We were tiring of 23 breaths each every evening inflating our Thermarest Neo sleeping pads. Moist air inside our Thermarests in winter wasn’t a good match. All that moist breath has likely mildewed our pads’ innards as well. Not healthy for the pads or us. There had to be a better way!
Battery powered mini-pumps would certainly work but we’re pack weight weenies and didn’t have interests in carrying yet another battery powered device. Commercially available dual-purpose pump / dry sacks looked inviting but are too small. Plastic trash bags would work but they’re not durable and mating a trash bag to a sleeping pad was less than ideal.
Completed inflation sack doubles as a dry bag for gear unable to squeeze under tent alcoves.
Ripstop by the Roll to the rescue with ‘on sale’ 1.1 oz / sq. yd. silnylon! Perfect for the task at hand. This is a fairly easy project.
Details follow.
* Inflation sack final size: 27” wide X 50” height
* Stuffed size: 6” long X 7” diameter. Inflation sack can be rolled up with deflated / stuffed Thermarest consuming nearly zero additional backpack or pannier volume.
* Silnylon cut dimensions: 56” (bolt width) X 52” length (could have been ~ 10” shorter)
* Completed bag’s weight calculated by surface area @ 1.1 oz./ sq. yd. = 2,912 sq.”: 2.5 oz. / 71 g
* Time to fill Thermarest Neo after filling sack with air: 1 min. 40 sec. + 3 quick top-up breaths
* Breaths to fill Thermarest Neo without inflation sack: 23.
* Time to fill Thermarest Neo without inflation sack: est. 5 (?) minutes.
Accompanying photos are captioned.
