To buy now or later, that is the question

[Sparky!]

As you may have seen through various postings of mine... I am trying to replace some of my gear with lighter gear. Specifically

1) a tent... I decided on the Eurpoa II, $260 and weighs 33 ounces vice the Peak1 Cobra I have which weighs 67 ounces ),

2) A sleeping bag, which I have not decided upon but set the dollar limit at $200 and max 48 ounces vice the Sandman I have which weighs 64 ounces,

3) a lighter Pack, either the Forester or the Reality for $225 which is 80 ounces vice the Windriver which weighs 112 ounces)

4) a lighter rain coat, decided on the Marmot Precip for $100 which is 14 ounces vice the lowe alpine which weighs 30 ounces.

With these changes my pack weight will be at 35lbs which includes warm clothes, 3 days worth of food, and 70 ounces of water.

I usually give my gear a good home, I take care of it when I first get it, I go over each piece prior to going on a hike and when I return I do the maintenance and make sure it is clean and if any repairs need to be done are done prior to it being stashed away.

I was origininally planning on having all this gear bought by the end of Fall this year. Specifically the tent and the Precip jacket this spring, the Bag this summer and the pack by mid winter ( looking for sales)

I am not planning on starting out until March 2005, two years from now... I know... I am planning way out there... It is the military in me.

OK, that is the history... now here is the question...
Do I buy the gear now or do I wait till I am closer to my start date? If waiting closer... how much closer?

Why the question? Well as you can see that is a LOT of cash, $800, well to me it is a lot of cash for all that gear.. and I don't want to cut my hike short because I have to buy gear again... but again I don't want to get on the trail with gear I have not tried and tested.

OK, let me have it... but be nice

Thanks,

Sparky!

[Lone Wolf]

Hard to say. The tent and pack might not be around in 2 years or the designs and workmanship that you like in those products now may change significantly. These damn companies are always fixing things that ain't broke! And prices go up. So I would get the tent and pack now and the other stuff closer to your hike.

[RagingHampster]

It depends. Are you currently doing any multi-day hikes?

If yes, than this gear could be useful now, and let you enjoy 2 more years of hiking. If all you do is day hikes, I'd wait. With advances in materials and design, there will probably be better choices by then.

Hope that helps!

[Colter]

If having that gear now will make you happier in the long run, go for it.

If it were me, I'd probably buy gear I was certain about and wait for a bit on gear I wasn't sure on. Do each of your selected items have a track record?

Your pack selection seems rather heavy to me. You should be able to easily find a pack that will do it's job in the 3 lb range, saving you 2 lbs.

You won't need to carry 70 oz. of water very often on the AT. I rarely had more than a full quart unless I was just about ready to camp. Stay aware of water availability ahead of you. Water is heavy so every pound of water you carry from source to source is wasted effort. I'd make sure I tanked up both myself and my canteen before leaving a water source.

[chris]

If you have two years time before leaving, I would get some gear and go out with it. Spend some time backpacking and gain some experience as to what you find useful and what is extraneous. If you have enough right now (i.e, pack, tent, etc) to go on overnight or multiday trips, then keep that gear and use it. If you don't have the gear, then you are probably not going on too many overnight trips. I would definitely get enough stuff together to go backpacking. One inexpensive way to do this is through www.sierratradingpost.com. Lots of good deals.

Remember: It won't be your gear that gets you over the mountains and through the rain.

[gravityman]

I would wait on purchasing the gear. I am positive that if you buy the gear now, that by the time you get to the thruhike you will want to get new, lighter stuff.
So, if you want to save money, don't buy it now, wait until the after christmas sales on the year of your hike.

On another note, I would seriously reconsider the rain gear. We have that jacket, but use it only for serious wind conditions on day hikes. We use our paper suits otherwise...

Gravity man

[MOWGLI]

Originally posted by Colter
Water is heavy so every pound of water you carry from source to source is wasted effort. I'd make sure I tanked up both myself and my canteen before leaving a water source.

Some of the best advice I received on the trail was from Skid who advised me "the best way to carry water is inside of you".

That's about the only light weight hiking suggestion I took along the way. Well, I did send home about 13# of gear at Walasi-Yi, but other than that...

Little Bear
GA-ME 2000

[rumbler]

I would start looking for bargains. For instance, my outfitter was selling last year's Reality packs for $160. Europa has the original tent on sale for $135. Campmor has a 20 degree bag on sale for $109 weighing 36 ounces.

Unless money is no object, you probably will be stunned at how much state-of-the-art equipment can be. So I would find equipment that is on sale and still meets your expectations. You can use the money you save to buy the one piece of new fangled gear that two years from now really may make a difference.

