securing pillow to pad

I've been using velcro strips for years now. They work! And I haven't had any problems with velcro catching debris at all.

Re. the FlexAir pillow… I've used them before but discarded them. YMMV, of course, but they are relatively uncomfortable to me, they make quite a bit of noise, and of course, they don't last all that long (would hate to apply new velcro every "so many" trips.

If you haven't tried it already, I highly recommend MontBell's air pillow. It's built with different air chambers (so when you lay your head down, air isn't squeezed away to all other parts of the pillow) and designed to 'cradle' your head (and still works well with side sleepers like me).

Yes, I have my doubts about the Flex Air pillow–I just can't believe the darn thing won't leak during the night. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet though. And it's so light it's got to be good, right? Isn't that enough?;-)

I have been eyeballing either the Montbell or the Exped pillows. The shape of the Exped looks like it would be better for side sleeping, but the Montbell's holes on the outside just look like there should be someway to lash it in place. I sleep on my stomach or on my side, so pillows are a problem to find one that does both comfortably.

Hi Ben,

How about some velcro details? Specifically:

How many strips and what size?

How do you secure them to the pad/pillow (self adhesive, superglue)?

What pad are you using?

Thanks in advance.

Casey

I use the Montbell and run light elastic from the holes in the MB to some glued-on tabs on my Prolite.

Yet to move that system (which works) over to the NeoAir I now use almost exclusively as I don't get as much 'pillow creep' as I used to as I occupy the area above my head and the end of the inner tent with my food bag.

Slightly OT – but the NeoAir height is an issue with the MB (I don't have my pillow on the small pad); so I stole an idea from Nemo and crossed elastics under the MB pillow from its holes and stuff that space with any clothing I have to hand. Raises the MB height to just right.

I've been using a neoair and the exped pillow and use my rain jacket or a shirt to hold the pillow in place. Lay the open, unzipped jacket under the head end of the pad, lay the pillow on top of the pad, then zip up the jacket around both. Or with a shirt, just pull it over the pad and pillow.

I tried a bunch of different ways: velcro, the Therm-a-rest snap kit, etc. and none of them worked that well. I ended up gluing two grosgrain loops to the bottom corners of my Kookabay pillow with Shoe Goo. I then run a small piece of cord through the two loops and tie it around the pad, a la the Katabatic Gear quilt attachment system. It never comes off accidentally and doesn't require gluing anything to your sleeping pad. Works great for me.

Andrew

Some of the replies seem to imply that the pillow is not resting on the pad itself, but is being placed above it. Is that correct?

I like the idea of gluing loops onto the pillow and running a cord underneath. Regular cord or shock cord?

@ Casey:

Two sticky velcro strips – 1" x 3". Not sure if it makes a difference, but once applied, I put a bunch of books on them for a few hours. When separating pillow from pad out in the field, I take care to separate by "fingering through" — not by yanking apart. I've been using velcros like this for years now — on various different pillows and pads — and none has come unstuck.

I sewed little elastic loops into the margin of a Big Agnes Insulated air core. Then I attached little plastic hooks to the loops. The hooks then "hooked" into the gromets that are aready on my Montbell Pillow. This way, the pillow was on top of the airmat, and it never moved out of place. It worked great for me.

Thank you for posting this and for all of your clever solutions, BPL'rs.

"I've been using velcro strips for years now. They work! And I haven't had any problems with velcro catching debris at all."

+1

I just pull a t-shirt over the top end of my NeoAir and stuff my Pillow under it. My weight pins the bottem end of the T-Shirt. Everything stays in-place for the night even though I toss alot and I have a fresh T-Shirt for the morning.

Somewhere in the MYOG forum I saw where someone (I wish I could remember who to give them credit) used GearAid Tenacious Tape to make tabs with holes made by a hole-punch and coupled with small plastic toggles taped to the other piece of gear.
It was freaking genius.
When I'm not on an iPad I'll do a better search if I'm not beaten to it.

>> It was freaking genius.

I have to agree, that guy has some great ideas.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=62842&skip_to_post=537532#537532

Seems you just beat me to the link.
Not only was the idea a great one, it introduced me to Tenacious Tape, as well as got me thinking about other implementations of this tape/toggle set up.

Thumbs up man.

I do something similar but use a Buff and pull the buff over my Exped Air Pillow which provides enough resistance to keep the pillow on my Neoair and gives my face a better surface to lay on.

Love it, when it's cold i jus shove the pillow inside the hood of my sleeping bag. but in the summer I will probably be using a quilt so no hood.

/goes on search for toggles.