Tyvek Suits

[Grimace]

A friend of mine is an engineer. He ran into a large oil problem when digging footings for a foundation and mentioned to me he'd have to don a tyvek suit to get into the oil and find the leaks. "Tyvek suit?" I say, "Got an extras?" He brought me this Tyvek suit, pants and jacket combined. Seems to be totally waterproof, lighter than frogg toggs type stuff. Even though it is one piece, I bet it is pretty easy to cut the legs off.

Check out the link.

http://www.abcsafetyglasses.com/mly-1412ty.html

Looks like they cost $3 to $4 a piece. The XL by buddy gave me is actually a little small. I'm 6'4" 215 lbs.

[Papa Bear]

I would think they might be pretty hot and sweaty inside. I guess when you are dealing with asbestos and the like, breathability is not a plus.

I had a tyvek running jacket once (it was a freebie at some race I was in). All I remember is that it was fairly lightweight. Don't remember breathability.

But at $3- $4 it's probably worth a try.

Pb

[walkerat99]

Not sure if it is the same thing, but Home Depot also has a tyvek suit or more like coveralls for painters. Look around the painting supplies, and you should find them. I think they were about $4 or $5, when I bought one. I did use it a couple of times, and it seemed to work ok, except I did get hot in it.

Hope this helps.. or at least give you something else to think about.

Sincerely,

Ed

[Steve W]

I'm a firefighter and I do a good amount of haz-mat work, tyvec is extremely hot to wear. It's designed so that nothing gets in, so nothing gets out. You will sweat a lot. The hottest I've ever been has been when I was wearing these suits. I would never want to hike in one of them. I suppose you could cut it up a bit and add some vents, but then you're not waterproof anymore.

[Grimace]

Thanks for your input. For some reason I thought Tyvek was breathable. I usually only put on my raincoat when I'm cold anyway. I find I sweat in any kind of coat I wear unless it is way below freezing. Perhaps I could cut in some pit zips.

Regardless, I just bought a Precip on sale. Might as well see how that works before I go trying to be creative. Maybe the tyvek would be good for emergency purposes in summer hikes.

[chris]

If you dig through the posts from sometime around October, there was some debate over the breathability of Tyvek. DebW convinced me that there was some escape of water vapor from the Tyvek that is used in building construction. That is, there is some breathability. The degree of this breathability is in question, however. I do not think there is enough to make Tyvek comfortable enough to wear (although Frogg Toggs seem to be made out of something similar). As an emergency bivy, it might be desireable, though. DancingLight (and others) sell a Tyvek groundcloth that has a foot pocket and other features that allow you to wrap it around you in really awful weather. I think Sgt. Rock was planning to sew up something similar, but I don't know what the result was. If I hike the AT next summer, I might replace my current (Tyvek) groundcloth with one of these fancier models.