mtnbud

I set up my budget hammock sleeping system in the backyard a couple days ago and slept in it to make sure all is good. On a whim I weighed it all up and it came to 7.5 lbs. This is for my hammock, underquilt, top quilt, pillow, and rainfly. Everything is budget equipment - Chinese knockoffs and off brands.

I was wondering how this weight compares with others systems. I assume it's probably pretty close to the same weight people are carrying with tents and sleeping pads?

Btw: Total the cost for my system was about $240 for everything.

gauvins

Zpacks Duplex shelter + sleeping bag + thermarest neoair => 49.3 oz. (vs 120) As a side benefit, your wallet becomes ultralight ([EDIT] $1287)

mtnbud

Wow! Impressive. I bet it all packs small too.

biker128pedal

I’m in the planning stages and my stuff is for motorcycle camping. Cat’s Meow sleeping bag. MSR Hubba Bubba tent, and Static sleep pad come to 9.6 pounds. The Sleeping bag is just tooooo big but I’ll deal with it for my first bikepacking trip since 1974. We’ll not really bikepacking just lightweight rail trail tour. Weight include all bags except the dry bag I plan to use for the sleeping bag, change of clothes and cooking gear. Now to figure how where to put food. Oh yet I don’t need food I have body fat.

GhostRider62

Tarptent, 72 inch thermarest, 25F extra large 900 fill quilt.....under 4 pounds.

robow

My tent 4lbs, large air mattress 1lb, true 30 deg. down bag 2lbs = 7 lbs.
Yea, when I used to do a lot more hammock camping, I really didn't save that much weight and when you add in an under quilt, I didn't save on much bulk as well. ymmv

Tourist in MSN

I was bored, so decided to dig into my data for weights.

3F Lanshan 1 tent, (bought on Ebay, shipped from Asia) plus a sheet of plastic for ground sheet, plus a tent pole that was not included with tent, 1325 grams. Includes sack, stakes, extra stakes. It is a trekking pole style tent, no pole included but I cut a pole for the tent instead of using my trekking pole. Tent, no trees required.

REI Sub Kilo Long sleeping bag (over a decade old) rated for 20 degrees (F) - 860 grams

REI Flash air mattress (older version, green) - 505 grams.

Compression sack for sleeping bag, Granite Gear Event 13 liter, 80 grams.

No pillow. Use other clothing instead.

Total 2.77kg. Or, 6.11 pounds.

I can trim that weight a bit if I instead bring my Neo-Air air mattress at 375 grams instead of the Flash.

Photo from a backpacking (not bikepacking) trip last summer.





ADDENDUM: Topic was sleeping gear. A gal I used to work with insisted on a sleeping bag liner to keep your sleeping bag cleaner after days of camping without showers. I have been following that advice for over a decade. I have a couple of them, the lightest one is Cocoon Silk at 120 grams or roughly 4 oz. And I almost always sleep with a thin stocking cap on when camping, add an ounce or two.

veganbikes

I wouldn't buy knockoffs that is just wrong on so many levels. Plenty of lower cost gear without buying fake stuff. Sierra Designs for instance makes some great quality but low cost gear. Their hammock with straps is $30. Buying quality gear from quality manufacturers with good support is way cheaper. A lot of the Cascade Designs stuff (Therm-a-Rest, MSR, Platypus) has a lifetime warranty on it and I had a customer at my old shop who had an original Therm-a-Rest from the 70s and I think he had to send it to them once as it was a two part design and the outer cover started separating but is still able to use it nearly 50 years later. A lot of other outdoor gear companies have similar support. You may spend more initially but you get a long long life out of it and are not supporting knockoffs.

I think my ENO hammock set up was about 3 or 4 pounds (no quilt though just a sleeping bag) I would have to weigh it, it has been a while.

I just purchased a Big Agnes TigerWall 3 as I wanted a larger tent that had smaller poles and those are about 3lbs. I wanted to have more space for a second person or just for myself as I have been doing a bit more camping as of last year thanks to my boss so I wanted a change. My Sea to Summit Comfort Plus Mat is over 2lbs but super comfortable and since I have a bad back well worth it. I have tried a bunch of different mats over the years and this by far is the most comfortable. I got gifted one of their Aeros pillows and that thing is really light and packs down pretty small and is fairly comfortable. I think that one is 2 oz. I haven't weighed my sleeping bags (at least not separately) I should probably do that since I got a new to me bag.

indyfabz

I’m around 7 lbs. Tent is 3.25 lbs. Mattress is a little under 1.75 lbs. Bag is water resistant down. I think it’s a little over 2 lbs.

andrewclaus

Do you mention the temperature rating of the sleep system? I have two different systems for different seasons. one 30F one 15F. My 30F system, including an enLightened Equipment down quilt, Tarptent Contrail and 1/2 of a Z-rest pad weigh just over 3 pounds (49 oz) and cost $400 a few years ago. Today's cost would be over $500. The high quality down quilt packs to the size of a couple of fists, allowing me to use smaller, lighter packs.

