EZ Cot Voyager Compact Cot

[wengland]

Initial Review:

I've been looking for a cot solution that will fit in a very small tent, and be small enough to strap on the motorcycle. I found two: The Voyager Compact Cot and the Go Kot. Both use removable legs, both are about 6" high, and both pack down to a roll less than 30" long. The Voyager, however is under $50, while the Go Kot is $100 and UP.

The Voyager Compact Cot uses aluminum tubing to support the frame. This is quite solid, although with use and abuse, I could see it getting crimped or failing over the years. The Go Kot uses steel rods which would have a much longer life span.

The Voyager Compact Cot packs down to a roll about 7" wide by 4" tall by 30" long - the very same width as the saddlebags on my 1997 ST1100. It fits nicely on the back seat of the bike. It is only about 6" longer than my Thermarest pad. It weighs between 7 and 10 pounds - too heavy to backpack, but not a problem on the back of the bike. It comes with a carry sack, made of heavy weight nylon / cordura, that should hold up to repeated use fairly well.

Set up, it is about 6" tall and 74" long. In my tiny tent, it fits just right, and the extra height does not cause problems. To set it up, you unfold the frame and cover, fit the side rails together and attach the U-shaped legs to the bottom. Setup takes about 5 minutes. I'd suggest wearing gloves - the aluminum has sharp edges!

I have not used it on the road yet; however an initial test in the yard shows that it is solidly built, holds my 200 pounds without problem, and is very comfortable, significantly more comfortable than either an air mattress or a Thermarest pad.

This summer I'll put it to the test - 20 days on the road (STAR, WeSTOC, NatSTOC), most of which will be camping in Colorado and Arkansas. If work cooperates, I'll add another 14+ days travelling to Reston, VA too. :-)

I'll post followups as I get some use out of it.

Mfg URL:
http://www.ezsalesinc.com/Cots/EZ-B24.php

Available at Amazon, Cabelas, many other outlets.

[Trekker]

Nice review.
I have used a similar cot I purchased from Campmor several years ago. Same basic design and contruction with aluminum tubes. My wife and I use these cots with our Thermorest Pads. Works great! A bonus is if either the cot or the pad fail while in use, you can use the one or the other alone and still sleep OK. Kind of a redundancy. Of course, some folks might not want to strap both those items on to the bike.

Here's the link to the Campmor item.
http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=7596&memberId=12500226

[Mellow]

That's cool, I can't wait to hear your follow-up once you acually take it on a trip.

[DonD]

I am on my second tubular (totally) cot and they have me resting easy. A wee bit narrow but doable.

The first cot got "borrowed".

[sbodi4d]

I just got this delivered today from REI:http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&productId=48013146&parent_category_rn=4500552&vcat=REI_SEARCH
Haven't tried it out yet(set it up at work just to see the size) Looks to be solidly built.
Going camping next month to northern New Mexico with the wife(in the car).:mad:
Had planned to go alone on the bike, but my wife decided she needed to get away also.
I don't want to take her on a long bike trip until I get a little more experience on long trips by myself first.

[SCoffman1]

Has anyone tried the cot that Aerostich sells? http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/High-Tech-Cot-p-18894.html

I have been looking at this one with great interest, but would like to find out what others think about it.

Steve


edit: Sorry....just realized I was hijacking your review. My apologies.

[Trekker]

Steve, did you see the price of the Hi-tech cot??? While I am very impressed with the design and pack size....it's a little steep.

That said... I suppose if someone were willing to pay $120 for a Kermit chair, then $187 for a cot one would actually spend more time on is a better bargain.

[Snappers]

Has anyone tried the cot that Aerostich sells? http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/High-Tech-Cot-p-18894.html

I have been looking at this one with great interest, but would like to find out what others think about it.

Steve


edit: Sorry....just realized I was hijacking your review. My apologies.

I have the Aerostich cot, and while it is the best night of sleep I can remember while camping, I can't compare it to the other two in this review. Packing down to a small size and fitting in my panniers (ST1100) was important to me. But the price is a little scary.

