Tried a budget sleeping pad from Walmart and woke up on the ground at 3 AM

I grabbed a $30 Ozark Trail inflatable pad for a weekend trip to Shenandoah last month, thinking it'd be fine for car camping. By 3 AM the air was gone and I was flat on the dirt, shivering through the rest of the night. Learned my lesson that cheap pads just don't hold up even for mild weather, anyone got a recommendation for something under $100 that actually works?

3 comments

3 Comments

gibson.morgan1mo ago

Grabbed a self-inflating Klymit static V pad on sale for $90 and it's still going strong after two seasons of car camping and a few cold nights in the Smokies.

kim_ramirez31mo ago

Was this in the middle of summer or a cooler night? Temperature drop can make cheap materials leak faster in my experience.

nguyen.angela1mo ago

@kim_ramirez3 I gotta push back on that temperature thing a bit. I've had cheap pads fail on warm summer nights just as fast as on cold ones. The real issue for me has always been the seam quality and the valve design, not the temp drop. Like that Klymit the other person mentioned, that's a different story because it's actually decent construction. But those super budget pads under $40, they just have thin materials that leak from the start no matter the weather. I think you might be giving cheap gear too much credit by blaming the cold.