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I've got the Meade pads, and never use them. They biggest problem is the hard plastic top surface that allows the tripod legs to move around. They should have made that from some kind of non-slip surface. It is concave but fairly shallow, and in my experience not enough to keep the tripod on place. I was losing polar alignment several times during a night.
If you want to keep the tripod from sinking in then dig in some big bricks or Besser blocks or similar. Or let it sink in as far as it goes, that's what I do.
For vibration damping avoid anything that feels springy when pressed with your fingers (like machine mounting pads). It'll make things worse, unless your load is so heavy that it compresses the pad substantially.
Cheers
Steffen.
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