Gear problems and causes / solutions

[Ellobuddha]

Re wet bag end - If expecting condensation use my jacket if jacket is dry. If wet, I then use my pack liner.

[icefest]

If it gets really bad you can put your feet in a plastic bag up to your knees; all inside the sleeping bag. That way you can limit the mouture moving through the foot end of the bag and limit condensation in that part of the tent.
You'll have to manage clothing as with any other vbl though.

That's the only other thing that works for me, but the price (comfort) is almost too high.

[Tortoise]

Thanks for your input, everyone.

I've used an extra large dry cell (could also use a large bin liner etc) to keep the feet of my sleeping bag dry. A 30L works fine for me

Pardon the ignorance re dry cells - not a battery! Just a normal dry bag?

I had high hopes for my emergency bivvy that has some breathability - but it's not enough to stop the bag from getting damp inside. I would have thought pack liners and garbage bags would be worse.

Hadn't thought of the bag inside the sleeping bag, Icefest. Might give it a try if I can cope with the discomfort.

[horsecat]

Yep, I just use a waterproof stuff sack Tortoise. Or you could use a dry shell

I've never had any issues with it condensating as I only use it on the end of my sleeping bag to stop direct contact with the tent wall as I'm a bit over 1.8m long and sometimes I end up sliding in the night. I use the same waterproof sack to carry my sleeping bag in to keep it dry so I've got it handy anyway (it also doubles as my inflator bag for my down mattress so it's quite multiskilled). I find plastic bags and liners rustle in the night and stick

[Tortoise]

Sounds good, hc. Just realised if the rest of me isn't in it, the waterproof bag shouldn't be a problem.

Now you've got me wondering re how you adapt the waterproof sack to use as an inflator bag... Is it one with a roll then clip top?

[icefest]

Now you've got me wondering re how you adapt the waterproof sack to use as an inflator bag... Is it one with a roll then clip top?

Mine is. I have a thermarest neoair with the black tube to attach it to a pump bag. I just fill my 40L roll top bag with air, scrunch the top over the black tube and fill up my mat. Three times and the mat is full, less than a minute.

[horsecat]

Spot on Icefest. Exped make a thing called a Schnozzel Pumpbag as well

[icefest]

Mine is like that, but no schnozzel. Personally I think this works just as well and has the added benefit of less holes in the bag for potential water ingress.

[Strider]

Exped also make a dry bag with an inflation outlet (no Schnozzle).

[mickb]

Don't shop at any retailer that displays this type of behaviour.

Kathmandu, Macpac, Mountain Designs etc? Now, what do I do with local retailers/International brands that maintain an elevated RRP all year round except from O/S online store?

I can't place all the blame on Kathmandu. In fact it's not their fault at all. There is something about the Australian consumer that appears to be far more susceptible to this sort of scheme. You would think if any corporation were to be engaged in this sort of consumer rort it would be an American corporation but in fact I've only ever seen this sort of behaviour in Australasia. In fact if you look at Kathmandu's UK site you'll see that their retail price for the exact same jacket is nearly 55% cheaper than the retail price in Australia. And yet nobody in the media or government says anything. Every time I walk past a busy Kathmandu store I am more and more convinced that Australians are the least educated consumers in the western world.

Agree totally, Aussies are the biggest suckers in the world. reason partly being 1st world, also we are too isolated. The other 1st world countries at least have crap countries near them or on same continent so they are more politically and commerically aware of what can go wrong if they don't stay on their governments backs. It hit me first when I worked in middle east/africa and saw rich familes there driving hiluxes for 22k and landcruiserers for 30.

Also if you have lived in the 3rd world you see an even lower level of item china produces. It is literally junk, plastic items you can almost fold in half, $3 shoes, $1 shirts, homewares almost always busted before you even assemble them. The mega factory/global commericial complex decides what consumers can pay and provide accordingly .The scary thing is we are getting this level imported here now...and hey presto we still pay 3x more.

Also as these companies struggle to continue expected profits with the global downturn , they lower production costs and therefore quality even for expensive items. I get tired of having new expensive kit fail in the last couple years, and having to rely on an earlier version I bought 5-10 years ago until I can get the new item back from warranty(!!)

Rant over lol

[Alittleruff]

Gear problem- The stuff I want to take is too heavy and we succumb to throwing in things at the last minute because, well to make us feel more comfortable and emotionally 'ready' for an adventure. It actually has the opposite effect, making walking very uncomfortable. Who would have figured that?

Solution... try to go light without compromising safety or comfort. The holly grail is out there somewhere.

[Hermione]

[quote="Alittleruff"]Gear problem- The stuff I want to take is too heavy and we succumb to throwing in things at the last minute because, well to make us feel more comfortable and emotionally 'ready' for an adventure. It actually has the opposite effect, making walking very uncomfortable. Who would have figured that?