mtnbud

My underquilt is rated to 40F and my top quilt is rated to 30F. Last night when I slept in it, it got down to 30F. I was warm on top, but a little chilly underneath. I was able to sleep, but it wasn't ideal. It'd be real nice to buy a better underquilt, but I don't think my wife would be happy with me if I bought a $200+/- underquilt right now. A nice underquilt costs $$$. The top quilt is Outdoor Vitals, I got a great deal on it. I'm really happy with it. The underquilt is OneTigris. My tarp is a Chill Gorilla Fortress. My 11 foot hammock with attached mosquito netting is some no-name hammock off of Amazon. My hammock straps are $2 lashing straps with the metal buckles removed. Outdoor Vitals is a decent company they spec their equipment pretty well. OneTigris and Chill Gorilla are both Chinese companies, but their products are decent with decent specs. I'm pretty happy with everything except the underquilt.

imi

I pack differently depending on where and when I’m touring.

Lightest:
In summer around the Mediterranean, a fairly thin sleeping bag and a sheet of plastic (as groundsheet and rain covering). No tent, no pad; the sun will dry you out the next day, and you get used to sleeping on hard ground).

Heaviest:
3 seasons, down to freezing, heavy wind and rain, lots of bugs, anywhere in the world.
Hilleberg Soulu tent and groundsheet.
Haglöfs Zensor 2 synthetic sleeping bag. Closed-cell thermarest pad.

Below freezing I double up with a second very thin sleeping bag (the $10 kind).

This set up is heavy and bulky, but being cold and wet with a tent that broke in a storm, a punctured pad, and a soaked dune-feather sleeping bag in the middle of nowhere is not much fun.

I’ll see if I can weigh these two packing extremes.

edit: I also always have a inner bag sewn from a cotton sheet for very warm nights with mosquitoes and to make washing easier.

btw, Hilleberg tents are very expensive, but my word, they will stand up to just about anything. Truly expedition quality, but unnecessay for light, summer tours.

Tourist in MSN

Weight wise, I have lots of gear of varying ages and temperature ranges. I mentioned above that my lightest stuff for backpacking for sleeping and shelter was 6.11 pounds, add a bit more for sleeping bag liner and stocking cap and still under 6.5 pounds.

But, my favorite tent by itself is 6.1 pounds, used to use that for bike touring, but now only use it for canoe camping where weight is quite unimportant. And for decades I used a 3.9 pound polarguard sleeping bag for canoe camping in colder weather, I would never dream of bringing that on a bike trip.

For some activities, weight is very important, but for some activities it is unimportant.

GhostRider62

So true. On 4 week tour of the North and South Islands, it rained hard every single day and my 3+ seasons tent was the best weight I carried. OTOH, one could get away with a bivvy or light tarp in the desert southwest.

staehpj1

Mine has varied over time and with the trip. I haven't taken the tent in quite a while preferring the bivy for most trips. Weight depends on whether I take the bug bivy or bivy and the larger or smaller tarp. I'll give three possible numbers, but there are a lot of possible combinations in between. Note that I add a pillow.

All three include a Mountain Hardwear Phantom +45 (17 ounces) sleeping bag, Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite (size R 12 oz.) pad, Exped Air Pillow (size M 12 oz.), and any required stakes, cords or poles.

• Combo 1 - 3 pounds 0 ounces - Ti Goat Ptarmigan Bug Bivy (5.3 oz), Integral Designs Siltarp 1 (7oz), 170# dacron braided (0.6 oz), .340" Easton Aluminum (1.6 oz), 5 MSR Needle stakes (1.7 oz),
• Combo 2 - 3 pounds 6.6 ounces - Borah Side zipper ultralight bivy (7 oz), Sea2Summit Escapist M 6'6" x 8'6" (12.3 oz), 170# dacron braided (0.6 oz), .340" Easton Aluminum (1.6 oz), 5 MSR Needle stakes (1.7 oz),
• Combo 3 - 4 pounds 9 ounces - Eureka Spitfire 1 (2# 9oz, not bad for a $100 tent!)

I have not used the tent in a long time since I have been using bivys and tarps, but as tents go I really like this one especially for the price. I don't think Eureka makes it any more though.

In general I really like all of these components. I have used the bag, pad and bivys in temperature ranging from blazing heat to overnight lows in the mid teens and been fine. I tend to sleep very warm though. The really hot weather bivy camping requires either the bug bivy, cowboy camping, or sweating and being miserable in the regular bivy. To be fair tents can be somewhat miserable in the heat too. If it isn't buggy I'd rather cowboy camp on hot nights. I still keep the tarp handy to pull over me and my gear if a surprise shower should pop up.

staehpj1

Not bad for the cost. I go a lot lighter, but needed to spend a lot more to do it. My tarp cost almost that much, my sleeping bag probably was twice that, and my sleeping pad cost $150, Still I don't own a single gram of super high tech fiber and could have spent way more. I think I hit what for me was a sweet spot by avoiding a lot of the really high dollar stuff. I splurged on an item here and there over the years after starting out with mostly inexpensive stuff. Best splurge was probably a nice sleeping bag.

staehpj1

I have gone back and forth on that over the decades. I ultimately settled on just wearing a tech tee shirt rather than have bare sweaty skin against the bag. I think that the first reason I started wearing the tee was when I had the blister failure on one of the first neoair pads. I also had complaints that when sleeping on top of the neoair with bare skin that any movement in my sleep was noisy, annoying campmates. The tee solved both issues. Another bonus was that I actually found one of the silky tech tees to be more comfortable than bare skin. I don't always wear them, sometimes preferring short running shorts with a mesh brief, but I sometimes sleep in my thin silky weight (no pad) tights as well.

gauvins

staehpj1 good point (T+tights instead of a liner). Thanks for opening my eyes. My cocoon got ripped to shreds last summer and replaced by a rather bulky/heavy liner. Next time I tour for a while, it'll be UL base layer...

