The Trail 5cm Double Self-Inflating Camping Mattress Review

Product: The Trail 5cm Double Self-Inflating Camping Mattress
Available at: Trail Outdoor Leisure
Price: £49.99
Size when inflated: L186cm x W110cm x 5cm
Size when deflated and rolled up: L55cm x W20cm x D20cm (approx.)
Weight: 2.7 kg
My Rating: 9.1 out of 10

One could argue that the most important part of camp is the excitement that takes place during the day… however, I would counter-argue that the sleeping part at night is just as important – if you don’t properly recharge and rest at night, then you can kiss goodbye to all the fun that you’re planning to have the next day, because you’ll be too tired to enjoy it!

Camping is a complete package – every aspect of it is important and needs to be done properly, to make sure that the rest of it works well.

If you don’t eat properly, then you won’t have enough energy for other activities.

If you don’t have proper waterproofs, then you’ll be miserable when it starts to rain as it inevitably will in Britain.

And equally if you don’t have the right sleeping gear, then you won’t have a good night’s sleep and you’ll be too tired to take on the day’s fun, but strenuous activities.

A lot of novice campers invest in a decent sleeping bag, but they don’t pay enough attention to what goes underneath the sleeping bag.

The vast majority of cold comes from the ground when sleeping in a tent, so it’s important to have something underneath your sleeping bag to stop this cold from permeating through to your body.

Many campers will you use a simple ground mat, which will effectively block the cold from getting through.

But what if you could block the cold and add a bit of comfort too?

I’m going to be looking at the Trail 5cm Double Self-Inflating Camping Mattress to see if it can do just that.

Initial Set Up

The mat is quite straight forward to set up – simply unroll the mat, open its air valves and each side of the mat will automatically inflate.

Trail says that the mat should be left for 15 minutes to self-inflate and then topped up with a few breaths before closing the valves.

The instructions said to leave the mat for 24 hours and then to deflate and roll it up and that this should be repeated 3 times before using the mat for the first time.

After this initial set up process, it would be a simple matter of leaving the mat to self-inflate for 15 minutes and then topping it up with a few breaths each time you want to use it.

First Impressions

I found that the mat had inflated nicely after 15 minutes and once I had topped it up with a few breaths it felt nice and firm, but was also not too hard and had a bit of give.

Having followed the instructions precisely and repeated the whole inflate and deflate process three times over 3 days – I set out to use it for the first time.

I’d already informed my better half that I would be spending the night on the hard floor downstairs and, to my mild annoyance, she simply replied that it was fine as she would get the whole bed to herself… ?

Anyway, I got my sleeping bag ready and settled down for the night.

The Night

I’ve used a number of different camping mats and air beds over the years and my initial feeling was that this one felt quite good… I pretty much know straight away if I’m going to find what I’ve chosen to sleep on comfortable or not and I could tell that this had just the right amount of firmness and give.

The core of the mat is made from PU memory foam – Trail say that they have designed their mats to make the mat feel like you are sleeping on a regular mattress… To be honest, it’s not the same as a high quality mattress, but then realistically it’s not going to be…

And well, I woke up in the morning feeling well-rested – I know I’ve slept well, when I sleep the whole night without waking up and that’s what happened, so that’s a thumbs up from me.

You maybe wondering why I went for the double mattress instead of the single one… well, basically, I like to fidget… whenever I’ve used a single mat in the past, I’ve always ended up half on the mat and half on the floor at an odd angle.

With this double mat, I could literally shift around as much as I wanted to and I was still on the mat the whole time – the ridge in the middle didn’t cause an issue and was narrow enough not to be felt even when I was sleeping over it…

If you’re travelling to camp in a car and your tent is big enough to accommodate it, then I would recommend the double mat for one adult – it feels a lot less restrictive than the single one, but that is just my preference and it would work for two adults who aren’t as fidgety as I am…

I left the mat inflated for several days after I’d spent the night on it and there was no apparent loss of air – it was still just as firm as when I’d initially inflated it.

Portability

For camping in a single location, it’s fine – it packs away to slightly bigger than a packed sleeping bag and is worth it for the extra comfort it will give.

For backpacking, it’s too bulky and heavy – you may be able to get away with the single mat for this or you maybe be better off with a much lighter mat such as the Ultralight Lightweight Camping Mat With Pillow.

Other Features

Outer Shell

The outer shell is made from a high-density and water-resistant polyester coating to protect it from absorbing any moisture. I’ve not tried it in a proper camp setting yet, but it has a very rugged and durable feel to it.

Warmth

Being 5cm thick and having a core made of PU memory foam means it should definitely block any cold emanating from the ground.

Storage

Once deflated and rolled up the mat can be secured with the roll strap and clips – this is an excellent feature.

Other mats, that don’t have this, end up unrolling into a large diameter, uncontrollable mess… I’ve ended up using a belt or rope to prevent this from happening.

Carry Bag

A drawstring bag is included to store and carry the mat in.

Specifications

• Expanding memory foam core has a thickness of 5cm when inflated and features a weather-resistant 190T polyester coating
• Size when inflated: L186cm x W110cm x 5cm / Size when deflated and rolled up: L55cm x W20cm x D20cm (approx.)
• Weight: 2.7 kg

Conclusion

I have to say that this is a really good camping mat – the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and I woke up feeling very refreshed and rested.

As I mentioned before – I haven’t tried it in an actual camp setting yet, but my feeling is that I will like it.

The only one slightly negative aspect of it, is that it’s a bit hard to pack away… it doesn’t deflate easily – when I was rolling up the mat to deflate it, then it seemed that air was coming back in as I was trying to push it out.

Eventually I developed a technique of rolling it while it was completely open (not folded in half), then sealing the valves while it was rolled up like this, then unrolling it again, folding it in half and re-rolling it as tightly as I could – this seemed to work better, but it was still quite a bit of effort… however, I think this is a natural feature of most self-inflating mats.

As I said this was the only slight downside – apart from that I couldn’t fault it and I’ll be hopefully spending a lot of comfortable nights on it at camp over the coming years.

The Trail 5cm Double Self-Inflating Camping Mattress is available from Trail Outdoor Leisure.

You can also get other sizes of the self-inflating mattress here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this review.

If you have any questions or comments, then please leave them below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Mohammad