Groundsheet puncture resistance

I assume you're using a tarp for a shelter, otherwise a tent floor would be another barrier to protect your neoair.

If you're worried about pinholes from the ground, the thicker the ground cloth the better, within reason. A ccf pad under the neoair sounds like a no-brainer but foam pads can pick up thorns like a pin cushion and remain unseen until pressure from you atop your inflatable pushes the thorn up from the foam pad into your neoair.

So, special care needs to be done with both types of pads, i.e. Don't just hang them on the outside of the pack w/o protection.

I use a heavy duty walmart-type tarp cut to the size of my tent floor (currently the Akto) and use it inside my tent to prevent ground water from pooling between the tent floor and an outside ground cloth.

Here's an easy test you can do—Go find a rose bush and peel off a thorn. Now take that thorn and try to press it thru your tyvek and polycro. It will probably easily pass thru. Not good. Find something more beefy which stops the thorn. This is one of the purposes of a good ground cloth.

Another important challenge for a good ground cloth is its ability to keep water out when pressure is applied as in a sitting person atop a ground cloth over a puddle of water. No sponge effect should occur; no water should seep thru.

I got about 1000 miles out of my polycro groundsheet on the PCT.

I used a foam pad but a good friend I hiked with got about 1000 miles with his polycro also with a neoair pad.

My .02 cents

1 use a 1.0 cuben groundsheet
and my raingear
and my maps
and spare ziplocks

if I have a 1/8 ccf with me I use it too.

Never had a problem, even camping on cactus needles.

Waterproof paper maps are TOUGH

I hike mostly in the desert. Clear my site if needed and use a 1/8" foam pad. So far so good over several years with my NeoAir. The past couple of years I have been folding my pad into a small package and carrying it inside my pack so it is easy to use the pack as airline carryon and also hike is brushy areas.

I like that waterproof map idea : ) No immediate issues with the ink rubbing off?

I had a rare opportunity to hang out with THE tent repair guy for one of the top 10 tent manufacturers. He had a real passion for material science. We nerded out about the new 10 denier tents coming out. I asked him though what he thought the impact of 10 denier tent materials was going to have on durability.

His answer: The new materials are engineered to same/similar tensil strength etc. But a stick is still a stick. If you sleep on a sharp pointy thing, its going to poke a hole in your tent regardless of how heavy and "durable" your tent is. He said just mail it to your manufacturer and they'll repair it for free or a minimal fee. PS. he also said when folks ducktape 10 denier sil nylon and ask him to repair it, it makes him sad.

My hiking buddy uses an inflatable pillow as a sit pad regularly around the campfire or on trail breaks. He's punctured it a few times from abraision with the rock he's sitting on. When he uses the reapir kit, he usually has the it glued, and reinflated before dinner has finished cooking.

I used to use Tyvek (building-wrap grade) as a groundcloth. (By itself – I desert hike and am almost never in a tent). Then one day I realized how heavy the stuff is. I bought a piece of kite-making Tyvek, and a piece of polycryo – lighter, and even lighter still, than the building-grade Tyvek. Next hike, my friend used one and I the other. It turns out the polycryo was more durable than the kite-making Tyvek, and it's lighter. It's what I'm using from now on. BTW, a rep at Gossamer Gear – where I bought the polycryo – told me that the large sheet they sell is a slightly thicker grade than the 2-pack of smaller sheets. And the stuff is so cheap, if it only lasts for a couple of hikes, I don't care.

Also, FWIW, I use NeoAir too, and the thinness of it freaks me out. So I switched to the Trekker, which is a considerably heavier fabric (at least on the bottom). No way would I consider the light-weight version.