Apart from buying lighter gear (which isn't always an option anyway) you need to be completely ruthless with what you pack and no last minute additions (just becasue it fits in your pack doesn't mean you need to carry it)! Over time you'll work out the things that you can actually do without. On my first ever overnighter I carried more than I now take on a week long trip, what an idiot

[Lindsay]

Gear problem- The stuff I want to take is too heavy and we succumb to throwing in things at the last minute because, well to make us feel more comfortable and emotionally 'ready' for an adventure. It actually has the opposite effect, making walking very uncomfortable. Who would have figured that?

Solution... try to go light without compromising safety or comfort. The holly grail is out there somewhere.

It can be done Alittleruff, it just takes a degree of ruthlessness when you pack your stuff. Before you put something in, recall if you actually used it last time. If not, then it can stay behind. (of course this does not apply to items like your first aid kit or wet weather gear)

[mickb]

My 'main gear problem' is companies engineering defiencies in everything to keep repeated sales high. Which is not a dig at the chinese specifically, companies have been managing item life as part normal profit forecasting since day dot. But since the last financial crash it has gone up a level of craziness, even top shelf gear you are happy for 5 years use ,and then run around crowing like you found the holy grail. I am reverting more and more to my earlier 2000's stuff, or even 1990's era gear that is still working. And great warranty returns just mean the company spent s*&^%$#a to make it in the first place. The second issue is all this stuff we are fed about recycling and emissions and then factories make 10 times more warranty replaced junk than they need to . Very little of this makes it back to recycling in a factory too, its just waste of our resources..

Sorry for the rant I just had another expensive Aussie company(Chinese made though) camping product fall apart at the 2 year mark, a decent sports watch band decay and break in the 3rd year( of course the band is not covered by warranty and somehow costs 1/3 of the damn watch to replace...a piece of cheap 2 year rubber ). Even my stiener binos, decent quality, 30 year warranty, oh except for the rubber coating which fails and falls off the 10-12 year mark apparently on average and is not covered. The only solution here is don't buy anything made of rubber , poly's or plastics being the easiest substances for engineers to control item life through wear and UV. In other words you are stuffed.

[north-north-west]

Rubber does break down with exposure to uv. Always has. Wearable rubbers have to be softer than some others for comfort reasons so will break down earlier.

Agree on the general whinge, even if not necessarily on all the specifics.

[GPSGuided]

What needs to be said also about these modern day 'perishable' gears is that they often more affordable than decades past. The trade-off is in the durability and that's market driven outcome. Just had my 10+ years old ski boots liner go off with degraded synthetic covering material. All because of that one thin fabric. Had to replace the liner as the shell is still contemporary and functioning well. Cheaper than buying a new pair of boots but still quite expensive. Adding insult, wife's boots from the same era didn't have that 'fancy' fabric and have no problems.

[Giddy_up]

Hi Tortoise,

Might be worth your while getting in touch with Evan and get one of these, should make the world of difference for you

http://www.terrarosagear.com/sleeping-covers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mickb]

Rubber does break down with exposure to uv. Always has. Wearable rubbers have to be softer than some others for comfort reasons so will break down earlier.

Agree on the general whinge, even if not necessarily on all the specifics.

Yep not debating the wearable rubbers. Its when they add integral rubber mouldings or coverings to other items( binos, scopes, range finders, spotters, GPS etc) that really don't need it, and potentially writes off the gear if it fails.

[north-north-west]

Fairy nuff, mickb.

[Moondog55]

The deck on my snowshoes has split in a couple of places
Seeing as how the next few seasons are probably going to be my last sled hauling I need to do some repairs to see me through for a couple of years
I'm not finding much on welding or sewing Hypalon and the cost of a blank to cut some new ones is a bit more than the budget will stand just at the moment
They have lasted 25 years so no complaints but Tubbs are not interested in helping with the repair option

[Oscar_schoots]

My MSR Whisperlite that has been my staunch companion for a couple of years now has a problem! The priming cup on the bottom where the fuel pools to prime the stove has broken off. It has separated from the little circular piece that screws into the bottom of the stove leaving me with a priming cup with a big hole in the middle. It does kind of fit together quite weakly and i can still use it with a bit of blutack and a rock but it is certainly far form ideal not to mention a fire hazard. Any one have any ideas? I dont suppose ill be able to find a replacement piece and i cant find anyone who can flux weld it.

Cheers,
Oscar

[Franco]

Rubber does break down with exposure to uv. Always has. Wearable rubbers have to be softer than some others for comfort reasons so will break down earlier.

Agree on the general whinge, even if not necessarily on all the specifics.

Yep not debating the wearable rubbers. Its when they add integral rubber mouldings or coverings to other items( binos, scopes, range finders, spotters, GPS etc) that really don't need it, and potentially writes off the gear if it fails.

The point there was that manufacturers add those bits of rubber so that they will limit the lifespan of the product.
The problem with that idea is that if , say, your Steiner bino fails because of it, it is VERY unlikely that you will buy another Steiner bino.
The same for any other possible built in fault.
For the concept to work you would need all manufacturers in the world to agree to use the same tactic.

