hey everybody it's Shug here. Come along with me what I want to show you today is
how you can stack your under quilts so you can get to some lower temperatures
you can stack your top quilts you can stack your sleeping bag you can put a top
quilt inside a sleeping bag and get down with like maybe a 40 degree or a 20
degree and get down and do some winter camping in the lot colder weather it's a
great time to be out and I hope you do get out there this year and maybe even
get down to your personal low
sounds like 101 Dalmatians out there woof,woof,woof, woof. I'm the Colonel. Now we're going to talk first
about stacking under quilts all right this right here is a 20 degree incubator
by hammock gear it's a full way so it goes from actually this one kind of goes
from behind my head all the way down to my feet and here I have my old DIY meant
that I made it myself frank and quilt my first under quilt
it's a 20-degree so it's hanging outside of this one so I got a 20 out of 20 now
if you stack a 20 and a 20 together whether it's a top quilt to top quilts
together to 20s are going to get you down to minus 20 maybe minus 30 now take
in mind and I want you to realize I'm talking conservatively here don't get
cocky out there so let's just say minus 20 but probably minus 30 enlightened
equipment has a chart and it may be showing that in the box below this video
go to their site check out their chart and also check out their wares I don't
own any but I hear good stuff about them so the main thing you want to do is not
to compress your down because once down keeps you warm buy loft now these same
things will kind of work with synthetic under quilts if you have that or a down
and a synthetic so know your equipment make sure it's fluffed up good make sure
your down is clean if you've got too old down make sure you wash it in some down
wash you can go to any camping store somewhere like REI but you wash it in a
Down wash read the instructions make sure you use
the right kind of washing machine the best is the front loaders on a gentle
cycle or do it in a tub and then put it in the dryer and wat and dry it very
slowly on fluff or the lowest temperature you have but a couple tennis
balls in there so it fluffs you're down up and you don't get clumps good clean
nice fluffy down is going to keep you the warmest so keep that in mind
whenever you're stacking stuff so under quotes basically hang up under a hammock
with shock cord okay no matter what your shot cord is this is a channel the shot
cord goes all the way through the underquilt
edge right here on here it does the same thing with a secondary suspension you
can add a length of shock cord just go buy some
shock cord you can see the suspension comes up right along the edge and this
is normally where I hook it onto the suspension of my hammock to hook it up
but it added this little shock cord extender here to give it just enough of
a give and that's just enough for this thing so it's not pulling up so tight on
the incubator that it's compressing the down you don't want to compress your
down so it's hanging on the outside loosely yet tight enough that I'm not
compressing that down so I'm stacking from here to here basically this is sort
of just behind my knee but what about your feet you know you've only got the
20 and 20 under you about to your knees I do have my down jacket that's my go
light down jacket and that's a pretty thick one that's a warm jacket over my
foot box cuz it won't be sleeping in that and inside the foot box of my top
quilt this is my jacks or better high sierra sniffler and my feet will be warm
because they're on a therm arrest sit pad inside this top quilt keeps up from
moving around Plus as my jacket around it plus the 20 degree incubator is full
length so I've got all that down over there so if you're looking to get out
colder and you don't have the gear stack in your quilts like this is the way to
go I always put my partial on the outside of my full because I feel like
the partial will kind of help pull the full length under quilt up a little bit
gonna take a little experimentation but if you've got 220 degree under quilts
and you're wanting to camp in like 0 or minus 10 degree weather you're gonna be
really good to go and that goes the same for top coats of sleeping bags your pack
is gonna get a little bit bulky alright if you don't have a big enough pack you
might be strapping a few things to the outside cuz you know you put a put a 20
degree sleeping bag in a 40 degree sleeping bag together if you're a ground
sleep or plus a really nice pad and let's not forget that your pads double
up in the wintertime if you don't have a serious insulated pad pads have an
r-value so make sure to check the r-value of your pad
for the temperature that it will get down to but same thing you can double
them up so here in Minnesota once we get some good snow and it gets to a certain
temperature with snow I'll pull my pull which is a sled I pull behind me great
thing about that I can have my pack loaded in there plus add some extra
things so it's a lot easier to carry the extra bulk of to under quilts if I'm
bringing that stacked together and maybe to top quilts or maybe my top quilts
