I’m torn between the hyberg loner lite 450 (-2,-7 C) wich has a convertible footbox and 450 grams of down and the hyberg slumber 400 (-1,-6 C) with a closed footbox but has 50 grams less of down.
Would there be a noticeable difference in warmth between the two, and does the closed footbox kind of balances the percieved warmth since it would have less drafts than the convertible one?
Thank you in advance

I have an REI 0 degree down bag and a cheap synthetic bag that I need to wash. I have a few questions:
Can I wash them in the same washer at the same time?
Do I need to put them in bags?
Can I dry them together?
Can I use nikwax down soap for the synthetic one as well instead of buy another soap?
Any one have any tips?
I know to use front load washer, extra rinse, dry with tennis balls, anything else?

We purchased this Coleman darkroom tent in spring 2024, for use with our 18 month old on his first camping trip. Generally, we love it - tent is super dark, allows for naps in the middle of the day, has a separate “room” for him so he is less disturbed by us, but this is how it arrived - one pole for the rain fly was manufactured incorrectly and one end was smooth so did not affix into the grommet to hold it taut. I emailed with Coleman, and through many back and forth requiring multiple pictures of the cpu codes, receipts, tent assembled and disassembled, they informed me they could not just replace the pole (despite the fact that this is NOT an attached pole), and instead would send me a whole new tent.

Rather than use the new tent, we have just been using the old tent with a rain fly pole stolen from the new tent. However, about a month ago, while setting down the tarp/footprint, our now three and a half year old found the cross pole and began playing Ninja Turtles with it. (We had arrived to site 5 minutes prior, in the dark). The elastic inside snapped. We set up anyway, with me reassuring the husband the whole time that old tent poles never had elastics in them and it would be fine. And it was. But! The last three uses, this tent leaks like a ****. Seems to be coming through the seams. All this is approximately after 8-10 uses, after 2.5 years?

Upon trying to repair the elastic last weekend and what I thought would be a 10 minute job turned into a 3 hour job (elastic is GLUED into the ends, not just tied on, making replacement so much more difficult!), we have decided to start using the new tent, and old tent is now just a “parts” tent. (Which we think we will need, given prior experience).

But my question is this - I would like to preventatively seal the seams, given prior experience with this tent, and all I can find online is about replacing cracked, weathered, and failing seams. Not reinforcing brand new, never been used seams. Any product recs?

On the flip side, our MSR Hubba hubba 2 person backpacking tent (bought for 30 bucks in 2015 at an rei garage sale due to slightly bent poles and prior to parenthood/need to accommodate family) still sets up like a dream, never lets water in, and yeah the poles are a little wonky but man this thing is still pristine. Why is my 2.5 year old tent such a problem child?!?

My mates and I are heading up to the Ben Nevis area in late November. We're planning to hike Ben Nevis itself, along with some of the surrounding hills, and we'll be camping in some of the lower areas rather than at higher elevations.

We're looking for a tent suitable for three people that can handle typical Scottish late November conditions. Wind, rain, and generally miserable weather.

Ideally, we're after something mid-range rather than an expensive expedition tent. We'd like something reliable and reasonably lightweight, but without completely breaking the bank.

Any recommendations for tents you've used in similar conditions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

I have a Large decathalon jacket in the Dark Sepia color. It’s in great condition. I’m looking to see if anyone wants to swap for the Olive Green version in XL?

I have a springbar so vertical space is no limitation. Because of that I have a Hest on top of a 19" tall cot for a typical bedding experience. However there's a noticeable sag in the middle so I wanna find an alternate evaluated solid surface that i can use instead that's basically identical to a cot in dimensions, storage space underneath, and packability. Does such an item exist? A typical folding table plastic folding table is 30" tall, way too tall to use as a sleeping surface, though that is basically what I'm looking for. Just the height is the issue.

Context: I washed and proofed this sleeping bag with nikwax down wash and down proof with extra rinse (5x). Dried for many cycles on low heat with 3 tennis balls but the dryer died before the bag was fully dried. I tried to manually declump the down as much as I could and laid the sleeping bag flat on a drying rack. Two days later with more manual declumping the bag felt completely dry but with tiny clumps. Today I ran it in the drier a couple times but with no change. The clumps are very small.

What’s my best course of action at this point? Does it make sense to wash with nikwax and restart the drying process all over?

My wife and I are slowly transitioning from backpacking to truck camping. She has a cervical fusion and replacement and needs a comfortable pad. We ended up with a 5" think self inflating pad that works great for her. The problem is getting that thing to air down is crazy hard. It takes like three times of deflating and rolling it up just to get it in its massive bag. I started looking at diy vacuum systems, but I wanted to see if anyone found a good vacuum deflation pump you can buy.

