Camping mattresses

I have an Oztrail queen size camp bed. It is an air mattress on a concertina base, and is very comfortable. The air mattress is slipped inside a cover, so the dog wouldn't get to it. And you could slip a fitted sheet over it as well if you wanted for extra protection.

I paid $169 in Alice Springs, and have seen them on the Web at Sherry's Camping for $150 plus postage.

Cheers
John

Hi Scubaroo
we use a QS Coleman selve inflating mattress. Hav had for a couple of years now and find it to be really good. Quite comfortable and no problems with punctures, like the other standard inflatables we used before. Only thing is it doesn't fold up as small as the blow up type.
Bigbear

Get the self inflator. In short, air mattresses are horrible to sleep on.

From an insulation point of view, the self inflators are the choice by far. Their foam cell structure stops internal air convection from drawing body heat into the ground. Where the air mattresses, having a single air space tend to suck heat from your body at a ferocious rate.

Both kinds of mattresses are susceptible to puncture. When this happens during the night, the self inflator's will still reduce heat loss, even though they have let your body rest directly on the ground. This means you can still get some sleep on them until morning, instead of trying to effect a repair to the air mattress at 3 AM.

I've had both the Ray's single and queen sized self inflating mattresses for a couple of years now without any real problems. Both units leak a bit when they are deflated but the straps keep them in check. They are BIG when rolled up especially the queen. Try deflating the show model yourself before you buy. With the queen, deflating is not a one person job (unless you use a pump to help). They should be stored, at home, in an inflated state so consider if you have room to do that.

Finally: having tried just about every camp sleeping system know to human kind they are, far and away, the most comfortable of all - probably even better than my bed at home - and if I needed new camp bedding I would buy another without considering anything else. However these days you may find better quality/price than Rays. Try these people:

http://www.grangerscampingworld.com.au/
http://www.discountcamping.com.au/index/home

Mike Harding

mike_harding@fastmail.fm

Scubaroo, my double air mattress died while we were camping at Echuca recently and we replaced it with two single 4WD mattresses out of neccessity and not too many options from the local camping stores. Best move we could have made, I'm going to buy two more for the kids before our Simpson Trip in July. he only downside is that when rolled up they do take up a LOT more room than an air mattrress.

we found with the self inflatable types that you slip around on them and they are still a bit cold. we fixed both those issues by making cotton (flannel) covers for them.

I can tell you that self inflating materess' wont last a dog either. We had a queen size Drifter Self Inflating Camp Mattress given to us (long story)...

Used it twice, first time threw it out of the tent onto the ground and it holed. $120 later it was 'reskinned', took it away, cant remember what happened this time, but holed again from doing sod all to it, and has sat in the shed ever since.
So dont think they are all bullet (or dog) proof!

They are also so cumbersome, you need a roofrack, they wont fit across a GQ.

Hi Scibaroo,

We have a Queen size Swag which has a high density matress and another small foam matress on top and found it great for going camping under the stars when we don't have the kids. My husband and I have had this for approximately 6 years and we often go to rallies etc with our off road group and have had no problems simply roll it up and put on roof rack.
The swag is waterproof and if you are concerned about the dust just put some hugh plastic bag around it and tie it up with a zip tie.
Approximate time from go to finish should only take about 5mins to pack up and put on roof rack and visa versa.

Hope this is any help.
Most canvas shops have them or make them.

Regards
Troopytrek