Extra Protection for an Inflatable

a light ground cloth, the bottom of your tent (if you use one), or a bivy (if you use one) are both going to provide puncture protection to a large extent. Something like a gossamer gear polycro ground cloth will weight about an ounce as a bigger footprint for a tent, but would obviously be less cut down. Its pretty tough material and while it gets dirty, i've never had anything puncture it

Excellent suggestion. I wonder if anyone has done any testing of the puncture resistance of various materials/products? This would be a nice BPL article.

In my setup my poncho is pretty much my most expendable piece of gear. It's one of my least expensive items, could easily be replaced or improvised and unlike an inflating pad, a little abrasion won't totally ruin it, as even the smallest hole would for an air pad.

I'd doubt that any fabric would offer much protection from a thorn or goat head. Just think of how easily a sewing needle or pin passes through that stuff. Now, Tyvek on the other hand, might off some, but I dunno how much. Seems like an easy thing to test out though.

This is actually an issue I've been giving a lot of thought to lately, but haven't come up with any better ideas other than carrying one of those GG 1/8" thick pads. the problem is they come in weird sizes. I've got a 20" x 78" pad air mattress. 19 3/8" x 59 1/8"? Suluk sells a padded ground sheet that's 24 x 72, which is better, but something like a 22 x 80 would be ideal- an inch of overhang on all the sides would probably be ideal.

BM

BM,
Oware has one at 20×76.

Ross,
If you don't carry an extra pad, would your NeoAir be sufficient for pack support or do you have a framed pack? I'm not UL yet (11.6 base) and my 3/16 Oware pad was barely enough support as it's very flexible even folded into 6 layers.

Michael: I have a framed pack. I think there are some posts somewhere about folks who have used inflatables to support a frameless pack. I think if I used a frameless pack, then it would give me one more reason to continue my current setup.