The Ultimate Cure for a Slippery Sleeping Pad – Simple Modification
I’m calling them my ‘Anti-slip Limpet Strips’.
Maybe it’s just me, but I found that the combination of my Thermarest NeoAir XLite NXT sleeping pad and my Nordisk Telemark tent floor created something slipperier than a super-slippery oiled-up eel!
It wasn’t a huge problem but it just wouldn’t stay where I put it. If I was sitting on one side of the sleeping pad it would just slide across the tent floor and end up perched at a jaunty angle on the side of the tent. If there was even a slight slope on my pitch the pad would slide to the bottom of the tent. In addition to the sleeping pad sliding on the tent floor, the top of it was slippery too. Whatever I used as a pillow would slide off it in no time and even I would slip and slide on it. Needless to say, all this slipping and sliding wasn’t conducive to a good nights sleep. Not for me anyway.
Sleeping Mat Modifications
It was therefore time for some modifications. I quite like a home-grown modification to a piece of kit anyway. It makes it your own, customises it to your particular preferences and makes it feel like a bespoke design.
I ordered some anti-slip mattting from Amazon and a tube of Stormsure adhesive. (Yes, I checked that this would be fine for my sleeping mat before doing so). I then simply cut some strips of the mat out and stuck it to the sleeping mat. Hey presto, the slippery oil-up eel of a sleeping mat became a super-hero limpet instead. I’m calling them my ‘Anti-slip Limpet Strips’.
Actually, it wasn’t quite that transformative but it does help. The mat now stays where I put it, and the couple of strips I put on the top at the head end hold my pillow in place too. Of course, for the ultra-light crew, it does add a small amount of weight. I’ve re-weighed the sleeping pad and it’s added a grand total of 20g coming in at 392g. It all counts towards the total pack-weight but if it makes my sleeping mat more comfortable and I get a better nights sleep because of it then I’ll have the extra energy needed to carry the additional 20g each day.
A small price to pay, both financially and in pack-weight, for a more comfortable camping experience and a customised, bespoke piece of kit.
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Oh dear more and more like you know who x
Hi Alan,
I’m having same problem with the mattress. A little incline, and I’m slipping towards the end of the 1p tent (that leads to moisture getting in, as I’m hitting the flysheet through the mesh).
Question: a year on from your hack, how does the whole thing hold?
Any issues in rolling up the mattress?
Cheers,
Jake
Hi Jake,
It’s still working fine – plenty of nights using it in all conditions and a couple of different tents. The non-slip matting that I used is so thin and flexible that it makes no difference at all to rolling it up. I’ve kind of forgotten it there and I definitely don’t slide around as much as I used to.
Al.