Ditching the sleeping bags

[trekker12]

A recent comment on the cycle camping kit thread got me thinking about using duvets.

Mrs trekker and I tour together then spend the nights in individual mummy bags - which can zip together but that gets complicated when one of us turns, the other goes with them. The best compromise so far is to zip them together and use them as a duvet with a sheet underneath but then the hood sits over your face or gets in the way. So why not do away with the zips and hoods etc?

I've seen mention elsewhere that people seem to tour with standard duvets but if I tried to compress the one off the spare bed it would never get small enough to go anywhere near a pannier.

Double thermarest type down duvets specifically for lightweight camping (are they not just a sleeping bag material and filler with the zip removed) appear to be astonishingly expensive or did my (admittedly rather quick) Google not end up in the right place?

So what do you do?

[Aushiker]

Whilst I use a sleeping bag currently, a Mont Bell Ultralight Super Spiral Down Hugger #3 which weighs in at 686 grams I have previously used a home-made quilt which while bulky and hence turned me off the idea actually worked really well and I do prefer it over a sleeping bag.

Life has moved on and I have now learnt a lot more about quilts including the very popular with the ultralight crowd at Backpacking Light Enlightened Equipment. When time comes to update the Mont Bell I will be seriously considering a quilt again.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Life has moved on and I have now learnt a lot more about quilts including the very popular with the ultralight crowd at Backpacking Light Enlightened Equipment. When time comes to update the Mont Bell I will be seriously considering a quilt again.

How confusing that Backpacking Light is not the same as Backpacking Light!

Quilts are less restrictive than sleeping bags. It's an attractive idea if you don't tend to sleep in a straight, constant, narrow line.

[DrMekon]

Speak to the nice people at Cumulus. They added 15cm to my cumulus 150 for a very reasonable fee.

Here are their standard items - just ask them to change stuff via the contact page. I use mine with a neoair.

http://sleepingbags-cumulus.eu/uk/categories/sleeping-systems

[Cudzoziemiec]

I used to have a Cumulus down jacket. It was very, very warm (and much cheaper than those, but that was back in the days when they were just a domestic outfit).

[Gruby Mits]

I can see the attraction of a light item, but my doubt is that I am not sure how warm you are in a quilt that does not encase your upper body/head firmly?
I have a Neutrino 200 (625gr) and fully enjoy the double string closure at the top, one above shoulders and one around face. It is warm for a really cold wimp like me in a tent down to 5-7 degrees (and I wear clothes inside it, and have been "OK" but quite cold sleeping in a bivvy (Alpkit Hunka) of on exposed hill side with 15mph wind @ 8-10 degrees (can't calculate chill factor but it was on my limit of "right time to get up and march off to warm up)

I have not yet understood why a quilt would be better unless it is very warm (then surely something lighter and smaller can be substituted) or it would be so much lighter (at least 200 gr) to make it worth the suffering for someone obviously tougher than me. 

So would really be keen to understand the advantages, in case I am missing out something  (a constant fear of an insecure camper LOL!)

[tatanab]

I have not yet understood why a quilt would be better unless it is very warm

Curl up in a sleeping bag and the insulation is compressed against whichever bit is tightest, leading to cold spots.  Similarly, the insulation under you is compressed so does not perform like that over you.  Curl up under a duvet and there are no cold spots.  A decent mat is needed depending on how cold you sleep.  I've never used a hood, or closed the upper baffles on a sleeping bag.  I would feel too restricted.  My Thermarest duvet is rated to something like 5 degrees, but I have used clothing to supplement it at that temperature, which I seldom see because I am a Spring/Sumer camper.

[Canardly]

Alpkit have introduced a very lightweight quilt, the effectiveness of which I do not know.

https://www.alpkit.com/products/cloud-cover

[Butterfly]

Hmm, that might work to replace some of my blankets in an efficient way.

[Kim]

Alpkit have introduced a very lightweight quilt, the effectiveness of which I do not know.

Bastard.  *tapity-tap*

[trekker12]

Alpkit have introduced a very lightweight quilt, the effectiveness of which I do not know.

Hmm that might work

[trekker12]

I have not yet understood why a quilt would be better unless it is very warm (then surely something lighter and smaller can be substituted) or it would be so much lighter (at least 200 gr) to make it worth the suffering for someone obviously tougher than me. 

There's two of us. On my own a seeping bag is perfectly fine but together some shared body heat is a good thing 

[Aunt Maud]

I have a thermarest quilt and mat combo......It's very good combined with a silk liner.

[andrewc]

Alpkit quilt details here http://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/alpkit-cloud-cover-quilt-first-look.html

[nobby]

Back in the days of Thomas Holding they used down quilts but changed to sleeping bags when the idea came along.
I had a Jacks r Better quilt and never slept warm excepting on a very warm Summer night although it did pack very small.
Every time that I turned the quilt would lift and the warm air was lost.

[Kim]

A quilt would have worked nicely for me last night at York, and on a couple of nights of last week's Normandy tour.  But the rest of the time I've needed my bag zipped up (perhaps with the zip open at the feet end), so it seems mostly useful as an additional layer when it's really cold, or as a thing-for-sitting-around-in.

I can imagine it working rather nicely for indoor camping, if you do a lot of that.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Back in the days of Thomas Holding they used down quilts but changed to sleeping bags when the idea came along.
I had a Jacks r Better quilt and never slept warm excepting on a very warm Summer night although it did pack very small.
Every time that I turned the quilt would lift and the warm air was lost.

Well, exactly.
The quilts that long distance expedition people are using, they fasten to the mat - and they are using slim mats, so there are no real air gaps, the quilts have hood systems. Essentially they are sleeping bags without the very bottom bit. Don't sound very comfy, you are sleeping directly on the mat. Give me a snuggly bag, please.

[nobby]

Back in the days of Thomas Holding they used down quilts but changed to sleeping bags when the idea came along.
I had a Jacks r Better quilt and never slept warm excepting on a very warm Summer night although it did pack very small.
Every time that I turned the quilt would lift and the warm air was lost.

Well, exactly.
The quilts that long distance expedition people are using, they fasten to the mat - and they are using slim mats, so there are no real air gaps, the quilts have hood systems. Essentially they are sleeping bags without the very bottom bit. Don't sound very comfy, you are sleeping directly on the mat. Give me a snuggly bag, please.

Yep. They are sleeping bags without a back to save very few grams 
I also made the Ray Jardine(?) kit but that's synthetic filler and much too bulky. It also spilled arm air too easily.

[Butterfly]

I like the idea of the alpkit quilt to go over my sleeping bag to replace the blankets and you could use the poppers to stop it falling off.