Tourist in MSN

My silk 120 gram Cocoon liner, I only use for backpacking. I used to use if for everything when it was my only one. Later bought a microfiber one that I use for heavier camping, which includes bike touring, 270 grams. I am not going to get bothered about a 150 gram or roughly five ounce difference on a bike tour.

phughes

With my Warbonnet Blackbird, tarp, Klymit insulated pad, and Kelty sleeping bag, I'm at right around 6.5 pounds. I could get a lighter sleeping bag, but 6.5 pounds is okay for me.

I have an REI one person tent that will weight in about one pound more when coupled with the sleeping bag and pad. It isn't the lightest one person tent, but I like it's size. It is larger than most one person tents.

I wouldn't sweat the weight. On half of my last tour, my wife joined me for the weekend, bringing our three person Coleman tent. I ended up keeping it with me and using it for the rest of the tour since I was possibly going to have to wait out a couple days due to cold, hail, and high winds. That tent alone weighs in at 11 pounds. I still carried my hammock gear as well. Overall I pack fairly light, so the sleeping gear isn't much of an issue to me.

mtnbud

​​​​​​I've thought of using a sleeping pad rather than a underquilt for trips where I might have to sleep on the ground some nights. I own a Klymit Static V sleeping pad that is lighter and packs smaller than my underquilt, but it's the uninsulated pad so I'm not sure if I'd be warm enough using it in the hammock. I'm also not sure if the pad would stay centered under me with the hammock I'm using.

I hope to try bicycle packing with my mountain bike this summer. Pack size and weight is going to be a lot more critical, but I think I'll still use the hammock. Before the hammock, I often cowboy camped with a ground cloth and a tarp for the possibility of rain. I had a down sleeping bag that weighed about 2lbs and my sleeping pad was about a pound. I'm pretty sure total weight was around 5 lbs, but it could've been less. I sleep way better in the hammock than I do on the ground so the extra weight is a good tradeoff.

phughes

I tried the same pad and I wished for more insulation. The nights were in the 50s at times, and I needed more insulation. I now have the insulated version of that same pad, and it is much better. They also make a hammock specific pad that is insulated. I haven't bought that one yet. I got the Static V insulated pad since it also fits in my one man tent. Nice for whan I carry both the hammock and the tent.

I love the Static V pads though. Very comfortable. It stayed in the Blackbird nicely, but it had a dual layer bottom, so the pad fits between the layers.

Tourist in MSN

Above in post 7 I had a photo of the tent I bought a couple years ago for backpacking, lighter than what I had previously used. Some of the campsites I use when backpacking are a bit crowded, best to have one that takes up minimal space.

Photo below is the tent I started to use for bike touring in 2017. Big Agnes Scout Plus. Single wall tent, rated for two people but I can't imagine having two in it. Being a single wall tent there is a lot of condensation on the ceiling, but if you are solo you can sleep in the middle and have enough room above you to avoid rubbing on the wet ceiling. It is a trekking pole tent, no poles included, but I cut tent poles that have short enough segments that I can fold up the poles and fit them in a Front Loader pannier. Last time I looked at Big Agnes website, it was no longer made. It has plenty of room for all my gear inside and if it is raining in the morning I can pack up all my gear into my panniers while inside the tent, then take down the tent and pack that last. With the two poles I cut for it and some extra stakes, weighs 1565 grams, or 3.45 pounds.



It is not a self supporting tent, thus when I was camped on a wood platform, I had to jam twigs in between the planks to stake it down. I do not recall which state park this was, it was in Florida Keys, there were hike in sites in the mangrove and this was one such site.

So far have used it for eight weeks. Works great. This replaced the one that I previously said weighed 6.1 pounds.

gauvins

​​​​​​ Yes yes, very reasonable. Precisely my thoughts at the time.

Yet I plan to try and sleep dressed in UL base layer, based on the assumption that it is skin oil rather than perspiration that is what we're trying to mitigate. (Talked to my wife about this. She showed me tights meant for yoga, that weigh nothing, pack the size of a lemon, and are surprisingly warm - she uses them for running on chilly days.)

Pratt

Somewhere, I have the weight of my tent and sleeping gear written down, somewhere.
Being snug and dry in your tent, in a heavy rainstorm is a very good feeling, and leads you to decide that what ever you paid for the tent, it was worth it.
Here, in the Northeast, in the Summer, it is rare to go three days in a row without some rain, and even if it stays dry, the biting insects make some sort of shelter important.