--Dave

[ChipSTer]

At 6'5" (barefoot), I can't fit on just any cot... So I sleep on the ground.... :o
:cool:

[Liv2Ride]

Hello everyone I'm new to the site and I just want to tell you how happy I am to have found a site that is geared to motorcycle campers. YES! I know that I will be writing many posts as I have tried many of the products that I keep reading about from you all. There will be a bunch of other stuff that I will be posting on but right now I want to chime in on the cots. I have both the GoKot from GoKot and the Lo-Rise Cot from Aerostitch. I personnally prefer the GoKot for comfort even though it doesn't pack small. The Lo-Rise Cot certainly has them all beat (even air mats) regarding the pack size but the edges get on my nerves because I'm a stomach sleeper and my knees keep hitting the footers. The footers of the cot connect to the rails in such a way that they stick up above the actual rail when the cot is turned right side up as when in use. I've tried using it with an air mat as BlueProof speaks about on her website but that still didn't do the trick for me. So, if you are not a stomach sleeper (only 7% of the population is) than the Lo-Rise cot would work without a doubt, and I do highly recommend it because of its tiny pack size and comfort (when I lay on my back). That said, I believe that it will be one of the many items that I will probably sell once you all get to know me and trust me. The GoKot however will stay in the household :D

[Black and Blue]

Hello and Welcome to the site. Enjoy.:)

[Yamifj1200]

Has anyone tried the cot that Aerostich sells? http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/High-Tech-Cot-p-18894.html

I have been looking at this one with great interest, but would like to find out what others think about it.

Steve


edit: Sorry....just realized I was hijacking your review. My apologies.


A friend I camp with has one of the high tech cots. He has tried using it several differant ways to use it. Inside the tent, underneith the tent. His cot came with carbon fiber poles, one of them broke one night as he rolled over on it and he ended up buying some aluminum poles for it. I think his only real complaint is its not quite wide enough for his shoulders. HTH

Eric

[Liv2Ride]

Like I said in my previous post I have the Aerostich cot. After I bought it I found out that it is really the Luxury Low-Rise Cot. Aerostich simply changed the name for themselves. When I bought it, it cost me $217.00. That was less than a year ago. I agree that it should be wider. If it were wider I believe that I would not be experiencing the bumping of the knees situation which annoy's me to no end. Maybe if I were 98 pounds or 12 years old it would be different. Anyway, since it's the latest version it came with aluminum poles not fiberglass. I believe that it's solidly built and it probably is capable of holding a 300 lbs person without any problems. The problem is that the 300 pound person will probably not be comfortable. What I did to keep the cot from possibly tearing up my tent floor is to fabricate a bunch of foot protectors. I cut rectangles out of that blue wal-mart closed cell foam camping mat that fit the bottom of each foot and stuck velco on the bottom of each foot and velcro on the top of each rectangle. That way I can stick them on and pull them off when ever I need to. They have worked like a charm. If only I liked the cot as much as I like my invention. Naturally another easy thing to do to keep it from damaging the tent floor is to simply put a cheap ground cloth between it and the tent. Like the ones from Eureka. They are very basic, no grommets but they work.

So, if your interested in buying the High Tec Cot/Low-rise Luxury Cot, you can make me a offer that I cannot refuse. Once again, it is the latest model with aluminum poles. I'll even throw in all the squishy foot/floor protectors.

Let me know.

[HaChayalBoded]

I bought the texsport steel cot. Packs to the same size as my kermit chair (24x5x2). Weighs about 6 or 7lbs because its steel. Using a sleeping pad on top of it increases its length by whatever length your sleeping pad is. The head portion is angled up which is nice.

Oh and its only $20, and if it ever breaks they will ship you a new one!

Only problem is putting it together for the first time, do it at home and leave it connected to let the fabric stretch, otherwise you'll pull your hair out trying to set it up at camp.

Did I mention its only $20 and packs down to the same size as a kermit?

The cot, the kermit and the GSI macrotable all pack down to just under 24" and sit on the bottom of my cabelas boundary waters duffel which is 24x12x12. Perfection!

[aysrav]

Has anyone tried the cot that Aerostich sells? http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/...t-p-18894.html

I have been looking at this one with great interest, but would like to find out what others think about it.

Steve

As already indicated in this thread, the Luxury Lite (http://luxurylite.com) cot is being sold by other companies and under different product names.
I posted a review (http://www.motocampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2548) here earlier in the month. Hope it helps.

[Manfred]

I started considering a cot when the Coleman self inflating sleeping pad just didn't cut it. The $200 cot simply didn't make sense. I am glad I ran across this review, as it guided me well and I purchased a Voyager Compact cot; it arrived today.

I set it up in the living room - had a hard time with one of the support bars. But once set up, I plopped down on it and a big smile came upon my face. It goes into my camp bag and will make its debut next month as I spend 4 days camping and biking in east Texas (http://www.motocampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3225).

[kayakinbiker]

I carry a kermit chair and feel that adding my dog plus the other stuff would be too much for me to carry, so I don't think either one is an option...I need to learn how to pack lighter.....one pair of extra pants instead of my closet! HAHA!!