# Cot vs Air Mattress vs Sleeping Pad?



## littleGizmo (10 mo ago)

I have bought 3 different air mattresses to sleep on camping last year and they all were awful !!! My wife would keep pumping air into them every hour it seemed like at night. I would wake up with a very sour back because by morning I was just sleeping on hard earth. I paid $30 - $100 for the air mattresses they all were awful ! I am 250 lbs and the air mattress just didn't seem to work with my body weight, kept losing air. We spent just about every weekend May through September last year camping and we plan to do the same this year.

I am thinking of abandoning the air mattress and instead try a sleeping cot or sleeping Pad? I am thinking two cots one for my wife and a 2nd for my wife, hopefully can fit in a 6 person tent? Other option would be a sleeping pad? Maybe two foam ones? 

Ideas?


----------



## Happy Joe (10 mo ago)

If you decide on a cot get a good one; After waking up on the cold hard ground too many time I stopped using air mattresses.
I tried a multi-legged wallymart cot and it was worse than lying on the ground...
I have tried military cots and variants, semi-successfully...but uncomfortably.
a friend who was getting too old to camp enjoyably; gave me a Coleman steel framed cot with springs around the edges


https://www.coleman.com/camp-furniture/camping-cots/comfortsmart-deluxe-cot/SAP_2166976.html











It works well for me; if I add a foam hospital bed pad it provides some of the best sleeping comfort that I have experienced.

downsides: it folds in half and no smaller. It can be bulky to pack in a vehicle... 36" x 26" x 6". backpacking is out of the question...The hospital pad when rolled up is HUGE... I usually don't bring it; the cot is OK, comfort wise. with just the Coleman foam pad.
It does pack in the back of either my 2 door Ford Explorer (SUV) and My Jeep TJ.

The price on the Coleman site seems high; check out amazon and wally mart or wait for a sale, IMO.

I just checked and both Amazon and wallymart have it on sale for $89... normally ~ $109.

Two of these cots fit in my eureka 9x9 dome with a quite small isle between.

Hope it helps...
Enjoy!


----------



## littleGizmo (10 mo ago)

Ok thanks for feedback. Yeah I have looked at the very same cot you have posted. I am thinking of buying it...just don't know if two of them will fit in a tent that is 4-6 people, a Queen Air Mattress barely fits in. It's a dome tent so sidewalls slant in a lot. Also not sure if I can fit two Cot's in the back of my car. We usually just drive 1 car to campsite and stuff it to the ceiling with our stuff.

I thought about getting two cots and putting exisiting Queen or a Full Size air mattress on those cots. I also thought about trying putting a foam 2-3 inch pad/mattress under the air mattress... or just using a foam mattress instead on the ground. I have thought about putting some kind of rubber mat down under the air mattress. or might just skip air mattress all together and just use the mat/rug. The problem is everything gets very pricey very quickly.

If space were not a concern in the tent or the car I would definitely go with the Cots. I guess I can buy and try, and if don't fit try to return? 

Other option also is to just buy a bigger tent to fit everything in, but tents get pricey too.


----------



## Happy Joe (10 mo ago)

The number of people that a tent will shelter is almost always inflated, a lot, by the manufacturer. The dome that I use has a 9 foot by 9 foot floor footprint and a 6 foot interior height..
Your concern about the inward slanting sidewalls is very valid, IMO. I never measured the space lost but I would estimate it as a bit less than a foot on each side (at cot height).

Double cots (with a foam mattress) are available, although I haven't tried any and thus cannot make a recommendation.

In terms of just a thick foam pad; when I was a youth, dad purchased a bout a bout a 5 foot wide 4 inch thick piece of foam that was used as a mattress in the back of several cars, while camping on fishing trips, and eventually a station wagon, under the sleeping bags. It worked very well/ was quite comfortable.. as I remember, though storage of that pad was tough due to the size of the roll; so transport in a normal vehicle might not work at all.

Two relatively thick foam cot mattresses/pads might be a better decision, one for each of you. However the reason that I do not,usually, bring the hospital bed pad for the cot is that the size of the roll makes it a pain to transport...
I have tried putting it in a lawn and leaf bag then pumping out the air, using a shop-vac, to reduce the size, which works really well, at home; however, I haven't found a good way to pump the air out of the bag in the middle of a National Forest/far from any where..

There are quite a few variations on the cot mattress theme at amazon; some of which come with straps to help keep them rolled during transport; I suspect that they could be used on a clean tent floor or tarp.


Amazon.com : cot matress



I found early in my air matress tryouts that a heavy tarp under the tent, acting as a ground cloth helped keep the tent floor and air matress from getting punctured, but did not eliminate the problem entirely.
I also found that a furniture moving pad, on the tent floor, also helped reduce punctures and provided insulation from the ground.

Enjoy!


----------



## FelicityMoster (7 mo ago)

littleGizmo said:


> I have bought 3 different air mattresses to sleep on camping last year and they all were awful !!! My wife would keep pumping air into them every hour it seemed like at night. I would wake up with a very sour back because by morning I was just sleeping on hard earth. I paid $30 - $100 for the air mattresses they all were awful ! I am 250 lbs and the air mattress just didn't seem to work with my body weight, kept losing air. We spent just about every weekend May through September last year camping and we plan to do the same this year.
> 
> I am thinking of abandoning the air mattress and instead try a sleeping cot or sleeping Pad? I am thinking two cots one for my wife and a 2nd for my wife, hopefully can fit in a 6 person tent? Other option would be a sleeping pad? Maybe two foam ones?
> 
> Ideas?


Maybe you just bought a low-quality mattress and should find a better one. I love the pneumatic mattresses; they have been extremely helpful during my camping years. Moreover, I get them for a very reasonable price for their quality at How To Choose Your Perfect Mattress - UK. They have a bunch of different models, and you can look here. On top of that, there is a short description under each product, and you can customize it the way you want.


----------



## Happy Joe (10 mo ago)

There was a time when I, too, got tired of leaky air mattresses (including some spendy ones) and switched to a foam pad. Actually two foam pads on the cot is most comfortable; the Coleman foam pad, that comes with the cot, and a cut down hospital pad (close to the pic) together give the most comfort.








It is a bit of a pain to pack because of its rolled up size (huge),,,
The initial packed size can be shrunk some by putting it in a garbage bag and using a shop vac to suck the air out... I have not yet acquired the means to do this at the campsite, for the return trip, though...
Currently, I'm making do with multiple straps around the rolled foam; or more and more often just using the Coleman pad that comes with the cot.


Enjoy!


----------



## Happy Joe (10 mo ago)

I recently got an inflator/deflator air blower that makes vacuum packing, the hospital pad possible...
Inflator/deflator

Enjoy!


----------

