Sleeping bag sugestions???

[Andrew8683]

Hey all

Iv been looking into to buying some premium sleeping bags lately, problem is i havnt brought one for years so any sugestions of brand and quality would be good.

Couple of requirments, has to be able to cope with moderately cold weather nothing extreem but roomy and able to be joined together. Were going away from doona's to try and save some space so compact is good to. Yeh maby im asking a bit much ha ha?


Any ideas?

[woolgoolgaoffroad]

Hey all

Iv been looking into to buying some premium sleeping bags lately, problem is i havnt brought one for years so any sugestions of brand and quality would be good.

Couple of requirments, has to be able to cope with moderately cold weather nothing extreem but roomy and able to be joined together. Were going away from doona's to try and save some space so compact is good to. Yeh maby im asking a bit much ha ha?


Any ideas?




go and look at the blackwolf range, you can get a duo pack at BCF for $75.00. ( when they are on special the pack sometimes comes down to $60.00) 2 bags, zip together. Singlely they have a rating of 5+. or join them and they are rated to 0


kev

[robe0455]

With sleeping bags you have a couple of options.

First of all synthetic or down fill. Unless weight/packed size is of interest go for synthetic. The only time it should be an issue is for trekking where you have to carry everything, and in which case the weight/size is relevant. Synthetic bags can also be washed in a machine on a gentle cycle, and dont smell, whereas for down its the opposite

Mummy, rectangle or tapered rectangle profile. The latter two can be joined, and are usually characteristic of synthetic bags.

Fabric. They will all be nylon (cotton was phased out long ago) but try and find a 'ripstop' material. You will be able to see a very faint grid pattern on the fabric. If you do happen to rip the fabric, it wont spread into the next grid, and given that is usually <4mm it keeps the rips contained, whereas for normal nylon you will find that the rips will spread very quickly, and unless the bag has a good warranty you will have to pay the $ to get it repaired yourself.

Zips. Try and stick to YKK zips, they will have the brand printed on the zipper body (the bit you pull)

If you are looking at bags from a good quality brand, you will pay up to $150 for all of these features. Keep in mind most brands have a couple of levels of synthetic bags so the cheaper ones will be lacking and probably wont last as long. Go for the more expensive.

Aim for about 200-300 grams of fill. This will allow for -5 to +5. This means if you ar ean average sleeper it will take you down to zero, a warm sleeper -5 and a cold sleeper +5.

If there is anything else you need to know just ask!

And yes I do work in an outdoor shop and yes I am a gear freak!

Cheers,
Mark

[Luxster]

I've been using Roman sleeping bags for the last 30 years. Just purchased my 3rd one! with out doubt a quality product. Try BCF!

[zukildo]

G'day there Andrew8683 Well robe pretty much said it all, top info!!! All that I wanted to add is that for the smallest crush size of a packed sleeping bag DOWN is generally the winner. Also if a sleeping bag was to get saturated with water and you had to use it, The synthetic bags will still keep you warm as the down will not. Although with top end bags you can have the exterior in gortex, (breatherabal+waterproof). And also depending on the temperatures you may be in; you can choose a lighter weight bag and then use a liner (like a big sock). These up the temp rating and also keep your bag nice and clean. Cheers and hope you enjoy your travels. Shane

[Marc 1]

I've been using Roman sleeping bags for the last 30 years. Just purchased my 3rd one! with out doubt a quality product. Try BCF!

Pretty happy also with the Roman down Bags SWMBO and I bought about 10 years ago. One other tip that may not have been mentioned, don't store a down bag in its stuff sack or you'll end up permanently compressing the down and it will lose a lot of its insulating ability. I store mine in a large pillowcase, then when you need to go rip it out, pack it away and you're good to go.

[robe0455]

Yep, these blokes have been onto something. The best way to store any sleeping bag (synthetic or down) is hanging up in a wardrobe to allow the fill to loft. The reason I didnt reccommend down is because if it gets dirty, it smells and the only way to wash it is by hand and its a pain in the ass and takes half a day. I still use a roman bag that dad bought my about 10 years ago for any car camping. Still packs up to about 20cm in diametre and a 30 cm long so not huge. And that has done alot! On a snowy peak in NZ. And because it got wet and was synthetic I was still warm. A downbag and I would have been in strife in that situation! Since then I have bought 2x other bags; A 650g down fill tapered rectangle bag (weighs 1600g) and a 300g goose down fill mummy bag thats w/proof (weighs 700g!).

But I still use the Roman where weight and size arent an issue. Unless you are planning on doing any trekking in the future go for synthetic, and even then Id be buying one just to preserve your down (more expensive) bag!

Hope it helps,

Cheers,
Mark

[dazzah]

hey all...

