RE Stuff sacks

[DavidNH]

This goes under the gee whiz category!

Interesting thing about stuff sacs for our gear. We end up with a stuff sack for about everything. For example..I have a stuff sack for my sleeping bag, another stuff sack for my tent, another for my pad, another for my cooking pot, another for my stove, another for my pack cover, plus a couple more for good measure to put clothes and food into..separately that is.

have you guys noticed this as well? seems in retrospect it may be a bit over kill. Anyone leave home some of these stuff sacks or some how combine them.

Now I believe that a stuff sack is necessary for the sleeping bag, probably for the tent and for the food. the rest..I am not sure are so necessary.

perhaps one day every individual piece of hiking gear will have its own individual stuff sack. We could conceivably end up carrying 1 or even two pounds just of stuff sacks!!!

DavidNH

[Just Jeff]

I don't always carry a clothing stuff sack. I use a pack liner, then put my quilt in its stuff sack and in the liner, then my clothes go on top of that inside the liner. At night, I put my clothes in the stuff sack that my quilt was in and use it as a pillow.

But I just got a ThermaRest silnylon/fleece stuff sack, so I'll probably start using that as a pillow...gotta see if the quilt fits in it.

[Uncle Silly]

I did end up with several stuffsacks ... one for the bedroll (sleeping bag or quilt + liner), one for the tarp, one for spare clothing, one for the ground cloth and raingear (combined with the clothing made the pillow), one for food and another two for miscellaneous stuff (extra batteries, first aid, maps, etc). i liked the organization they gave to my otherwise chaotic pile o' stuff. didn't have one for my sleeping pad though ... not sure that one would be necessary.

[Peaks]

While I use a stuff sack for my sleeping bag and food, my tent is stowed in the bag it came with, as is my pot with all cooking gear inside. Sleeping pad is also in it's own bag. But, other than that, most gear (clothing, etc.) is grouped in a plastic zip lock bag. It's a way to keep things organized. If you look around, you can usually find 2 gallon zip lock freezer bags in some supermarkets.

[Youngblood]

I use stuff sacks for many things and some things I don't use stuff sacks for. Organization, protection from water and how my backpack carries influences this. For instance, I don't put jackets in stuff sacks but I do put smaller clothing items (socks, etc) in stuff sacks. I prefer my stuff sacks to be somewhat loose or at least not 'brick hard'. With the loose stuff sacks I can get a more comfortable carrying backpack, especially using jackets and a few other items as stuffing. All of this compresses the amount necessary to fill my backpack appropriately as the food volume changes... but I use a GoLite Breeze and it is more sensitive to how you pack it than packs that have a framesheet and hip belt.

[fiddlehead]

stuff sax are convient and don't have to be heavy. my old ones weighed about 3-5 oz. each. My new, sil nylon ones weigh about 1 oz each. I use 3, one for my sleeping bag, clothes bag and food bag. everything else i stuff in the bottom of the pack. (or outside mesh pocket if my tarp is wet)
the sil nylon ones are really nice as they are so slippery and slide in and out of my small pack with ease. also i have 3 different colors to differentiate them in the dark or near dark. My food bag is the biggest and always on top.

[Youngblood]

Fiddlehead,

We probably do about the same thing. But people may count stuff sacks differently. I use a small stuff sack for note book, led lights, pen, ear plug and other incidental stuff that would easily get lost. I also use one for my kitchen (pan, stove, fuel, lighter, wind screen, etc) but originally was the one the came with the pan. Same with hammock, tarp, sleeping bag and depending on what I use for a mat it might have a stuff sack as well. But is is like you said, the silnylon ones are so light and convient (because they are slippery) that the weight issue is only a fraction of what it was in the days before silnylon. I even use one made out of bugnetting for my tarp that fits into a side pocket on the outside of my pack. I do that for two reason, one is that it 'might' dry out a little better and second it that with the added friction it is less likely to squirt out of the side pocket... I keep my packcover (probably bought it from you), plastic thrash compactor bag and collapsible umbrella in the pocket as well so it is not always securely incide the top elastic band of the side pocket.

