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Serious question, is a cheap sleeping pad ever actually fine or does everyone end up upgrading?
Two summers back I did 4 nights in the Ozarks outside Fayetteville with a $25 blue foam pad from a Walmart bin, and I slept great every single night, so I figured everyone who drops $150 on an inflatable is just burning money. Then last month I lent that same pad to my brother in law for a trip near Taos and he came back saying his hip was sore by night two and he barely slept. So now I am stuck, because part of me says a pad is a pad, it keeps you off the cold ground and that is the whole job. The other part of me remembers how cold that ground got when temps hit 38 and my foam pad flattened out under me. I never measured it but I swear the thing lost half its loft after a few trips, and I could feel every root and rock through it. So where is the line here, do you all think the cheap pad people are just tougher or are they lying to themselves about the sleep? Tell me your real experience, did a budget pad ever hold up for you or was the upgrade the moment it got good?
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valpalmer29d ago
Cheap pads work fine when you're young and tired enough to sleep on anything, but that's not the pad, that's you. I ran a $20 foam pad for years and thought the same thing until I hit a trip where the ground was frozen and I woke up every hour. Foam breaks down too, it loses its bounce after enough nights and then you're basically on a thin sheet of nothing. Your brother in law isn't soft, his hips just aren't used to the abuse like yours were. Budget pads can work but they're not a forever answer, they're just a starter. The upgrade isn't about being fancy, it's about your body finally keeping score.
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