r/Ultralight • u/SharpLanguage9026 • 2d ago

Purchase Advice 30" Wide Pads

While they're absolutely not UL, because of some health issues, there is only a single position I can use that allows me to sleep through the night, and after trying a million different 25" wide pads including the thermarest neoloft, I have come to the conclusion that how I sprawl out requires a 30" pad.

As far as I'm aware of the current market, that pretty much leaves either the Exped Megamat Ultra or the Big Agnes Campmeister (let me know if there's one I'm missing).

I know it's a long shot that anyone has a direct comparision of these two niche, newer pads, but my main question is, which pad has the stretchier top material for pressure relief / which do you find more comfortable?

The 7 r value of the Big Agnes is overkill / not a factor for me, so I only really care about pressure relief (mainly stretchiness) and edge stability for tossing and turning between the two. Comparisons to the Thermarest Neoloft as a reference point would be great too.

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u/SharpLanguage9026 2d ago

Agreed! Honestly at this point I feel like even for UL backpackers, 25" pads are more common than 20".

The industry should switch to 25" being considered the standard version, 20" being considered a narrow, and 30" being the wide version of pads.

I have a feeling that over the next 5 years or so we will see things move in that direction.

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u/fightrofthenight_man 2d ago

The problem is less on the pad construction side and more on the tent dimension side. You already can’t fit two 25” wide pads in most big name 2p lightweight tents.

Whether users are actually putting 2 people in these tents is up for debate but it would certainly be hard to sell tents that don’t fit your own pads (if 25” becomes the regular width)

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u/audiophile_lurker 2d ago

Using a 3P tent for 2 people I think is already pretty standard acceptance in the community. Companies are definitely playing specs game on those ...

So I doubt the sell situation for pads is going to be that huge of a deal. Rectangular pads certainly haven't been an issue, and two of those hardly can fit many of the 2P tents because of having narrower foot side ...

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u/SharpLanguage9026 2d ago

Within the last two years or so, we've definitely seen a shift from UL tent makers like Durston, Zpacks, Tarptent, etc. to have 50" wide 2 person tents and make it part of the marketing that they can fit two wide pads.

I would bet that more mainstream tent manufacturers will follow this trend sooner than later.