Rex-Creations
Pad-Pal V5.3 (Unknown Timeline, maybe late 2025)
Pad-Pal V5.3 (Unknown Timeline, maybe late 2025)
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Hi hikers!
This is a blank product page where you can sign up for the "notify me when available" list for the Pad-Pal V5.3 update as some have been asking for. I'll also be putting updates on the V5.3 progress here. But the timeline on when it will be available is largely unknown due to an issue I currently lack the tools to debug.
I like to be transparent on what I'm working on, or at least as much as I reasonably can be while still protecting my R&D efforts. This is so us hikers can all make informed gear acquisition decisions on what we want to buy/need for our upcoming hiking goals. I don't want anyone to feel like they got bamboozled into purchasing something only to have a "newer version" come out soon after. Just keep in mind I'm always working on these things, there have been 8 different version sold in the past 3 years. Though the time between iterations is definitely slowing as the design gets more refined thanks to your willingness to share ideas, issues, or concerns! So thank you guys!
I'm not an engineer by trade, thus I lack the design skills/wisdoms such professionals have. This means the Pad-Pal is only this refined of a design thanks to the direct input and guidance of its users over the years and my willingness to iterate it whenever an opportunity to do so arises. Because of this, I genuinely like to think of the Pad-Pal as a hiker community designed project. I'm not some brain wiz who single handedly innovated a new market segment, I'm just the face of a hiker hive mind who all contributed ideas, testing, issue reporting, and in some cases, genuine expertises free of charge. Having gotten to this point would have been impossible without your guidance! So never be afraid to reach out and chat, you all are kind of like my super power in this regards!
I don't update these design out of some sort of planned obsolescence goals, I do so because I enjoy working on this project, listening and conversing with users on feedback/ideas, and tweaking it in ways to better serve our mutual hiking community. Thus there is no guarantee that V5.3 will come to market in 2025. It will be ready when it is ready. Until then, the V5.2 will remain on sale for $38 USD until it can be replaced.
Goals for V5.3: (not all may be met as I continue development)
- Price: I'm targeting $48 USD for the assembled unit, KIT price yet to be determined.
- Tool-less user swappable components: Not that this was a needed feature, but the goal here is to make it as easy to repair for a thru-hiker on a town day (with no access to tools) as I can. Because the easier it is to repair, the more likely a hiker will do so instead of tossing it in the landfill and replacing it. Thus it gets to amortize its impact over a longer service life... or so the idea goes. XD Pad-Pal V4 and under had this design feature, and I'd like to return to it.
- Reduce plastic mass in the design: I'm unfortunately locked into using PA12 and TPU plastics (Which although other companies will tell you are these are recyclable materials, let's be honest and admit the US has no easy recycling pathway for these materials) at the moment and can't switch materials with my current resources (though I day dream about ways to use bamboo or Hemp fiber reinforced PHA instead), so reducing the amount of PA12 and TPU being used in the design is also on my wish list. My efforts here might mean it comes out lighter/smaller than V5.2, but that's not a design goal I'm purposefully aiming for, so no promises on that front.
- KITS: I want to offer a kit version too. So anyone with a 3D printer, or access to one, can make the main components themselves locally, and the only thing needing to burn dino juice (jet fuel) for delivery would be the motor/motor control boards in a small, home compostable, padded envelope.
- Color options: Unrelated to the biosphere impact stuff, I'll be adding 2 color options. Pebble body with red button and black accents, or dark blue body with white button/accents
- It will lose the ability to put the adapter on the top and "deflate" a pad: But I never really advertise the deflation feature because it only works on a select few pads out there, and saying it "works" might be a generous statement if I'm being honest. It's just so much faster and easier to lay on your pad and let it deflate in my trail experience.
If you got this far, thanks for listening to me blabber my friends!
Happy Trails!
-> T-Rex (AKA Tyler)