Army surplus blankets as insulation?

Im trying to figure out if this would work; I have two sleeping bags that used to be my kids, but the zippers are broken and so we use them as blankets now. I also have some old army surplus 100% wool blankets. Im wondering if the blankets, and then the sleeping bags on top of each other,THEN my sleeping bag would be enough for the mid 30's.

Were doing a scout trip to GSMNP in early October, and I was planning to use my hammock, but I want a decent plan first. Any suggestions?

Well.. If it were me, I would buy a cheap wally world pad, (12 bucks) to lay on, then the sleeping bag with the wool blanket as top quilts..

You've got a couple of months to experiment. I think the old sleeping bags would do you more good as an improvised UQ than laying on them inside the hammock. There are lots of instructions on here for a no-sew version of a poncho liner UQ.

You could strip the zipper off one or both of the old sleeping bags and use those instructions. I've got a pair of old slumberjack summer bags in the shed that may meet the same fate this fall. My son needs some insulation but I'm not willing to plunk down for another UQ right now. The wool blankets are relatively warm and don't compress much but they are heavy. Are you planning to hike in? This sort of changes things dramatically over a car camping solution.

If you just cut the metal zippers off,,leaving the black nylon that the metal zipper was attached to,,you can use a small pen knife and puncher a hole in the black nylon at each end and attach shock chord to it to a small s beiner to attach,,works great,,then the middle line at each end,,just punch a hole thru,,won't rip,,works great too for attachments,,I used a youth, grasshopper bag at 30 degrees for the wife's summer underquilt and burns her up..lol,,6ft long total,,synthetic, wieighs 28 oz when done,,hand sew the foot box with nylon thread,,takes about 30 min,,no more than a hour total to modify,,and post toasty warm with a bag or quilt on top.

On Army blankets as insulation:

I have never shivered for so long as in a high Yosemite camp cabin a long time ago, for the very long, long time it took my body to warm up the mass of Army blankets provided for each cot. Seven or eight of them, --(totalling 1 lb /sq ft?) --maybe more, all of them at ambient temperature, not far from freezing. Eventually, the blankets and me were a stable system, and I slept the night fine.

The contrast to a low-mass down quilt of sufficient or too low a temp rating for the conditions is instructive. It immediately feels like it is radiating heat back to you, as though you had moved in front of a brick wall that had been warmed by the sun all day. But, that's not what is happening. Instead, your body has been able to immediately warm the mass around you. And, of course, it can soon be too warm.