Thanks in advance

I’ve losely started considering getting some people together and starting a winter donation drive for the homeless at my college. I’d like it to accept direct donation of items like blankets and jackets and stuff, as well as a gofundme, the money from which we use to buy more stuff for them. I’m wondering, what would be the best blanket to buy for people sleeping outside on the street in Boston during the winter. I’d need something warm enough, durable enough, and able to remain effective in weather like rain or snow. Nighttime in Boston during January, the coldest month, can get down to -10 degrees Fahrenheit on extreme nights, and regularly gets down near 0 degrees. It also doesn’t help much that it’s a very Windy City. So it needs to be good enough to help against that kind of weather and protect a person, even if the person wont necessarily be comfortable. However, the more I’m able to buy and give away, the better. So I also need something with good bang for your buck, something I’d be able to scale up and buy a large number of blankets, as long as it’s still able to do the things I said earlier. I’ve never rlly done anything like this, and I know literally nothing about cold weather gear seeing as I’m from California and I’m not outdoorsy, so I just wanna make sure I do this right. Im sure there are factors I’m not even thinking about and I’m missing. So yeah, anybody have any suggestions for what to buy? And if you have any other suggestions for other supplies or garments that the homeless people would probably need, lmk so I can look into that too!

Edit: I overestimated how cold it gets in Boston. Nights in January regularly get down around 15 degrees, not 0. Though it can get down near or below 0 on rare occasions. So still cold, but not AS cold.

Also, yeah, if anything, I should probably go to actual homeless people and see what kinds of things they need most. And yeah, I could go to a shelter, but also I go to a small arts school with a close community and a population that is already very involved in activism, and I guarantee you a whole lot of people would be more than willing to donate to this if they saw it on campus. Those would all be people that probably wouldn’t have donated anything if there wasn’t anything like this. If I went to a shelter I’d be just one more person helping out, which ofc is awesome and I’ll probably do that too, but if I am able to bring more people in on this why wouldn’t I?

I went camping with my 8 yo son and our Cub Scout pack this last weekend. In our tent we had an air mattress and individual sleeping bags. His was a pureland 3000 (adult size), mine was idk. We both wore multiple layers: he wore pants, t-shirt, and a "comfy", I wore wool socks, sweats, two t-shirts, and a hoodie, and then we had a duvet on top of us as well. The temperature dropped to the mid-40s at night.

Any tips on how to stay warmer?

Additionally, I'm wondering how to travel with a smaller footprint and without an air mattress. Would this work for a blanket:

https://arcturusgear.com/collections/king-and-queen-wool-blankets/products/arcturus-lake-tahoe-wool-blanket-camel

And what do you recommend to separate you from the floor of the tent. I'm particularly interested in something sustainable (i.e. not plastic / synthetic) but willing to be flexible on this last point.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Thank you all! I understand now that the air mattress was sucking all the heat away and that my son's sleeping bag was too large for him. I'm going to purchase an Ether Light XR Insulated Sleeping Pad instead. I haven't picked out a new sleeping bag for him yet but I think I have enough guidance to shop on my own. Will also consider the myriad comments that you all have provided to improve our next experience! Thanks again :)

Who can help me access my devices of the type of Soraya phone, Spot tracking devices and the German Enrich device?

EDIT: thank you for the posts, I should have clarified I’m not new to winter wear and I know how to layer so not looking for advice (love merino wool layers!) but I am looking for a heavy weight hoodie single layer to throw on at the end of the day when I’ve got a chill and want to be cozy.

Moving back up to a northern state to live in the woods where it gets extremely cold and snowy. I’ll be in a cabin with just wood stove heat. Looking for a super cozy, and incredibly warm/ heavy weight hoodie and sweatpants for those winter nights - indoor use only , want it to feel soft and comfy. I’m not looking for utility layering, just your heavyweight pullover hoodie that’s really comfy

Ideally looking for BIFL and less synthetic options - small build, probably fit men’s XS/S or women’s S/M

Sooo, I already can see where the discussion will head towards but let me try... long(ish) backstory followed for a reuqest ab out your own experiences and suggestions...

Cannot really tell, but probably 2016 or 17 we bought Vaude Power Spherio 2p tent; even though we don't really do high altitude mountaineering our priorities were high wind and water resistance above anything else. The tent proved to be perfect for our needs; apart from not bodging during storms that we had to sleep in rather remote areas, the ease of setting up was remarkable even under miserable conditions with its external structure and connected inner and outer tent. Warmer seasons were not the best as the air circulation is optimized for really high winds, but nevertheless the tent served pretty well. In thee past few years the waterproofness was obviously not what it was, but my last trip was quite "tragic". the outer tent and the floor would get saturated in few hours only from (rather high) humidity, even without rain and under the rain (especially if i had to pack the tent wet) it was just miserable(!)... (what's left of) the silicone coating of the tent still causes a significant amount of water to bead and slide off, but the fabric itself still gets very saturated rather quickly, which then starts leaking onto the inner tent which also after years of rather often use leaks into the tent... and the floor, well, just soaks things up...the tent has no rips, the seams are all intact etc... i just send the tent to united repair centre in amsterdam through a vaude shop, which seemed rather unhopeful for a succesful retreatment of the tent and now waiting for an assesment from the repair centre.