[hopefulhiker]

I only used one small sil nylon stuff sack for my pot/stove, I used two oven bags. One was used to keep my down sleeping bag and sweater in, the other was used to keep my clothes. That was it. The rest of my stuff was in zip locks.

[fiddlehead]

I would think that zip locks, at least the gallon size, would be heavier than a sil nylon stuff sack. We have a fine scale at our warehouse, i'll have to check this out. Anyway, the stuff sack would last 20 times longer than a zip lock. (i had stuff sacks last 3 years already, as a matter of fact, i've never worn one out except that a mouse chewed a hole in my food bag already)

[Peaks]

It will be interesting to compare weights of zip locks with weights of sil-nylon stuff sacks. But you can see through zip locks. Can't see through sil-nylon.

[Eidolon]

In comparing my short day hikes with what I thought would be needed on a longer trip, I had in mind that the gallon & 2 gallon ziplocs would be waterproof and good for organization, storing trash, even cooking. I use them in the kitchen anyway so I have a stash. I will be interested in weight issue from fiddlehead. Are the silnylon bags waterproof?

[TooTall]

Instead of expensive stuff sacks I used trash bags for clothing and smaller ziplog bags for first aid and hygene stuff. The only real stuff sack was a waterproof food sack.

Stuff sacks are worthwhile to keep you organized. It's easier to unpack/pack a half dozen sacks than just tossing everything willy nilly into the pack.

Too Tall Paul

[Alligator]

I picked this up somewhere on the web, maybe even here. You can make a stuff sack out of the mesh that oranges or onions come in. Cut one end of the bag open. Fold the cut ends over three times or so, sort of roll down the lip of the bag. Then thread a string through the mesh, pretend you are sewing. Add a cord lock if desired. I use one for my kitchen (S&P, sugar, spoon, and occasionally a spatula). I also use one for my fuel bottle and windscreen. I put these in the water bottle pocket on the outside. The loop on the mesh bag is easy to run one of the packs compression straps through. My cook kit came in a mesh bag, as did my tarp. I use silnylon bags for my food bag, snack bag, and med kit. My sleeping bag goes in its stuff sack. I have a stuff sack for my t-rest, but have used a strap on it lately. It then goes inside my pack.

[fiddlehead]

OK, i just weighed a few things and found out that my scale we use for mailing weights is not as fine tuned as i thought. So, these results may not be really accurate.

A one gallon zip lock regular: .3 oz
A one gall zip lock freezer bag: .4 oz.
A small sil-nylon stuff sack complete with string and cord lock: .7 oz. (about the size of a loaf of bread that i use for my sleeping bag or my clothes bag.)
A large sil-nylon stuff sack complete with string and cord lock: 1.0 oz. (About twice as big as the small stuff sack, that i use for my food bag. I say twice as big in volume but obviously it is only 1/3 bigger in weight. this is because the string and cord lock are the heaviest part)

So, in conclusion, yes the ziplocks are lighter and more waterproof (sil nylon is not totally waterproof if you touch it, just like a tent wall)
but the ziplocks won't last as long, and the zip part breaks down fairly quick where a stuff sack should last a whole thru

I hope this helps, i'm not the most scientific person to do a controlled experiment and really should use a triple beam scale or dope scale or something that i just don't have (believe it or not)

I didn't have any 2 gallon zips and didn't want to spend the bucks to buy a box but they would be close to the volume of a small stuff sack and probably weigh close to twice as much as the 1 gallon. So, maybe you could say they weigh about the same.

Once again, sorry it's not the most scientific weigh-in. fh

[Alligator]

I just went downstairs and weighed the mesh bag, the kind that 3 lbs of oranges come in.

The mesh bag weighed 0.17 oz.
The cord and cordlock weighed 0.20 oz. This was generic cord and an ordinary cordlock. Some spectra cord and knot proficiency could wipe most of this weight out.

I have a really good scientific scale, the kind that the closes so the wind doesn't influence the results.

I don't have any large ziplocks bags, nor any small ones for that matter either;) .

[justusryans]

I hope this helps, i'm not the most scientific person to do a controlled experiment and really should use a triple beam scale or dope scale or something that i just don't have (believe it or not)


Maybe SMS will loan ya his:D If not, I have one floating around here somewhere...:jump