Monday 6 December 2010

why don’t camping mats have headboards?

I’ve been very impressed with the comfort that the NeoAir has brought to my camping experience. Added to that, the Exped AirPillow has proven itself in a short space of time. A killer combo, in fact. BUT the only problem I have with this set up is a migrating pillow…

The AirPillow does have two tabs with holes in meant for securing the pillow but these are in the wrong place. On the top, or bottom, depending which way round one uses the pillow, rather than on the sides, where they would be more useful. The valves on the under side make it possible to feed some 3mm black bungee through that can be wrapped around the mat and held in place with a friction toggle. But these too aren’t central, so the bungee clings to the very end of the mat. Not ideal as I’m willing to bet that the bungee could creep off the mat. Although I’ve yet to give this modification a proper try, so I might be writing it off too soon. That’s for the next trip out so in the interim I’m going to kick a few other ideas around.

If you’ve already got a solution or an idea of a fix why not post a comment.

7 comments:

philip werner said...

try putting your pillow in the mummy hood of your sleeping bag

baz carter said...

I've tried that with my Marmot Hydrogen but the hood isn't big enough. Or my head and/or the pillow is/are too big :)It does work with My Alpkit Hunka bivi bag thou' so that is an option when using my tarp or a single skin shelter.

Alan Sloman said...

Nice topic, Baz. I can't see why a pillow can't be built in to the design of the sleeping mat. It can't be that difficult to do?

Or maybe it is?

baz carter said...

Bog standard airbeds have pillows attached so I dont see why not.

Mac E said...

You'd think any company making mats and pillows would have a flap of fabric or a very wide seam along one edge of the pillow with velco on which would attach to a strip of velcro on the bottom of the mat.

You might be able to come up with something like that using self adhesive velco.

baz carter said...

I thought about velcro but was looking for something less permanent, in case the idea didnt work!

women's hiking sandals said...

Or even air pillow, just that small part where your hear goes get filled up with air so you can't fill rocks and pebbles etc. Great blog, love that post, so true! :)