My $10 'ultralight' sleeping pad exploded on night one of a 4 day trip in the Smokies

I thought I was being smart dropping 10 bucks on some no-name foam pad from Amazon instead of spending 40 on a Therm-a-Rest. Figured it's just foam, right? Wrong. First night at a campsite near Clingmans Dome I laid down and heard this slow hissing sound. By midnight I was basically sleeping on rocks with a flat piece of plastic under me. I ended up stuffing pine needles and leaves under my bag just to get some cushion. Next morning I patched it with duct tape and it held okay for the rest of the trip but I was kicking myself the whole time. Has anyone else had a cheap gear buy totally mess up a trip like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

adamcoleman11d ago

Did the duct tape actually hold for the rest of the trip or did you have to keep reapplying it? I'm curious because I've had mixed luck with tape on those kinds of materials, especially when the foam is that cheap and crumbly. Also, were you in a tent or cowboy camping? If you were on bare ground with just that pad, even the pine needles probably only helped so much.

ivancoleman11d ago

Hang on, wait. You mean you actually had duct tape sticking to that crumbly foam? I've tried that exact same thing before and the tape just peeled right off after like an hour, no matter how much I pressed it down. That cheap foam basically eats adhesive for breakfast in my experience. Were you using some special kind of duct tape, or was the pad just cleaner than mine?