I like OM’s idea of spending a couple of nights on the floor when you buy a pad!
Our family has a hard time with backpacking air pads <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />. But when my wife and I sleep on a deluxe full-size air mat, blown up hard, we sleep good.

I’ll have to try that deluxe-ridgerest idea. It will fit on our ‘box springs’ perfectly.

We’ve had trouble with beds. So we sleep on a combination of closed-cell and open-cell egg crate foam pads. It keeps our back nice and straight. I think our ‘box springs’ are unique:
1. We use one layer of shelving from http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2455974 as the stand
2. We put a layer of ¾” plywood on top of that; 4’x6’. This is smaller than a full-size bed but my wife likes it <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.
3. We cut our closed and open foam’s to fit on that.

Now it never bows in the middle! My wife and I are very sensitive to bowing even if it’s 1/2” inch. We have done this method for over a year. We are enjoying the extra storage capacity that is now underneath the bed; like 18” of free space.

-Barry