To give people a guide to the differences in fill...There's basically 2 fills, synthetic and down,
With synthetics there's 2 basic differences (not getting into brands) your base model (family camping etc) is the bulky type, the fill is usually like a big sheet of synthetic fibre that's cut in a rectangular shape and stitched between the inner and outer shell of bag, these bages are generally a full rectangular bag...then the adventure style which is filled with spiral shaped synthetic strands, so it's not a sheet of it, will pack smaller and be lighter, these will generally be semi rectangular...
Then you get into down. again 2 types of fills, feather and down, you will find the cheaper down bags will have 90/10 fill which means 90% down and 10% feather...down is the fluffy feathers that are under a birds outer feathers, the outer feathers have the quill that usually pokes out of sleeping bag (in relation to a bird, the outer feather keeps the down feather dry)...down is rated with its lofting ability, the good down has a higher loft, easiest way to explain that, think of a box, if you put in say 200grms of a poorer quality down it might fill up say 10% of box, then if you put 200grms of a higher quality down in box it might fill up 20% of box, so you need half the amount of good down to give the same loft as you do for the poorer quailty, downs warmth works on its ability to loft and trap the warm air, so the poorer down isn't lofting as much as the better quality, when a down bag gets wet feathers get soggy and don't loft which means not heat being trapped...and the synthetic when wet still acts as a barrier holding warmth in...
That's the basics on the fill, there's a whole other section on the inner and outer shells (like what robe0455 said, wtaerproof outers and ripstop material)...and also the way they are constructed, like down bags are usually constructed with baffles that run around the whole bag which keep down in sections, so it doesn't all clump in one area, it also allows you to shift the down say from the back of bag to the front, if you're sleeping on a really good insulated mat then all the down you're sleeping on isn't doing anything is it's squashed and not lofting, move it to front of bag where it can loft and keep you warmer...

[Andrew8683]

Thats some prety handy info there guys!.

Prety well answered all my questions and gave me something to look for

cheers muchly

[nilla60]

I prefer down bags as you just stuff them into the sack rather than having to roll them up. Had the same one for 15 years now, but tend to only use it when it's going to be really cold. Above zero, pretty much any bag from a decent camping store ought do the job.

[CeeJay]

You can stuff the synthetic bags too, my Mountain Equipment 2 season synthetic bag stuffs down to about 15cm x 15cm x 15cm, and about 1kg. As above, stores in a wardrobe on a hangar.

[outback cruisa]

if you wanna spend the $$ to get a really good range of bags go for the SNUGPAK range, go for the CODE GREEN series of them, basically the army range in olive green, there are many temp ranges in them and prices alter accordingly, the most common is the SOFTIE 3 and an all seasons bag, or there is also the SPECIAL FORCES range which totally unzips into a blanket style, you can also get zip extenders for them for the bigger people, and also joiners to join 2 bags together.

a good thing with these is that they are the eskimo style with the hood, but they also have reinforced footwells with cordura so if you want you can wear shoes/boots to sleep.
these are also entirly synthetic make and are able to dry very quickly after they get wet.

but there are other things to make a average bag warmer...

if on cold ground always put a ground sheet or mattress underneath, this will give you and extra 5deg warmth as the cold ground drains your body quickly of heat, another thing to do is use a silk or cotton liner in the bag again another couple deg of warmth.

but remember when in cold climets ie: snow, 40% of your body heat is lost through your head, so still wear your beanie/balaclava to sleep with you this helps keep warm as well.

i know talking winter heating tips isnt really worthwhile this time of year but its good knowledge to have on hand when shopping around.

but when you are shopping around keep these things in mind while aslo thinking about where your going to go at what time of year, best to get a 3season bag and use these tips to adapt to the time of year.

take my advice stay away from the kmart type bags unless its a rconised brand...blackwolf, roman, snugpak, etc, becasue in my past work selling and designing army gear we also had huge amounts of those cheaper bags always coming in getting the zips repaired and stuff, just with 4wding stuff, you get what you pay for.
buy cheap and dont expect it to last for very long.
i can stand by the snugpak range of bags since ive sold them for 8 years and only ever saw 3 come back...2 for the boot liners coming unstitched from heavy army boots and 1 that the guy opened the zip too fast and cought the bag and ripped beside the zip.
and think of the amount of abuse and conditions that the army guys put their gear through compared to average camping.
i use a softie6 bag that goes down to -5deg actual and ive had it for5 years and hasnt let me down yet.
sorry about the bias argument hehe but just my experiences in both sales and use

[Andrew8683]

We ended up with 2 Roman 'swag bags' their a roomy square shape bag rated to zero degree's. Has a Flannel lining and can be joined together.

Looks warm enough considering most of my camping will be done in the warmer months.
Picked em up From Ranger camping Morley (WA) for $100 bucks discounted from $120 Very good service i would recomend going there for a look.

Next problem is that is dosnt get bloody cold enough in WA to warant using a sleeping bag! Oh how i miss the cold alpine nights of the vic high country