Just a quick question about quilts. I saw stu reviewed the Cumulus 150 a while ago. I'm looking to get a quilt for a change as I got a bit fed up of my non-zipped PHD minimus sleeping bag last week. Its quite restrictive for a chap my size. Almost 6ft and 42" inch chest dont you know.

To anyone that has used one

Would you consider the cumulus wide enough?
Would you recommend going up in the warmth stakes given the time of year, or just go for the light one and wear a down jacket?

Have you tried UK hammocks quilts? The summer one says -6 (which sounds like winter to me), they seem to be wider than cumulus.

I see enlightened do a wide option too, perhaps I should go for one of these, but at what warmth!

I'll be using it with a full length Synmat.
(I do have a winter bag too for the snowy season)

Anyway, any advice anyone can offer would be great

Would you consider the cumulus wide enough?

Yes ... but there won't be that much room for error. The problem I have with the Cumulus is because of how I curl up on my side, if you sleep 'straight out' then you'd be fine.

Would you recommend going up in the warmth stakes given the time of year, or just go for the light one and wear a down jacket?

If I were buying a quilt in the run up to Winter then I'd go warmer. If I were buying a Cumulus quilt today for using now, I'd buy a 350. As luck would have it, they're on offer here: http://www.trekking-lite-store.com/trek ... ::621.html

I see enlightened do a wide option too, perhaps I should go for one of these, but at what warmth!

I've got a -20°C Enlightened and it's lovely. Reg length and wide ... I can lose myself in it I'd buy a 20°F one.

Not tried a UK Hammocks quilt as available through backpackinglight.co.uk but from what I've seen they look nice.

FLV,

I just received a UKhammocks quilt at the end of last week.
Not had time to try it outdoors yet but it is significantly warmer than my down sleeping bag which I have had down to -2.

I got the winter weight one which packs down to around 6L versus the summer one which packs down to around 4L.

Good thing about the UK hammocks one is you can discuss specs and requirements with Mat and he will knock one up to suit you.
I ordered mine tapered towards the foot end to save some weight and ribbons instead of a sewn foot box so I can leave it opened out and wear it around camp like a blanket if t is really cold.
Unfortunately it arrived with a sewn foot box but Mat is happy to cover return postage costs and correct it for me.

interesting, thanks.

I do tend to wriggle around a lot during the night which is why I was a little nervous about the cumulus being too narrow.

I might go for either a wide EE or a ukHammocks. (I cant see them on backpackinglight though)

(I cant see them on backpackinglight though)

Made for BPL by UK hammocks
http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/categ ... XB105.html

s8tannorm wrote:

(I cant see them on backpackinglight though)

Made for BPL by UK hammocks
http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/categ ... XB105.html

Pricy on there eh.

I'm leaning towards an enlightened one. I like all the info they have on the site, and the wide option. Revelation or Enigma is another question.

Got two Revelation X's from EE, both have been great.

Revelation or Enigma is another question.

Unless you really want to open it out fully, I'd go for the sewn footbox ... saves a bit of weight and any potential for draughts.

almost having a return to uk hammocks... after checking the import tax landed cost for an enigma would be £220 versus the summer fill price of uk hammocks of £134

Incidentally, I've been looking at a frame online too, import duty and VAT really try to spoil a party dont they!!

Using a similar/same pattern for chambers, same material, same down, you're looking into getting equal isolation out of a 150 g quilt and a 200 g bag. BUT, you have no hood. Below zero that makes a huge difference. So say your looking into swaping against a PHD Minimus with 300 g down, you'd need to go for a 225 g down quilt. Going with a Cumulus quilt your looking at the 250 g version.
If you want to use it for a few cold nights, get a insulated hat and a Pashmina scarf
I never tried the Cumulus quilts but from other Cumulus products I now I'd get a warm night down to at least -5 °C out of a 250 g quilt. This is with a light weight down smock (think 70 g 850 cuin down).

Check for the down quality, 750 cuin, 850 or 1000 makes a huge difference, should you go for something cumstomised. I'm sure Peter Hutchinson will help out with a quilt as well.

FLV wrote:Incidentally, I've been looking at a frame online too, import duty and VAT really try to spoil a party dont they!!

Import duty has gone up quite a bit for Switzerland too. They charge a regular fee of ~30.- chf, then a few percent of the value of the goods including the swiss VAT and then on top of all that, the regular VAT. But the good thing is, I get to support more local shops like that

I've got a Summer UKhammocks quilt and a Revelation X from Enlightened (maybe 30 Farenheit, can't recall exactly).

Both are great and I would buy either again.

