Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm writing this review because I have a competing cot to compare it to, the Byer of Maine Alagash. First, I like this "type" of cot because you can use it in a soft floored tent without ripping it up. The GI style will shred a tent floor. Second, the ALPS cot is almost identical in size and comfort as a regular GI army cot. If you're a vet, it'll feel very familiar (assuming you were usually lucky enough to get both the head and foot cross bars for your army cot, spent plenty of nights with only one myself). Now, how it compares to the Byers cot! It's a little softer. The Byers is stiffer by a little bit, but with a thick pad I doubt it's a noticeable difference. More importantly, the Byers is WAY easier to set up! The side bars of the ALPS are sectional pieces that you hook together like old school tent poles and then feed down the sleeves on either side, and you have to fish them back out to break it down. The Byer has hinges in the middle and stay in the cot fabric all the time. Also, the Byers comes with a repurposed arrow puller that you use as a handle to bend the legs into place. Now, that's not a deal breaker for me and probably shouldn't be for you, but you need to be honest with yourself to know for sure. If you typically arrive at your campsite on your last nerve, sick of the car, sick of the people in the car, sick of everybody else in their stupid cars, and you just want to set up camp, tell everyone to shut up and eat a sammich, this cot MIGHT be enough to push you over the edge (if trying to set up your new tent for the first time didn't already). I know you folks are out there, my little family camps enough to see (and hear) it all the time! If you generally arrive at your campsite with a smile, thinking to yourself "Man, this beats the heck out of being at work!", you'll have no problems setting up this cot. Some backstory you probably can't be bothered to read but will give you my perspective from experience: I'm an Army vet who loved being in the field, as well as a backpacker (I prefer the term "through-hiker" since it was in the wilderness rather than "across Europe" or such) as well as an avid medium-core adventurer. In 2014 my wife and I resolved to see every state park in CO. Halfway through I knocked her up and it almost came to an end, until she agreed that she could keep camping if she could sleep well. So, we got her the Byer cot and thick camp pad and continued on! Now that I've been out of uniform long enough, I've started getting fat, lazy and soft, so I decided I want a cot too and picked up this one from ALPS. They lost one star for made in China. It doesn't need to be usa made, but just about anywhere but China would be better.