fine but I'm stacking two under quilts or amusingly pod systems so I've got a
20 degree sleeping bag with a 30 degree insert and probably this 20 degree
Franken quilt under quilt partial right there so it's a little bit more volume
actually a pretty good bit more volume than normal let's just say 20 degree you
know cold-weather camping maybe you're just car camping or it's a short walk in
then you got no problem make two trips back and forth so borrow something from
a friend if he's got a 40 degree sleeping bag and you've got a 20 degree
borrow his sleeping bag or top quilt put those together if you're a ground
sleeper lay on the appropriate pad bring two pads and have yourself some fun and
discover some winter camping if you're in a hammock stack your under quilts
play with it try it just remember the outside one needs to
be a little bit looser but not so loose that it's dangling free saying same
things still apply make sure you don't have any gaps that it's all good and
believe me in those kind of temperatures you'll know if it's not hooked on their
right under quilts or sleeping bags or top quilts a 40 degree and a 40 degree
should get you to around 10 degrees think of it this way this whole thing is
based on that modular military system if you go online go to an Army Navy Store
or Google in you know modular military bag usually comes it's two bags one
inside the other it's usually I think like a 40-degree or something and then a
zero and the army and they're usually synthetic they went the whole kit weighs
8 to 10 pounds and you put one inside the other so they can sleep in you know
warmer climates and then when they get down in the cold they can add another
one and then usually it has a bivy bag around that
so if you've only got a 40 degree sleeping bag and you want to go camping
in ten degree weather or zero degree weather you can wear a lot of clothes
and wear all your down and that's that that'll probably do you okay but expect
to be cold but if you double up a system and sleep and just you know kind of what
what I would call your sleep closure long johns not over insulating your body
so that heat of your body has a chance to get inside that down and capture that
heat I think you'll do a lot better it's only your gonna know what works for you
these are just suggestions because I keep hearing people can you do it yes
you can you can do anything you want so put a bag in the bag I'm gonna put a bag
in the bag right now cuz it's fun to say bag in the bag in
the bank of the bacon - bacon - bacon debate all right I'm starting out with a
really good sleeping pad right here this is an expat downmat 9 XP I think it's
called about 199 bucks it's an insulated pad it's supposed to be good to minus 35
well let's just start out saying I've got a pad like this if you don't have a
good pan with the proper r-value check the R values and make sure you got a pad
that'll get you down to zero degrees and if it's 0 when you're going - 20 take a
closed cell foam or any kind of thin pads you got if you can tote it take it
and put it under that double your pads up because you're laying on some cold
ground so we're gonna start with a good path and now I've laid my 20 degree
western mountaineering sleeping bag here 20 degrees and we're gonna pretend it's
minus 10 all right so 20 degrees zip it open
and I'm gonna put a top quilt inside this one the shoe you keep saying top
quilt I don't know what that means exactly well top quilt was like a
sleeping bag without a zipper alright this is the this is the bottom side of
it I think uh Big Agnes sleeping bags have a system like this that are open so
that you know you're laying on your down anyway so you're compressing it so you
save a little money with the top quilt because it's less down and you don't
have a zipper what I'm gonna do put that inside this 20 that's a 30-degree top
will inside a 20 degree sleeping bag on the conservative side that's gonna get
me to about minus 15 probably minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit now I have inserted
the top quilt inside the western mountaineering sleeping bag hey sug
you're going to crawl in there so we can see you maybe you'll get too hot or too
cold so I'll make sure the theater inside that top coil push the top go up
to the side
and now that I'm in here we wrestle around
and Here I am I got plenty of room I can tell that the top quilt has a little bit
of a still has a little space it's not too compressed because the sleep bags a
little larger and you're going to get a little compression but a little
compression Trump's being cold and not going on the trip at all so that's all
you got to do put a bag inside a bag I really like a top grill in the sleeping
bag because I don't have to deal with two zippers so there's a lot of
variables this is just what kind of what I cook of the third person would tell
you to do because a couple of you have asked and I've seen it coming up on
hammock forums so a lot of ham occurs are talking about under quilts in
particular can you stack them can you Lera yes you can just loosen the
suspension on the outside one so it's not compressing I don't think it matters