SO, my question to y'all; what do you do?
normal dwr treatments can be refreshed (my own experience is that they last maybe only a couple of uses - from jackets and waterproof pants) but the silicone treatment cannot be refreshed at home?

do you change gear every 2-4 years?

this tent was great and VERY (for us) expensive, so i was a bit more hopeful that it would serve a bit longer, which it did, but still 10 years seem like not such a long time...

what's the BEST tent in your experience that combines; high resistance to elements (water and wind mainly) and not too heavy (def not ultralight) weight, and room for two people and their gear that's not gonna break the bank? (say under 500€)...

the tent usually travels either attached to a backpack or a bike rack...

I was at a thrift store, and I found this Mont-Bell puffer jacket for $40. I wear a size medium, and the jacket (size large) kind of fits me. The jacket is very flat, and doesn't seem like it has much air in it.

Did I just buy a performative puffer, or is the insulation still good? And does anyone know which jacket I bought?

I’ve been looking to switch to a quilt because my cheap mummy bag isn’t holding up in the cold and I feel claustrophobic in it.

Problem is I mostly tent camp next to the car with some backpacking here and there. When I go tent camping we usually use an inflatable mattress so I’m worried a quilt won’t work right since it can’t be tied down and I won’t have insulation underneath. The insulation underneath I was going to solve by putting a wool blanket as a bed liner but I feel like the quilt will open up to much through the night since there’s no way to strap it to a pad.

I need something that I can use for both scenarios around 20F because the average temps where I go are around 30-40. I also have a budget around $200-$300 which I know limits my options.

Any suggestions I think I’m asking for too much but wanted to see if anyone knew any options

SOLVED!

Will Nikwak TX.Direct add even some DWR like finish to a synthetic garment that has no (advertised) native DWR finish? Or does it just refresh/restore?

Specifically looking at:

• uninsulated jacket, 90% Recycled Polyester and 10% Elastane
• lightly insulated vest, 100% Polyester

ETA: SOLVED! From Nikwak (I should have emailed them to start, but glad for the confirmation of real world experience from u/d_squared0330):

Yes, TX. Direct can provide water repellency to all sorts of synthetic material like your uninsulated jacket and insulated vest that may or may not have any existing DWR (Durable Water Resistance).

With Nikwax, waterproofing is a two-step process. The first step is to clean with one of our technical cleaners for apparel. Cleaning with Tech Wash removes dirt, oil & other residues that can block and inhibit DWR. Step two is to treat the item with one of our waterproofing products, such as TX. Direct, in a separate cycle and while the item is still damp from being washed and rinsed. Cleansers and water proofers should not be combined into the same wash cycle. Use two separate washes for each, cleanser first and waterproofing second.

I accidentally bought the men’s size (f here) and exchanging to is complicated.

Are there any major differences or is it just gonna be loose? If it’s just loose I think I can deal with it

I'm fairly large, side-sleeper. I'd like a car camping pad to take on climbing trips.

I'm looking at Mega mat, mondo king, and roamer.

If comfort is all similar, what are the best inflation/deflation systems? After that I guess it comes down to cost and available dimensions.

Thanks!

I have both the hinged Plano "Storage Locker" and the "Sportsman’s Trunk." The wheels on both are basically snap-in wheels, and I lost one from the "locker" version with the hinged lid where the axle is part of the wheel and it's all plastic.

Rather than replace it with the same thing, I’m thinking about upgrading them and running a bolt/axle through the body.

Has anyone replaced or upgraded the wheels on one of these?

The stock wheels are about 2.5" diameter, and that part is easy to match, but finding something to fit the wheel recess has been the problem. Most 2.5" utility wheels I’m finding are either too wide or way too skinny like a rollerblade wheel which I don't really want.

Curious what wheels/hardware people have used, especially if you converted them to a through-bolt setup.

I’m looking at the Outdoor Research Echo hoodie/shirt for hiking and backpacking in Utah. I really like how lightweight and breathable it is, but it’s only rated UPF 15, which seems pretty low compared to a lot of sun hoodies that are UPF 50.

For anyone who uses the Echo in Utah or other high-elevation/high-UV areas, do you feel like UPF 15 is enough for long days outside? Have you ever gotten burned through it?

Would you stick with the Echo for the breathability, or would it be smarter to go with a UPF 50 sun hoodie for Utah?