UKhammocks - Mat is a nice bloke who will accomodate most requests. His website really undersells what he can do and I think he'd be a lot busier if it was more whizzy like Enlightened. His gear is good though and that's what matters. I think he habitually over stuffs his quilts and he uses a high FP down so they are very warm, IME. The quilt I have, IIRC, is about 500 or 600 grammes. Always been more than warm enough either hanging or going to ground with a downmat (quality mat important with any quilt) and just supplemented with merino base layers in cooler late autumn months. I think it's easily a 3 season quilt but temp' is a very personal thing. Width is great as standard and I'm short but broad, side sleeping, bit of a wriggler. I do think the price is good as handmade in. Someone mentioned they thought the material was heavy and the only way to get lighter was to buy yourself and supply. If you go down that route let me know as I might be interested in a custom winter bag and a cost shared is a cost halved ;-)

Enlightened - I've nothing bad to say about them and when they did the Revolt X (no longer using seconds) they were great value. Tim who runs it was always very helpful. I went for a wide and think in hindsight they are US sized so would have been fine with a regular. Think they use a lower grade of down or there might be a conversion between US and UK gradings (?). I think they've got a little expensive now and that's been putting me off a winter weight quilt from them. I agree with Stu, zipped footbox can be a little unnecessary, but it's personal choice / versatility. No complaints on temp rating though not tested it head-to-head with Ukhammocks one. Mine is the Karo-box type but not sure that makes a noticeable difference.

I think they're both make great quilts. I'd be purely swung on price. Enlightened look swisher but WGAF if you're in a bivi-bag If it were me I'd get a UkHammocks and save the cash.

BTW, the coyote brown colour is actually a gopping looking gold and shiney which makes mine look like a lurid condom. Can't see it in the dark though!

Regarding lighter material from UKHammocks Mat can source this himself.
I can not remember the material he was able to get but he said it would add about £40 to the price and increase lead time from 2 to 5 weeks.
He also said it was less hard wearing and due to other changes he had made to construction the weights on his site were over quoted and in reality lighter.

That said, if someone wanted to source good light material I might be up for jumping on the band wagon and sharing the costs.

^^ The material was argon.
Updated construction apparently knocks about 80g off the weight listed on the UKHammocks website.
☺

PHD Testing

Fillpower is the prime indicator of down quality. It establishes the volume which a measured weight of down will fill — the fillpower — usually quoted in cubic inches per ounce. So when people talk about 700, 800, 900 down, they mean how many cubic inches one ounce of that down will fill. 900 fillpower down is better than 800 down, because one ounce of 900 fills 100 cu.in. more than an ounce of 800 and more filled air-space means more warmth from the same weight.

PHD uses a Lorch machine for fillpower testing. This is as near to being an accepted world standard test machine as there is and it is approved by the International Down & Feather Bureau (IDFB). The standard Lorch test gives a fillpower figure about 4% lower than the US Federal method for the same down, so all PHD figures would be 4% higher if the tests were carried out under the US Federal method.

From here: http://www.phdesigns.co.uk/testing-down ... -fillpower

EU norm uses what PHD describes as standard Lorch test.

Some state 800 cuin EU = 850 cuin US, others 800 cuin EU = 840 cuin US etc.

Some brands started using water repellent down, such as Encapsil, UltraDry Down, HyperDRY, Power hydrophobic etc. etc. This treatment increases the fill power (at least in some cases). Something I'd go for when ordering a bespoke quilt as a resident of the UK.

Lughnasadh wrote:Regarding lighter material from UKHammocks Mat can source this himself.
I can not remember the material he was able to get but he said it would add about £40 to the price and increase lead time from 2 to 5 weeks.
He also said it was less hard wearing and due to other changes he had made to construction the weights on his site were over quoted and in reality lighter.

That said, if someone wanted to source good light material I might be up for jumping on the band wagon and sharing the costs.

Interested too.

Cheeky Monkey wrote:

Lughnasadh wrote:Regarding lighter material from UKHammocks Mat can source this himself.
I can not remember the material he was able to get but he said it would add about £40 to the price and increase lead time from 2 to 5 weeks.
He also said it was less hard wearing and due to other changes he had made to construction the weights on his site were over quoted and in reality lighter.

That said, if someone wanted to source good light material I might be up for jumping on the band wagon and sharing the costs.

Interested too.

I could be up for it, but likely for a summer one for going silly light

Pertex Endurance would make a nice shell material ... waterproof and breathable.

http://thru-hiker.com/materials/coated.php

Or if you just want light, how about M50 at 20g / m

http://thru-hiker.com/materials/breathable.php

Silly light:
http://www.extremtextil.de/catalog/Rips ... :1974.html

Use it my self for a couple of things. It's been great so far (half a year in (ab)use).

For high abuse areas of lightweight iso garments and sleeping gear (eg foot box):
http://www.extremtextil.de/catalog/Nylo ... :1518.html


Here's an interesting fabric too, but I have no experience with it:
http://www.extremtextil.de/catalog/Rips ... :1680.html

p.s.: you can change the site to english (top right)

Cheers for the links Gian,

I'm going to look into getting a custom superlight quilt made, hopefully in a batch.

See here
http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB ... 246#p49246