As a precursor, I am a fan of BA products. But I am extremely DISSAPOINTED with their marketing of this product. Can't say anything about the product itself as I was so disgusted while at my local gear shop I plopped the xtra mula on the counter for the NeoAir Xlite. I have been sleeping on a 20" x 72" BA insulated air core for a year now and have been extremely happy with the pad. The craftmanship, comfort etc..... I have slept many a good night with this and my WM Alpinlite. I am a cold sleeper and the insulation is a must have even in the warmer edges of the shoulder seasons. A friend of mine told me he was going to buy his son an inflatable to upgrade him from the wal mart blue foam (kudos to my friend). My scheme went into play, I offered to sell him my BA pad and I would quickly use this money to offset the expense of the new lighter Q core SL. So, the deal was made. I went to my local shop so I could look, touch, feel and lay on it before purchase. I did my research! Specifically the pad is advertised to be 20" wide. As everyone can see by the attached PIC. This pad is certainly not 20". I mean I could understand a difference of 1/2" or even 3/4". But C'mon BA. It is clearly short by 3". I am a homebuilder and commercial builder. I have been reading a tape measure for many years! How can you sell a product and specify it's dimensions this far off! Can't be an accident! I beleive in trust but verify but BA has lost even this basic level of trust from this GEAR Junkie. Even though this is a rather lengthy post that could have been more succinct, I wanted to tell my story. To all BPL fans out there, before you consider this piece of equipment take a look at the pic below! and buyer beware!

Do you think they measured it before they blew it up?

I'm wondering about the deflated size too. Kinda like the tent makers some years back giving so many different weights except for what we wanted to know.

Other wise, how did the pad stack up?
Duane

The pic does show the Q core blown up and the std. air core deflated. You guys will have to trust me but you can verify. The two pads on top of each other when deflated are not much different. When I laid on the pad my shoulders were easily overhanging the pad. I am a 5'10", weigh 195lbs and fairly muscular. I did forget to mention this, when rolling over to my side, the weight of my hips displaces the air completely out of this region of the pad and my hips fell completely to the hard ground. I sat on the edge of the pad as I would when sitting out of the front of my tent and the pad displaces and I am sitting on hard ground.

Ew. Way to go, BA.

Did you contact them?

No point, I doubled down at the table and went with the xlite. Besides, the market will ferret this out. It always does. Just doing my part with letting everyone see it with the their own eyes.

Maybe they have some serious quality control issues going on. I have the petite size, 3.5x20x66 and deflated it measures around 22 1/2", inflated it's right around 20". One thing that irritated me about it is that they spec the 72" at weighing 16oz. My 66" weighs in at 17.1oz on my scale. I have to say though, I find the pad extremely comfortable and I really like it. I've only used it two nights so far but I used it's heavier big brother(non SL Q-Core) on quite a few trips. I wish it weighed about 2oz less, but I can live with it.

That is disappointing. I had developed an interest in this pad but 20" is narrow enough. I had actually been thinking of going with the std. Q core in the 25" width despite the weight penalty. I definitely am not going to try sleeping on a 16" wide mat.

CB, looking at how the tape curves around, I'd call that 18" tops.

Edited by T.L. on 02/27/2013 20:22:27 MST.

I'm a NeoAir fan…but FWIW…an XLite L (25" W) I got recently, is not 25"…whereas my All Season LW (25" W) is 25". I was a little disappointed, as I like the wider pads…but…I got over it.

-Mark in St. Louis

I posted this in the other thread, but I agree, it is so narrow.

I sent mine back as well, way too narrow. Not happy with the false weight specs either.

They could have used lighter fabrics too. It's pretty heavy duty, I wonder if its the same as the regular IAC.

The difference between a 20" pad and 25" wide pad is night and day. Well worth the weight difference in weight.

I'm really bummed to read this, and I will check it out the next time I'm down near our REI. If the pad is narrower than the 20" BA I already use, it's absolutely no good for me. Heck, if the 25" would fit in my BA bag sleeve, I'd use one and happily carry the weight for even more solid sleep.

After laying on the Q-Core in Kittridge Sports after a week on my Air-Core, I have been lusting for a lighter version, ever since. THAT pad was downright nice.

Agreed on being really disappointed. I'm with Dena in that since I moved to a quilt I seem to want a wider pad (my arms just want to fall off all the time...), so going even more narrow than 20 is not at all appealing.

I guess I'll stick with exped for now. Boo.

Jennifer,
As long as your knuckles don't drag the ground, you should be fine.:)

I guess we will have to adjust our views and go with a wider, heavier BA pad for the comfort we want.
Duane

It seems I have really spurned some great debate. Our comfort in the backcountry and the ability for a good nights sleep is really important to me and to a great many, especially at my age (42). I wanted to make sure by reposting that I enumerated my beef a bit more succinctly instead of the lengthy original post. I was quite happy with the look, feel, touch and quality of the pad. I am sure it performs as good and maybe better than my original BA insulated air core. The weight of the pad while achieving an R-5 is awesome. My complaint is that BA advertises its original BA insulated air core at a width of 20". Now they advertise the new Q Core SL as being 20". I was expecting the pad to be the same width as the earlier. So many of us order items online and we do this on the faith that manufacturers are giving us correct information (albeit with some acceptable variation as we are accustomed to). The two products share a lineage and an expectation that they are the same was my expectation. If I had ordered this online and awaited it's arrival and encountered this, I would not have been dissappointed. I would have extremely angry. My aim with this thread was not to thwart another's purchase of this product but simply to educate. If your body type allows for this narrow of a pad than you are in luck and will be the happy owner of SUL pad with a four season R value. Otherwise, I expect and hope to have a great experience with my new Xlite pad (25).

James, last weekend I measured my small, NeoAir to set a base figure. I thought I could live with the BA being a little smaller, this may not be acceptable. I'll have to do a retake this weekend. Thank you for the heads up. With my spending my income tax refund on all cuben gear already, bike maintenance, glasses, motorcycle camping gear, I can wait now to get a newer and lighter mattress for snow camping. Snow camping will be over in a few more months, I can use what I have already. Besides, maybe some reviews will come in or a upgraded mattress will become available.
Duane

Jen-

I've been doing a lot of debating about pads lately too, but ultimately I think I'm with you on sticking the the Exped pad. It's a total winner is many regards.

KJ