Best Pillow with Neo Air Pad?

Robert, I just used a montbell pillow with my neo-air on my last trip. At first, I underinflated it and left it on the pad but felt that it ate up too much space. I ended up placing the pillow just off the pad but tilted it 90* to give it some super height. Worked quite well…I hope that made sense.

Your backpack under the Flexair ?
Maybe with your towel (?) in-between
Bubble wrap/Flexair ?
In a forested area you could use grass and leaves + Flexair…
or fill a plastic bag/dry sack(inside out) with dirt/sand+Flexair
Franco

I'm going to try bubble wrap, ~4 inches high folded over, stuffed inside the stuff sack I'm using to transport the neo air and my clothes. Bubble wrap weighs ~1oz. Testing it last night, it's a firm fillow, but livable. This is bubble wrap with 1" or so diameter bubble, not the thinner kind. I'd rather get a inflatable pillow, but I just spent all that money on the NeoAir. Reading Franco's answer now, maybe I'll cut the bubbble wrap amount in half and find a flat rock to put it on top of and save .5 oz.

I always have spare clothing ( at least pants and a top of some sort) so it's a bit hard for me to visualise the problem . Because of the relative small weight of the head , bubble wrap can work well but of course takes up lots of room, hence the suggestion of a mix.
I have the dual chamber version of the Flexair, never tried the other one but I think that my head can better rest in the one I have.
For a while I was using the bladder from wine casks, first the 4L then the 2L
The 4l is 6" thick in the middle when fully inflated. About 9" L and W. I used it at about 3" wrapped around with both my pants and a shirt/jumper on top of that. It is a bit noisy. (crinkly) 1.5 oz
The 2L is for me a better shape and still large enough once wrapped up.
2 L 9"x6", 3/4 oz (inc air). The mat in the pics is inflated to 2.5"
Franco

OK, I'll contribute our pillows to this.

Block of PU foam, cored with ~1" holes
Fleece and UL fabric cover
Ordinary polycotton 'pillowslip'

These are many years old. They go on the air mat. We love them.

Details at http://www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/DIY_RNCDesigns.htm#Pillows

Cheers

Roger
You could be the winner here but we need to know the specs.
(can't be bother searching for them)
Franco
Forgot : did you freeze the foam to drill those holes ?

Franco I love your pillow..
the best part is it gives one an excuse to down a few litres of wine;-)

Phil
As you would understand from the Neo Air review, specs can change; however after testing 47 4L casks and 63 2L ones I finally had to concede that the specs on these products are consistent.
Franco

Tinny at MiniBull Designs has an 11 minute video about making a “Swiss Pillow” … very similar to Roger’s.

Hi Jim

Yep, what Tinny is showing (from about a year ago) is what I did early in 2004. See http://www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/DIY_RNCDesigns.htm#Pillows . No freezing was needed.

However, I put a 1/2" shank on the tube and mounted it in a big drill press. I also mapped out a grid onto the foam first so I could control the density of the holes. I found that slightly smaller holes were better as they allowed a finer control over the compression of the pillow. So my wife's pillow is a little softer than mine.

A word of caution is in order about drilling with power. Do it wrong and the drill can grab on the foam – then the whole lots spins! But usually it does no damage.

Another word of caution. NEVER EVER try to get the foam out of the tube before the tube has completely stopped spinning – absolutely stopped. Don't cork-bore your fingers.

Cheers

Roger,

Being familiar with many of your projects I have no doubt that your pillows are well thought out … perhaps even engineered. And that is instantly obvious when you see the photo of pillow. It's an approach I really appreciate.

But part of our audience here will likely gravitate to Tinny's quick and dirty approach.

As Ben Franklin's grandfather has been alleged to have said … "It's better to strike a straight blow with a crooked stick than it is to spend your whole life trying to straighten the d*mn thing out." (William Oncken, Managing Management Time)

I am wondering if one could take some of the current 2L and 3L water pouches and turn them into pillows also when empty or full by adding air.

Roger, how did you "put a 1/2" shank on the tube"? How did you put a 1/2 shank into a 1" tube and secure the two together?
Its a great idea for a pillow- now I just need to find the foam (at a reasonable price)

Hi Jim and Tad

Yes, you can do it by hand, no worries. I started that way, but got a tired wrist while experimenting, which is why I motorised it.

How? I have a workshop, which makes it so easy. I machined (lathe) a bit of plastic down to a 2" long plug which was a tight fit in the tube. I stuffed the plug in the tube and then bored a 1/2" hole down the middle of the plug. Then I jammed a bit of 1/2" steel rod into the hole.

Doing this without a lathe is much harder. The rod must be concentric with the tube – otherwise the tip of the tube flails around!

Foam is cheap.

Cheers

I made one of Roger’s pillows a few years ago and I love it, though on UL walks in summer I use a wine bladder as it can be used as a water carrier.

Like Roger I also have a good workshop, I used a cork coring mandrel that I had at work in a drill press, this was not actually that easy at first as the coring mandrel grabbed a lot causing the foam to spin but after some practice I found the right speed and feel I managed to make a pillow.

I feel it was well worth the effort though as it is much more comfortable that what I used previously which was one of my stuff sacks filled with spare clothes.

Tony

“As you would understand from the Neo Air review, specs can change; however after testing 47 4L casks and 63 2L ones I finally had to concede that the specs on these products are consistent.

Franco”

Dear Mr. Darioli

Dr Bigfinger asked me to contact you. He would like it if you could please come in for some liver testing. It also seems that you have some elevated sulfite levels. Have you been stung by bees lately? Oh, silly me. You hike in Australia. If you were stung by our bees you would undoubtedly be dead in 24 seconds, right?

Well anyway, please only drink ale before your appointment so we can be as accurate as possible.

Sincerely

Nurse Wantamanta…

Thermarest has a wrap it pillow that I use and it works great. You basically slide it over the end and just stuff some spare clothes, stuff sacks, etc into it. In the past I struggled with keeping a pillow on pad. With all the slick materials I spent half the night chasing down my pillow. This keeps everything in place.

I have found many a good night's sleep using a stuff sack with extra clothing on an exped airmat. However, I have now eliminated much of this extra clothing from my load. I was considering getting a flexair to go with my neo-air small. But I do think that the 2l wine bag and a little clothing for cushion could be the way to go. The dual function of the wine bag holds an advantage over the flexair.

Now I just need to do some testing to see if the wine bag is a great improvement over the 1L Platypus bottle I already carry.