Start shopping now with some idea of what you want and with the patience to wait and get a good price. And a willingness to pull the trigger and buy it when you do find that good price.

[PushingDaisies]

I wouldn't buy everything all at once since you have some time before your hike.

If you have an outfitter close to home, I would start renting gear to find out what features you like and don't like. I wish I would have done this when I started. I now have 6 packs, 3 tents, 3 sleeping bags......well you get the picture. This way, you can find out what you want and still be able to get out on the trail.

[stranger]

On certain things you should buy now...For example Packs, especially Gregory hasn't had any real changes in their packs since 1996. They just change things around and fuss with features and pricing, but the concepts remain the same. The Shasta hasn't really seen any real changes since 1994, and in fact has gotten heavier depending on the year.

Obviously gear might get lighter in the coming years but I wouldn't let that deter you from buying the product you feel comfortable with now, cause their is something to be said about feeling comfortable with your gear. My current pack is like 7 years old and lighter than the current model by almost a pound, go figure!

I wouldn't bother waiting around for 900 fill down bags and such, get the gear you want (hopefully on sale) and beat it before setting out for Springer, a good piece of hardware (pack, tent, stove and poles) should be able to handle 5000 miles or so anyway. And if you do score a Reality and in 2 years it's a whopping 5 ounces lighter so what? Cut off the lid and call it a day. Cheers!

[Sparky!]

Some great advice ... I think what I am going to do is by what I want when I can afford it and not worry about the AT in two years... The gear I am looking at should last til then and it is quality gear. Plus I will look for sales... I think I found my bag I want.. Marmot Sawtooth... On sale for $179, weight 2 lbs 12 ounces and is a 15 degree bag... It does pay to look around with out the credit card in hand!

[Nightwalker]

OK, that is the history... now here is the question...
Do I buy the gear now or do I wait till I am closer to my start date? If waiting closer... how much closer?

Buy it as you can afford it and as you find it at a good-or-on-sale price. It's not going to go bad, as you say you take good care of it. YMMV HYOH

Frank

[Nightwalker]

You won't need to carry 70 oz. of water very often on the AT.

You only have to get really thirsty and out of water most of a day one time to disagree with this. I had a very-memorable 6 hours with no water on the Foothills Trail spur towards Caesar's Head. It was August as well.

I got a low amount of water, thinking that a spring was coming up soon. It turned out to be dry this time. Deep thirsty is an awfully uncomfortable thing. I always fill my 3-liter Camelbak now, and weight be damned.

Frank

[Kerosene]

I have also had the unpleasant experience of running out of water, and it was only for 6 miles on a muggy August day! Now I almost always start with full water bottles (up to 100 oz. in total) and try to keep fully hydrated.

As for waiting for the "next best thing", this is similar to waiting to buy a new PC...they're always getting faster and cheaper, so just buy what you want and can afford when you need it and worry about upgrading at some later time.

[brian]

All i can say is that Campmor is selling the Precip right now for $80...I just went down on monday to the store ( I live close enough to go!), and it really is a nice jacket. But pick it up for 20% while you still can.

Brian
Future Thru Hiker 2013

[Colter]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colter
You won't need to carry 70 oz. of water very often on the AT. Unquote

You only have to get really thirsty and out of water most of a day one time to disagree with this. I had a very-memorable 6 hours with no water on the Foothills Trail spur towards Caesar's Head. It was August as well.

I got a low amount of water, thinking that a spring was coming up soon. It turned out to be dry this time. Deep thirsty is an awfully uncomfortable thing. I always fill my 3-liter Camelbak now, and weight be damned.
Frank

Knock yourself out Frank! Carry as much water as you want. But I stand by my statement that every pound carried from source to source is wasted effort. It's all a matter of how much you want to pay for "insurance." And you do pay. Those extra pounds of water that you carry from source to source, without drinking, are a subsantial percentage of your pack weight. Believe me, I didn't go thirsty very often on the AT, and I never, even once, carried 70 oz of water unless it was a short distance to camp.

Almost ANYTHING can be overdone, and you can go overboard in the ultralight VS heavy and comfortable debate in just about any item that you can carry, and that includes water. If you make it a habit of carrying 72 oz of water on the AT you are going to make your hike a lot more uncomfortable, but to each his/her own.

[smokymtnsteve]

On a hot august day and knowing that sources may be dry then it would be prudent to carry insurance...but not all the time .. esp during wet season when springs wont be dry...but HYOH..