Prolite4 regular vs short - noticable di fference?

“Although my old therm-a-rest has held up really well, after buying my newly-jazzed-on-backpacking-wife a Prolite4 Regular I realized how fricken bulky and heavy by old pad is by new standards. Time to surrender it to the oldest boy and give him a break from the foam pad.

So Im looking at the 72" Regular length vs the 48" Short length, and Im holding a tape measure up to myself, and Im thinking 'will my body really notice the extra 2 feet??

I'd like to think that a shorty will be just fine on the trail, but I've been sleeping on a full size pad forever. Will the difference be noticable?”

“I just stuff my clothes under my feet inside the bag to keep them off the ground when I use my shorty. Plus I have one of those Thermarest stadium seats that I use around the campfire, then when I go to bed I put it under the foot of my bag. But just using my clothes works pretty well.”

“I'm 5' 8" and sleep on a short ProLite 4.
I use a blowup pillow at the top of the pad, not on the pad, and my knees rest on the other end of the short pad.
I usually have my empty backpack under my feet.
Works fine for me.”

“Only when it's cold do I notice the difference. As long as I have something to rest my heels on I'm fine with a shorty.

I have a 12.1oz Prolite 3 Short I've used once I could sell you cheap :D”

“I tried using a short sleeping pad but never got used to it, I just like having it there for my legs.”

“I decided my ProLite 3 was just to thin for rock.
Works fine on forest duff.
last edited: 5/10/05 4:06:52 PM”

“Of course, I have a full-length BA Insulated Air Core now...”

“I got a short one, but I am a short one too (only 5'2"). I use my backpack as a pillow, so the short therm-a-rest is just fine for me.”

“I just bought a regular sized pro'4 and stretched out on it for a while in the Brasington's shop floor; compared to my expedition therm-a-rest extra long pad, the pro'4 seems thick enough, and o.k comfortable. It's lightweight. The pro'3s prob'ly closer to the Z-lite series in comfort, to me anyway. Length-wise the pro'4 is fine. I'm 6-1. The tum'bler is that I shift from side to side, so that I'll have to pay attention to staying on the pad. I can't think you'll notice the 2 feet in warm weather, but in cold weather you might feel a small difference, that depending on the temp rating of your bag too. If you're hiking hard and consequently sleeping hard too, you'll not likely notice the missing inches.

Cheers. :]”

“By nighttime, pretty much all of my gear is out of my backpack (I keep my stuff sack of extra clothes under my pillow for extra pillowness)so I put my empy pack under my lower legs/feet.

Another vote for short pad.”

“The only difference I've seen is how much nicer the InsulMat is over everything else. LOL!”

“I use the shorty pad and its fine, i tend to pull my knees up and usually don't have much hanging off the pad. In the winter I put a Z rest with it.”