You can get the foam mattresses or even just a 3-4" roll of the stuff on
Ebay - got one myself recently and LOVE it. Now have one for on top of my
bed at home and one to put on my cot in the trailer, too. It's the same
stuff they use in Tempurpedic mattresses that are way out there in cost.
It's called convection. The air is headed next the the warm
body and this sets up a current as the warm moves away and the to be replaced
by cold air which draws away more heat.
However, air is one of the
most effective insulators known if it is contained in many small pockets. This
is how down, thinslate, closed cell foam, fiberglass and styrofoam work. The
capture of air in many small pockets keeps the currents from being
established and hence keep the warm air next to the warm body. An air mattress
will remove heat from the body very rapidly. The best insulation to sleep on
is closed cell foam ( open cell foam air mattresses such as "Thermorest").
I've sleep in a snow cave on a closed cell foam pad and have been quite
toasty. Both are available at places like REI.
I've always heard that the layer of air in an air
mattress just conducts the cold from the ground right up to you. My
husband and I found this to be true at a Dec. ride several years ago...we
were absolutely miserable in our tent and air mattress (about 5-6" thick
mattress). We luckily had a little propane heater, which we had to
replace the canister on every 3-4 hours or so. We spent 3 nights in
that tent. Up side is, the next weekend my husband said "Let's go
trailer shopping!", and 10 days later we had our LQ trailer! I'd have
dragged him to a cold ride a long time before that if I'd known that was all
it took to get a LQ trailer! <VBG>
Dawn in East
Texas
--
We imitate our
masters only because we are not yet masters ourselves, and only
because in doing so
we learn the truth about what cannot be imitated.
