colorado_rob
01-30-2014, 12:08
Just in case anyone else is in the same or similar boat, I wanted to pass this along. So, I had an old 30 degree rated sleeping bag that I never really liked because it was too tight for me, but it did have good down (800 fill) and I did use it for a few years. Then I saw a MHW Phantom 45 sleeping bag on sale for $160 on campmor, a long model, perfect for mid-summer stuff even in colorado, not very warm (40 deg EN rating), but ultralight (1lb 3oz). Really comfortable fit, 3 more inches of girth than my old bag, plus longer.
So, I got to thinking: could I take some down out of the old, poor fitting bag and put it into the 45 degree bag and make a 30-ish degree bag? The answer is yes, piece of cake, though of course a tad messy.
First I “harvested” the down out of my old bag, just made slits in the baffles, reached in and grabbed hand fulls, then hand-stuffed the down into baggies of accurately known weight ; 10 of them weighed 85 grams, so 8.5 grams each. I measured out 13 bags of down this way, trying to create down weights roughly proportional to the new bag’s baffle sizes (widths), basically from 5 to 10 grams, a total of about 90 grams of down in 13 baggies.
Next job was to get the down into the new bag’s baffles, all in the top baffles where it does the most good. On the inside of the bag, opposite the zipper, I made small slits in each baffle, just big enough to get a 1” pvc tube (about 10 inches long) into. One at a time, I opened a baggie of down and hand stuffed the down into the PVC tube, then took a small dowell rod (close to diameter of PVC tube) and “plunged” the down into the new bag’s baffle. Then I cut a small piece of “tenacious tape” and repaired the slit. This tape is very sticky and very, er, tenacious (tough).
Voila, done! My bag now has an additional 3+ ounces of down distributed evenly in the 13 top baffles and is significantly more lofty than before, without the baffles being overstuffed. It is as nearly as lofty as my 20 degree bag, but weighs only 1lb 6.2 ounces, and should work perfectly as my 3-season bag, saving the 20 degree bag (nearly 2 pounds) for the shoulder seasons (earlier spring, later fall).
I was very nervous trying this with my new bag, but I started with a small baffle and found the process was fairly easy. Yes, excess down gets all over the place, but 95% of it gets into the baffles and the cleanup afterwards was easy. Of course, do NOT do this outside or down will blow away on you. I even had to breathe gently during the stuff process; I sighed once for some reason and blew a bunch of down all of the place.
Again, just passing this along in case anyone has a similar issue and is a tight wad like myself; I believe I saved $300 or so for a new 30 degree bag, a temperature rating that is important in my scheme of things.
So, I got to thinking: could I take some down out of the old, poor fitting bag and put it into the 45 degree bag and make a 30-ish degree bag? The answer is yes, piece of cake, though of course a tad messy.
First I “harvested” the down out of my old bag, just made slits in the baffles, reached in and grabbed hand fulls, then hand-stuffed the down into baggies of accurately known weight ; 10 of them weighed 85 grams, so 8.5 grams each. I measured out 13 bags of down this way, trying to create down weights roughly proportional to the new bag’s baffle sizes (widths), basically from 5 to 10 grams, a total of about 90 grams of down in 13 baggies.
Next job was to get the down into the new bag’s baffles, all in the top baffles where it does the most good. On the inside of the bag, opposite the zipper, I made small slits in each baffle, just big enough to get a 1” pvc tube (about 10 inches long) into. One at a time, I opened a baggie of down and hand stuffed the down into the PVC tube, then took a small dowell rod (close to diameter of PVC tube) and “plunged” the down into the new bag’s baffle. Then I cut a small piece of “tenacious tape” and repaired the slit. This tape is very sticky and very, er, tenacious (tough).
Voila, done! My bag now has an additional 3+ ounces of down distributed evenly in the 13 top baffles and is significantly more lofty than before, without the baffles being overstuffed. It is as nearly as lofty as my 20 degree bag, but weighs only 1lb 6.2 ounces, and should work perfectly as my 3-season bag, saving the 20 degree bag (nearly 2 pounds) for the shoulder seasons (earlier spring, later fall).
I was very nervous trying this with my new bag, but I started with a small baffle and found the process was fairly easy. Yes, excess down gets all over the place, but 95% of it gets into the baffles and the cleanup afterwards was easy. Of course, do NOT do this outside or down will blow away on you. I even had to breathe gently during the stuff process; I sighed once for some reason and blew a bunch of down all of the place.
Again, just passing this along in case anyone has a similar issue and is a tight wad like myself; I believe I saved $300 or so for a new 30 degree bag, a temperature rating that is important in my scheme of things.