Costco had the Klymit Static V2 sleeping pad with pillow at an astounding price of $80 for 2, so I picked it up for our annual backpacking trip. It's much more compact than the thermarest, which meant that 2 of them would fit in my Granite Gear Crown 60 backpack easily, along with the pillows. These pads are rated R1.3, which means that they're astoundingly low insulation, but since the intention is only to use them during the summer, it's OK.
The marketing literature claims 15 puffs to blow them up. I counted 20 puffs. There's an air escape valve so you can't over pump the pad. My advice is to pump it up to the limit, because that adds to the comfort. At night, if it gets cold enough, the air inside the pad will shrink in volume and your Bowen will wake you up and tell you to add more air to the mattress.
The shape of the mattress is great, and the texture keeps you from sliding off the pad. The pillow is also surprisingly good, and didn't leave me regretting the weight it took to bring them along. The kit also comes with a repair kit, and if you're carrying 2 of these you can save some weight by bringing only one repair kit but I didn't bother.
All in all, for the price, it's an astonishingly good deal. Recommended.
Monday, October 15, 2018
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2 comments:
A 60L pack is huge, what were you using before, a car-camping mat?
If you're committed to an inflatable like this for the kids, you might look to see if there's a 3/4 or 1/2 length available, as for an adult torso sized. That way when it's down a bit on volume, the air doesn't all rush to the bottom and leave the kid end on the ground.
Or just be a Mean Dad like me and get them Z-lite type foam mats. Between about 8 and 17, I find that kids (well, boys at least) can be pretty rough on things, even the good kids. Unintentional damage is still sitting in the middle of the night patching. Sure, the Z-lite isn't as comfy as mine, but the kids aren't as old as me, so IMHO it's a reasonable tradeoff.
[I actually keep meaning to take one of their mats on a couple overnights, because if it's "good enough", then maybe I want to use them to limit the worst-case versus my inflatable Exped.]
I was using a Thermarest pad (regular), and a thermarest (long). The regular was just long enough for Bowen, and the long was barely enough for me. I have Z-lite type foam mats but they're not as comfortable and don't pack well. Keep in mind that I bought this stuff not for car camping, but for backpacking, so packing nicely was a big deal.
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