[at-l] Pack Liners

[bogey1 at 650dialup.com (Nancy)]

From: "David Hicks" <daveh@psknet.com>
> Subject: Re: [at-l] Pack Liners

> A list member pointed out to me that, "The problem is, they put the
waterproof
> coating on the inside so the fabric
> still gets wet."

Unlike urethane coated fabrics, silnylon is impregnated (soaked through) not
just coated on the surface. When the seams are sealed Silnylon is
waterproof. It's definitely non-breathable, try breathing through it. I've
noticed that some items touted as silnylon items are not really silnylon but
uncoated ripstop nylon. I have a 'silnylon' Go-Lite stuff sack that I used
to use as a food bag. It absorbs water like a sponge and I even sealed the
seams.  Then I made a silnylon food bag and it is waterproof and tight from
the weather.

Since that worked so well..and my husband was always complaining that his
trash compactor bag pack liner was too short to seal up tightly ...I made
him a silnylon pack liner and he loves it not only because it seals up
easily but because it's so easy to stuff because the fabric is slick; and it
keeps his gear dry.  He also likes that it weighs only 2.5 oz and he can use
it as a laundry bag when he goes to the laundromat or take into a motel and
leave the smelly pack outside. Also has been used as a footsack on cold
nights and as a pillow. Then he likes that he can take this whole bag out
with all the gear right along with it and take it into the tent or shelter.
Then he removes the gear when inside the tent where it stays dry. He can
load up in the tent in the morning and stuff the whole bag in the main and
go. Especially good when its raining. I made my self one and I love it too.
I wonder why I did not do this earlier. They fit neatly inside every pack we
own and we have 8 internal/frameless packs: 3 Vapor Trails, 3 Go-Lite packs,
2 Camp Trails, and 5 External frame packs and the liner fits all of them
very well.
If anyone would like me to make them a pack liner or a food bag just email
me.


> "First, you do not, as might be imagined, save space. A tightly packed
stuff
> sack tends to sit stalwartly and nonconformingly in its corner of a pack;
> unless you have soft, yielding articles to stuff around it you leave
wasted
> space at its peripheries.
Personally from my experience the Silnylon Pack liner makes packing tighter
because everything slips past other items. I Pack everyting in silnylon:
Tent, sleeping bag, food, clothing, personal items. I think this fabric is a
boon to the backpacker.

> "Second, and more important, there's the stuffing difficulty. A bag of
such a
> size that you can just about cram in your sleeping bag or down jacket or
> whatever with no more than a minor struggle in store or living room at a
> windless 70*F, when you're fresh and fed, may seem beguilingly efficient.
In a
> gale, at 20?, when you're hungry and weary and in a hurry, it transmutes
into
> a monster.

It is so easy to stuff the full pack liner into the gaping hole of the Main
compartment in the worst weather taking less time and more conducive to
keeping things dry.


> "I always try to buy a stuff sack big enough to take its load with room to
> spare, leaving it soft, malleable, odd-corner-fitting-and easily
stuffable."

Me too

> So, my silnylon stuff sacks are large enough to let their content shift
and
> settle against each other, filling the entire pack and they are
waterproofed
> primarily to fend off moisture when they are outside the compactor bag.
Dittos
> Chainsaw
No longer use the trash compactor bag. Just the Pack liner.