneath to stash things. Getting off the floor does wonders for keeping bedding clean and dry, especially on rainy days. Note that cot without the pad isn't half as comfortable. I've never had any issues with the pad slipping off a cot but that doesn't mean it can't happen.
Don't forget that the cot doesn't insulate at all, so if it's going to be a cool night, you need a pad with sufficient R-value to keep warm. I prefer foam air-mattresses over air ones (I would never use a Neoair car-camping...) My go-to pad car-camping with a cot is my ProLite Plus.
I'm not a fan of the "real" air mattresses. My ex used to like them (insisted on them for a long time...), so I've used them, but we had more than one trip where it sprang a leak and we spent a day of our vacation hunting down a Walmart or the like to get a replacement. At some point I started secretly packing my ProLite... One night we woke up to a pretty deflated mattress -- which is awful with two people sleeping on it because it's like a trampoline everytime one person moves. I pulled out my Prolite and my ex slept in the car. (There's a reason why we're ex's... :D)
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cweston
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Post by cweston on Aug 29, 2020 16:09:05 GMT -8
I have a queen-size air mattress that my wife and I use car camping. When car camping by myself (elk hunting) I use a setup similar to yours, if comfort is the overriding factor, the cot/thermarest combination is pretty hard to beat. I also use a queen sized inflatable mattress for couples car camping. Just keep in mind that it doesn’t insulate at all...which is fine for lower elevation summer car camping (or for spring or fall here in Kansas). |
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ErnieW
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Post by ErnieW on Aug 29, 2020 19:48:32 GMT -8
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Deborah
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Post by Deborah on Aug 29, 2020 21:44:32 GMT -8
I was a bit concerned about the lack of insulation. The three nights I slept on the air-mattress the low temp was upper 50s, so not horribly cold, with ample covers I was nice and warm. I did have a flannel sheet on the mattress.
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Post by High Sierra Fan on Aug 29, 2020 21:44:51 GMT -8
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cweston
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Post by cweston on Aug 30, 2020 4:45:05 GMT -8
I was a bit concerned about the lack of insulation. The three nights I slept on the air-mattress the low temp was upper 50s, so not horribly cold, with ample covers I was nice and warm. Right: I should have clarified; this is what I meant by "lower elevation summer car camping." i.e. places where the nighttime temps won't be dropping below, say, the mid 50s. I slept on a thick air mattress with a 20-degree quilt for a week+ at about 8,500 ft. last summer. I was perfectly comfortable. On the cooler nights (maybe around 50?), I could feel the cool radiating through the air mattress, but I had a warm enough quilt over me that I slept comfortably. When I use the mattress with my wife, we just put a comforter or wool blanket from home over it, then two 45-degree car-camping bags zipped together. |
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walkswithblackflies
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Post by walkswithblackflies on Sept 1, 2020 5:26:18 GMT -8
I have a Coleman twin-sized mattress (with separate 12-volt and battery-powered pumps) that I throw in the back of my Dodge Durango for literal car-camping. It fits perfectly. I've also used that mattress in hotels. If I was to use it in a tent, I'd be sure to have a hefty groundcloth under the tent to prevent punctures.
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tomas
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Post by tomas on Sept 2, 2020 6:39:44 GMT -8
Car camping means room and weight have little meaning, so I bring queen sized air mattress that gets filled with a handheld battery blower. Flannel sheets when is cool outside.
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Post by bobcat on Sept 10, 2020 17:55:32 GMT -8
For car camping, I have evolved to using a TriLite cot with a 24” wide backpacking pad on top, either a ThermaRest Basecamp or an Exped Downmat7. The cot has straps to keep the mattress in place. Very comfortable and low enough that it fits in my larger backpacking tents that are the ones I use for car camping.
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