Where I would take my closed cell foam pad backpacking with me, when I'm car camping I have a superior insulation and padding option! When I don't have to worry about weight and space, I can bring this with me, and it does a superior job of both keeping me warm and padding the ground beneath me. I used to just borrow the family's lone insulation pad and use that when camping, but it was appropriated during a move by my sister and I took the opportunity to obtain my own pad. I forget what brand the old one was, but the new one is a Gander Mountain Guide Series mat.
Both in terms of durability and space consumption, these mats are superior to the inflatable mattresses that many will utilize while camping. I have watched my friends go through mattress after mattress often waking up on the wrinkled remains of a mattress unable to hold an inflation, or perhaps just an inch lower than they started. I feel they raise you up needlessly high above the ground, take up more than their fair share of tent space and they require either heroic efforts, or an air pump to inflate. I'll pass, thank you very much.
Meanwhile the insulation mat I prefer requires only your lungs, and not all that much effort to inflate or deflate. Sets up in maybe 5 minutes, and puts about an inch of air between you and the ground. If you roll off or slide off? no big deal. They do an excellent job of keeping the ground beneath you from stealing away your heat, and with their inch or so of clearance, they smooth out a good deal of the roughness you might encounter in the ground. It is however, important to place your tent on as level ground as possible, because the mat can move in the middle of the night, and if you're on an incline, you might find yourself awake at 3am shifted to the corner of your tent, with your head pressed to the nylon as a badger waddles by and brushes against the top of your head. Not exactly the way I wanted to wake up, but one of many reasons I sleep with my buck knife within arm's reach.
No pictures today, all the photos I thought it might be visible in, it's eclipsed by my sleeping bag. Looks just like the picture here on their site though.
Would I recommend it? For a car camper, I definitely do. It's too big to bring backpacking with you, but it's great for base camp/car camping.
Showing posts with label Insulation mat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Insulation mat. Show all posts
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Thursday, April 23, 2015
GEAR REVIEW: Ozark Trail Closed Cell Foam Pad
Not all of the gear I have, or will ever have, is super glamorous or expensive. Sometimes there is no need for it to be. Take my foam roll for example. You can actually spend quite a bit on one of these, but you will have an incredibly difficult time making me think that it's worth spending more than the $10 it would cost you at wal-mart. I suppose you could make an argument for wal-mart not being a very nice company, and I'd have no argument there... but as little as I like the corporation behind them, I have a hard time justifying spending 150-600% of the price I paid for a simple roll of foam simply on principle. If that sort of thing bothers you, this special buy at REI would be a good alternative. $14 while they last!
The purpose of a closed cell foam pad in your camping kit, is to insulate. It also serves as a little bit of padding, but your body weight (or at least mine) will compress it enough that it only has a minimal padding effect. But all those little bubbles in the foam hold air inside them, and this prevents the ground below your tent, or the wind beneath your hammock, from sucking the heat out of you. Open Cell Foam would do this as well, but there are a number of reasons NOT to use open cell foam for this. First of all, it is basically a sponge. It'll suck up water and hold onto it. Not something you want to lay on, and not good for the conditions you're likely to be in. Second of all, having dealt with open cell foam in various applications (halloween masks, these old rolls of it we had for sleeping on, various cushions and upholstery) it gets old, and it gets dry and it breaks down. If you get even a speck of the dust that they make when they get old into your eye, it is an awful thing. NOT something I want to sleep on.
There are more advanced pads that fold up squarely, or have dimples/eggcrating, but in my experience none of that justifies the added cost of them. They all pack up to roughly the same size, they all weigh about the same, the primary differentiation is on cost.
Would I recommend it? Yup! It's a good deal on a simple, humble piece of equipment. Anything more expensive and all you're buying is dubious bragging rights. Final note, if you have to travel by amtrak with this, attach it to your backpack vertically, it will just BARELY fit horizontally through the staircase. and be prepared to fast-detatch it to fit your bag above in the luggage rack.
The purpose of a closed cell foam pad in your camping kit, is to insulate. It also serves as a little bit of padding, but your body weight (or at least mine) will compress it enough that it only has a minimal padding effect. But all those little bubbles in the foam hold air inside them, and this prevents the ground below your tent, or the wind beneath your hammock, from sucking the heat out of you. Open Cell Foam would do this as well, but there are a number of reasons NOT to use open cell foam for this. First of all, it is basically a sponge. It'll suck up water and hold onto it. Not something you want to lay on, and not good for the conditions you're likely to be in. Second of all, having dealt with open cell foam in various applications (halloween masks, these old rolls of it we had for sleeping on, various cushions and upholstery) it gets old, and it gets dry and it breaks down. If you get even a speck of the dust that they make when they get old into your eye, it is an awful thing. NOT something I want to sleep on.
There are more advanced pads that fold up squarely, or have dimples/eggcrating, but in my experience none of that justifies the added cost of them. They all pack up to roughly the same size, they all weigh about the same, the primary differentiation is on cost.
Would I recommend it? Yup! It's a good deal on a simple, humble piece of equipment. Anything more expensive and all you're buying is dubious bragging rights. Final note, if you have to travel by amtrak with this, attach it to your backpack vertically, it will just BARELY fit horizontally through the staircase. and be prepared to fast-detatch it to fit your bag above in the luggage rack.
Potato-quality shots of mine in my hammock at flint ridge:
Gear Tied, Vertically to my pack (high cliff state park):
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