[GPSGuided]

Its when they add integral rubber mouldings or coverings to other items( binos, scopes, range finders, spotters, GPS etc) that really don't need it, and potentially writes off the gear if it fails[/b].

The point there was that manufacturers add those bits of rubber so that they will limit the lifespan of the product.
The problem with that idea is that if , say, your Steiner bino fails because of it, it is VERY unlikely that you will buy another Steiner bino.
The same for any other possible built in fault.
For the concept to work you would need all manufacturers in the world to agree to use the same tactic.

I agree. The rubber band around my old eTrex degraded and I could not get it repaired back to its original state (even with a new band from Garmin). So then I bought another Garmin GPSr in due course...

I think manufacturers build to a finite lifespan and the choice of material is often based on design/marketing/budget needs. There are far easier ways to obsolete a product than the use of rubber.

[Franco]

With GPSs the choice is not all that great so replacing one faulty Garmin with another is probably what many do.
But,say, with binoculars there is a huge selections of brands , so why would Steiner (as an example) purpously handicap their binos when they know that if one becomes faulty most likely it will be replaced by a Nikon/Leica/Swarowsky/Fujinon/Leopold/Kowa/Meopta... all brands that have stuff similar to the Steiner.
(I sold all of those brands apart from Leoplod)
The same choice goes for boots (ever seen the disintegrating midsole threads?) , do you think that after having had a Brand X boots falling apart one would buy another pair from that brand ?
Same for tents,backpacks at all...

My point is that deliberately shortening the life span of a product drives customers to another brand so it is counterproductive and therefore not a choice manufacturers take. (but this does not fit conspiracy theories so some will not like the idea...)

[GPSGuided]

Franco, I actually agree with your POV. I don't believe the designer deliberately selected rubber to shorten the product life. Not logical per your line of reasoning.

[Gadgetgeek]

My MSR Whisperlite that has been my staunch companion for a couple of years now has a problem! The priming cup on the bottom where the fuel pools to prime the stove has broken off. It has separated from the little circular piece that screws into the bottom of the stove leaving me with a priming cup with a big hole in the middle. It does kind of fit together quite weakly and i can still use it with a bit of blutack and a rock but it is certainly far form ideal not to mention a fire hazard. Any one have any ideas? I dont suppose ill be able to find a replacement piece and i cant find anyone who can flux weld it.

Cheers,
Oscar

Sorry didn't notice this one earlier. Have you contacted MSR/Cascade Designs or Spelean in regards to this. you should be able to get a replacement part for it pretty easily.

[J M]

Okay so this may have been answered elsewhere or I might be missing something really obvious. I'm in the midst of shifting from a trangia over to a gas canister stove (a fire maple via kathmandu) and I tested it out today. It was probably about 15-16 degrees and I had the stove on full to see how it went and the flame died after about 3 minutes despite having fuel left in the canister. Just theorising - is it possible that the stove was burning fuel faster than it could vaporise from the liquid in the canister? If this is what's happening, is the solution just to keep the stove turned down a bit or is there another method? I would hope that 15 degrees is a warm enough ambient temp to allow proper function.

[north-north-west]

Given that I've used my Fire Maple in below freezing conditions, the ambient temperature is not the issue.

[Orion]

Okay so this may have been answered elsewhere or I might be missing something really obvious. I'm in the midst of shifting from a trangia over to a gas canister stove (a fire maple via kathmandu) and I tested it out today. It was probably about 15-16 degrees and I had the stove on full to see how it went and the flame died after about 3 minutes despite having fuel left in the canister. Just theorising - is it possible that the stove was burning fuel faster than it could vaporise from the liquid in the canister? If this is what's happening, is the solution just to keep the stove turned down a bit or is there another method? I would hope that 15 degrees is a warm enough ambient temp to allow proper function.

An ambient temperature of 15°C should be warm enough for normal use. It's possible that with the valve cranked fully open the fuel is cooling far below ambient temperature. That, coupled with a fuel canister that is primarily normal butane, could cause the stove to slow way down. But it's odd that it goes out completely. I suspect there is something else amiss.

I recently bought a new stove to replace an old one that stopped working properly on a trip. The stove would simply fail to emit *any* gas unless I really warmed up the canister a lot. At home, when tested, it appears to work perfectly fine, even though it threatened to ruin that trip. I don't know what's wrong with it exactly. Presumably it is clogged in some way, but you'd never guess that when watching it functioning indoors. I had another stove about twenty years ago with the exact same symptoms. In that case the stove begin acting badly after camping in a area with very fine silty dirt.

If you can borrow another canister stove you can do a side by side comparison, using the same canister under the same conditions with both stoves. Just know that a canister, once cooled through use, can take a long time (~2 hours) to passively return to ambient temperature. It's much faster to warm it in 15°C water (~20 minutes).

[CasualNerd]

This will sound stupid but it's worth checking, sometimes my stove slows right down and almost stops after a minute warming up, maybe something expands inside and blocks the low gas flow ? I just turn it up higher and it's fine, the adjustment can be a little fiddly at the low end.