Balloon Bed - Top Tips?

[DanLear]

for my birthday yesterday I got a balloon bed...any top tips on use/popping avoidance/spare balloon sources etc?

Must admit it was very comfy in my limited living room trial...

[didnothingfatal]

Leave at home buy a proper bed :D

[slugwash]

I used to stick my balloon bed inside my bivi bag to protect it from rogue sharp things hellbent on popping all my balloons and ruining my night's sleep.

However, I found that when I rolled over in the night the BB rolled with me leaving my side exposed to the rough, cold terrain. So what I did was cut a bit of old tent groundsheet with a footprint slightly bigger than the BB and sleep with it outside the bivi bag. This works well and also makes it less liable to lose some width by the ballons bunching together inside your bivi bag.



I've only had one balloon pop on me and that when i was doing a living room trial run like yourself. I've had a couple of cheaper ballons slightly deflate overnight and I've also forgotten to bring enough balloons but have survived the night with no great discomfort.

I've tried different types of balloons but the Qualatex (or whatever they're called) are the strongest and most consistent/regular in sizing when inflated. Try shoving an irregular sized 'sausage' seven times into the BB on a cold, windy night and you'll soon be dreaming of Thermorests!

You can buy packs of 100 on ebay for a shade over a fiver.



I love my balloon bed but nowerdays only consider it for ultralightweight excursions (mountain marathons or trips where I might not definately be camping out or an extra layer of insulation if it's frickin' glacial out there). I find that the ease and comfort that a full length mat brings is worth the extra 400 grammes.

HTH

[didnothingfatal]

Tying the balloons with cold wet hands, suggest you fill sink with cold water and ice, submerge hands and practice this skill.

[slugwash]

Tying the balloons with cold wet hands, suggest you fill sink with cold water and ice, submerge hands and practice this skill.........

...... in a wind tunnel with your fellow campers all tucked up in their bivi bags, lying on Neoairs and relentlessly mocking you without remorse ;-)

[DanLear]

Thanks for the words of support and encouragement

I feel you *have* to try these things...then I can join the ranks of the confirmed cynics

[slarge]

Many a happy hour spent blowing up and tying balloons, massaging them into the bed, and then lying in comfort until a balloon pops in the middle of the night.

Polaris's used to be funny - at night you would hear: snore snore snore BANG ,followed by "sh1T". This would happen regularly from around the campsite until morning.

How many sleeping mats weigh 100grams? You just can't beat a balloon bed.

However, for convenience I would take a foam mat if I ever did heavyweight camping

[adjustablewench]

I have just got back from a week long trip around the isle of man with my two youngest, all three of us used balloon beds for the week. i had read tails of woe about tying the balloons and having rubbish hands in the cold i experimented with other closures - and found plastic paper clips to be ideal. I will draw a diagram if anyone is interested in how i did it, but they did work and stayed up - on one campsite for two nights.

I used qualatex balloons and they did the job only a handful popping/deflating in the night. I pumped them up with a cheap decathlon pump with the adaptor parts unscrewed - was just the right size to stretch the balloons over without any problem and the thread meant they were easy to hold in place. not my best bike pump but was happy to take it for both jobs as it worked so quickly on the balloons.

as they were only looped around the paper-clips and not tied it meant i could reused them, and this did work although they were slightly lumpier when re-inflated. I made the beds with channels approximately 7cm apart and this seemed to work for all but the lumpiest ones.

Was surprised how comfy they were i have an annoying habit of rolling on my front with my hands underneath me - a killer on a thermarest as you wake up with dead arms but ok on the balloons. the boys were so happy with theirs my youngest wanted to get rid of his bed and use balloons instead.

I did become a dab hand at rustling up dinner for three on a trangia whilst pumping up balloons - pays to multi task.

the only thing i was careful with was to remove tags of plastic left from the moulding of the paper-clips as this would be sharp enough to pop the balloons