whether you're short one you're long and if you've got two long ones then you're
good if you put a short on a short two partial ones maybe we should take a look
at that what do you think I think we should because you're gonna need to see
it okay there's my Franken quilt 20 degree under quilt and there's my jacks
or better Greylock for rated to about minus 5
parcel under quilt to you see both these under quilts are partial partial under
quilts are a little less expensive because there's less down in fabric they
take up a little less space in your pack but you got to deal with your feet which
is why I use the personally what I like to do is my thermo rests it pad inside
the foot box of my top quilt hey sugar you keep talking about this term
arrestee foot seat padding what is this exactly well let me show
you it's this right here classical thing it's like a you know it's just like
they're sleeping pads it's just a little short one meant for taking around blow
up so you inflate it and it's something to
sit on but I use it inside the foot box of my top quilt I light I let some air
out of it so it's soft and pads my heels and it insulates my feet then my feet
are laying on it then the great thing about having it inside my top quilt or
sleeping bag is it's not sliding around outside and I don't get it never get any
condensation while it's inside so I slip it inside inside not outside
I go inside a shoes could you show me a salad it goes in the foot box so here's
my top quilt turned upside down and I take my sit back and I normally take my
little valve and put that toward the very end that's the least likely place
that it gets to my feet and they put it into the foot box of my top quilt and
when I crawl in to go to sleep and I put my feet right on that thing okay gives
me some extra insulation pads my heels because my feet are 60 years old and
they have been not treated well I have treated them badly with walking jumping
circus whatnot and that is what you do I would recommend that for a partial you
know under quilt now maybe in summer you don't need to it's enough down or
synthetic in your top quilt or sleeping bag and I'm talking hammocks this is
hammock specific right now because we're talking about under quilts so put that
in there I'm gonna put my to parcel under quilts on and then I will put my
jacket the other jacket that I would have with me and deep winter camping
this one I'd probably maybe even sleep in maybe not or I'd get up and add at
about 3 or 4 in the morning when I get up to pee eventually but because then
when I wake up they break also Mohammed could my P app counts I'm partially
addressed and my arms are covered now let's hook up the under quilts because
that's the exciting part alright so I have put in frank and quilt on first and
I have taken off this piece of elastic that I have here it's doubled up so I
can make it a little bit longer if I want to to extend the length of the
suspension of the outside under quilt I'm going to put on and in this case I'm
putting Frank and quilt on first because it is a thinner under quilt this Jack's
are better Greylock fourth it's a really nice
why'd underquilt so it's just gonna wrap up all around me and I'm just gonna put
that and I've never had these two together so I've got basically a minus
five and the twenty degree the minus five well let's just say zero a zero
degree in a twenty easily gets you to minus thirty
well let's just say minus twenty to give it a buffer all right so the grill up
four is on it is on outside Oh Frank and quilt right there loosened up there's
Frank and quilt here's the Greylock four heads gonna be right up here I've added
the extender down here which is this part that's the end of the greylek four
but I've added this probably about seven inches there could lengthen that if I
wanted I've added my jacket over my hammock I made sure not to go over my
ridgeline talk to my sleeves inside the jacket because I don't do me any good
dangling outside so they're inside there to provide a little bit more warmth if
you want a zip my pockets up I've got my therm-a-rest set pad inside my top quilt
here and two hundred quilts so I feel very confident if I was out in minus 20
minus 15 minus 10 I'm gonna be good to go now I'm gonna crawl in there and just
hang out and let you look at me so Franklin quilts up on my shoulder right
here great look for is jacket over my feet put on the foot pad nice 0 to minus
5 degree top quilt I'm gonna go to minus 5 because I was like I said I've had it
down to like minus 27 and was not cold I will enter the Land of Nod as I lay in
my part I look like I'm in a pea pod one final thought if I was laying here in
cold weather I'd have on another hat at a boma
balaclava and I would have on my face mask and my hood so make sure if you're
a hammock person to you you're all warm everywhere else take care of your head
take care of your head and make sure your head is warm you don't want a cold
hand okay I really like about the jacket hanging over the hammock like this it
keeps my top coil tin want to jump in and out and kind of be reckless with it
buddy all secure in Sector seven and Happy New Year everybody
you