12 Year Old Synthetic Bag or replace?

[The Mighty Tiberious]

I have a 1999 Sierra Design Sandman 15° Synthetic. 4.5 pounds?
and a Thermarest Guidelight, 2 pounds.

Starting my thru hike in mid to late February. Wanted to buy a Western Mountian Badger. (I have 59" shoulders).
On a tight budget and the cost of the Badger just went up another $65 this year.

Need to keep my gear cost down and use as much of my older gear as possible.

Is it too much weight to bring the Sandman, and will my aging bag be a bad choice in winter Appalachian Trail. Wanted to go with a lighter weight 15° bag and NeoAir All Season.

Sandman seems more then twice the weight on a bag that might be to cold to use?

Has anyone used a 10 year old Synthetic for a Thru Hike.

Do you remember the Guidelight?How does to compare to the NeoAir All Season?

Thanks.

[Jim Adams]

Buy a new bag. Your synthetic is probably now a 35-40* bag and still too heavy. The pad will work.

geek

[skinewmexico]

Do you really want to risk the adventure of a lifetime on a 12 year old bag? Start watching for Marmot closeouts, and watch the used gear forums here and at BPL.

[Toolshed]

Ditto on ditching the bag. Manmade fibers cannot continue to hold their loft over time, despite our chemists best efforts and designs. When I used to lead club trips, I'd see this time and again with folks getting into backpacking ... They bring old sleeping bags that where the fibers have simply stopped lofting and trapping air. sure the bag is heavy and bulky and seems warm - probably works well in a 60d house for a sleepover, but the performance ends as the temps drop.
I had it happen to me once with a newer (back then) product I think it was 3M Thinsulate Microloft. 20d Bag was awesome the first year in late fall. I stored it and cared for it meticulously. The following year, I was shivering at 35 degrees one spring night. Thinking it was me, I powered up on fuel before bed & used a hot water bottle the next night but I started getting cold on around my back and shoulders and through the night I shivered. Following week I contacted the MFG and they replaced it with a new 20d down bag.

[Smooth & Wasabi]

Definately a new bag. I am a big guy and went with a montbell ull ss. Fits great and can accomodate lots of extra layers. Also a little cheaper. I got mine at moontrail and got a free ti pot and pocket rocket with it, lots of other free gear with their point system.

[bigcranky]

+1 on a new bag. The 15-F Montbell Super Spiral would work for a broad-shouldered person. A 4.5 pound synthetic bag is too heavy, bulky, and at this point, not warm enough.

[Slo-go'en]

Speaking from experiance - get a new bag! Your sleeping bag is one of your most important pieces of equipment and you should not cut corners here.

I used an old synthetic when I got first back into long section hikes and it nearly killed me. It was a great bag and I had spent many, many nights in it, but 15 years later and after spending most of that time in it's stuff sack, the loft was totally gone.

[mirabela]

Yeah ... get a new bag. You don't have to get real spendy, though. For less than $100 there are any number of decent +20F synthetic options in the 3.5 pound range from North Face, Mountainsmith, Kelty, and many other makers. Cheap, simple, idiot-proof, good margin of error re: moisture, etc.

You can spend twice that or more to save a pound or two and some space in your pack ... but just as the ultralight types were challenging a sort of rigid orthodoxy of method 20 years ago, there's getting to be a bit of an unwarranted panic about every ounce these days. Point being, spend more and go lighter if you want, but replacing your bag with something newer, better, and a little lighter is within affordable reach.

[Camping Dave]

I own and use a WM Badger, the bag you're looking at. It's a bargain. Great bag. Very warm. Used it this week in fact in very cold weather. How cold? Well, I don't know exactly, but I filled up a pee bottle at 2am and the contents turned to slushy ice crystals by 7am. How cold does it have to be freeze pee inside a tent in 5 hours?

Forget the nonsense about buying a cheap 20 degree synthetic. Degree rating don't mean anything because there is no standard of measurement. Lay a badger and a 20 degree synthetic side and look at loft. Next, you'll be buying fleece jammies and special socks and wearing gloves to bed. Ridiculous. A Badger, silk bag liner, and a knit cap keep me comfy to near 0. And the knit cap is not for my head so much as to pull it down over my face and keep my nose warm!

[mirabela]

People will do what they want, and it's OK with me; my point is simply that the choice needn't be exclusively between a $460 bag or a 12-year-old, four-and-a-half-pounder. And, say what you want about the cheap 20F synthetic, people have been doing successful thru's with them for 30+ years.

How you use your equipment matters at least as much as the equipment itself. I spent a sub-freezing February night in a Vermont snow trench last year, in a 1986 EMS synth +20F bag (veteran of LT and AT end-to-ends and many seasons in the industry) and it was OK. Sure, I wore some clothes, but you're going to be carrying those anyway. You aren't going to hike without a hat, or gloves, or an insulation layer, just because you have an excellent sleeping bag.

Anyway -- pony up for the best of the best if you can and if you want it, but it's not the only option.

[freckles]

I agree on splitting the difference- you don't need to buy a $300 down bag if you can't afford it. I recently got a nice 25 degree women's bag (15 degrees for men) on sale for $125 that only weighs a pound more than the down option, cost $100 less, and actually packs 2 liters smaller. For me it was a great compromise because my 10 year old synthetic was NOT cutting it for anything under 50 degrees anymore, but I couldn't drop hundreds of dollars on a really nice bag.

[freckles]

Forget the nonsense about buying a cheap 20 degree synthetic. Degree rating don't mean anything because there is no standard of measurement. Lay a badger and a 20 degree synthetic side and look at loft.

Have you heard of EN ratings for sleeping bags? That's an independently tested standard of measurement. Any two bags- synthetic or down- with EN ratings can be accurately compared. Much more accurate than just laying two bags next to each other and looking at them.

[Deacon]

Have you heard of EN ratings for sleeping bags? That's an independently tested standard of measurement. Any two bags- synthetic or down- with EN ratings can be accurately compared. Much more accurate than just laying two bags next to each other and looking at them.

Yes, most of the top line bag manufacturers now conform to the EN rating system. Just check for that on the manufact. website.

[gunner76]

My wife still uses her synth bag from 1974. Still works fine. Was always stored un compressed. If your old bag can still cut it temp wise then use it. If you can afford to buy a new bag that will weigh less less then go that route as the less weight you have to hump on your back the better

[q-tip]

Get the WM bag. You will sleep great and be confident in the temp. rating. I have three and they will last a lifetime--hopefully-definitely worth the money. Take a look at the Alpinlite. It has 64" girth and you can get the overfill to bring it to 15d-I did.