Such a thing these days as an airbed that isn't s**t?

[gazzarose]

Just got back from our annual family/friends camping weekend down west wales. Apart form the annoyance of packing up in the pi$$ing down rain, the main problem, as always was an uncomfortable nights sleep with my ar$e on the floor due to a flat airbed. I've tried cheap ones and my curdent one, a Gellert double thickness built in electric pump one rrp £80, has managed 3 years service, which would be fine if we went camping more that once a year! When I was a kit things were proper. We had a canvass tent with proper poles (although the Vango airbeam 600xl we borrowed from my brother was huge and brilliant and definitely considering getting one!) and my parents airbed (as kids we had to manage with mats!) was a red and blue rubbet/fabric one that they bought before they were married and lasted until I was about 15 and only died because the strings that keep the box shape started to rot resulting in huge balloon shape lumps. All the airbeds now seem to be made from the same material as modern black bags (yet another thing that was better back in the day). The camp site resonated yesterday morning with the sound of pumps topping up flat air beds and I'm determined to find one that will do a weekend without airloss. I probably won't go again this year so I can afford so wait for the off season and get a bargain. But everything I find at every price range just seems to be made of the same flocked plastic. Oh and a tip, don't get excited by a half price built in pump airbed like I did and realise when it arrived that its powered by mains so have to take an inverter with us just to pump the bed up!

Any pointers will be great. If i knew what to search for would help but my parents can't remember what brand their old one was.

Cheers

[gazzarose]

Thanks for the replies. There's a few things I can keep an eye out for.

With the self inflating ones, is a 100mm thick one about where I'd want to be in a cost vs comfort trade off? I would say would it compare to my double thickness airbed but that was about as comfortable as being shot.

Cheers

[gazzarose]

Thanks for the suggestions.

The SIMs seem like the best solution. The only thing that I'm slightly concerned about is the size when rolled up. Anyone tried the different thickness Vangos? They do a 5, 7.5 and 10 so some money, and space, could be saved it I went for a 7.5 or even 5. I guess the thicker they are the more room them need when rolled, and this weekend WITHOUT the tent (my brother took it in his pickup) and just the Mrs, Me, our 2 yr old and our Jack Russel (who was in the back seat in top of our bedding) my Accord Tourer was packed to the gils including the roof box! There were a few things that could be left out, like the fold up chairs the inlaws asked us to take, but I think some sacrifices could have been made with some thinking and care. I'm thinking of the future when there might be anouther mini me and then things will get even worse. I've got no idea how 4 of us used to go away for 2 weeks when we were kids with a proper canvas tent with proper poles and a 2 ring camping stove all packed into my dads Carlton!

Can they be vacuumed to make them a bit smaller. Has anyone got a pic of a double SIM rolled up? All the pics and videos seem to be of singles, do the doubles make a ~120cm long roll?

[gazzarose]

Steve Kimberley said:

To give you an idea of the pack size of the 100mm Vango double (pen for comparison...).

So the double fold up then rolls up like a double thickness single so it's not as long?