I'm looking to get a 30 degree top quilt for hammock camping and tent camping. My question is with a top quilt attached around a pad with a 4.5 r value in 45 to 50 degree weather does it really keep you warm with just the pad insulation in bottom?
I'm looking to get a 30 degree top quilt for hammock camping and tent camping. My question is with a top quilt attached around a pad with a 4.5 r value in 45 to 50 degree weather does it really keep you warm with just the pad insulation in bottom?
Sleeping pad was a big aggervation for me. Too many cold spots too.
Sounds like it would work to me, but I haven't been tent camping in five years!
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson
It should. Quilts where used on the ground long before they were in hammocks. When you lay on/in a sleeping bag your body weight compresses the insulation making it have very little to no insulation value.
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I had to go to ground for cave camping in Jan with a pad and quilt. At about 55F and cold,wet ground I was just fine.
The only problem would be the quilt popping open on the side & many quilts have lacing points on the sides for you to tie in your pad, but I've never gotten that desperate.
If you're nervous, take a fleece jacket to sleep in and you'll be fine.
Absolutely. If you squirm around allot when you sleep get a pad attachment system.
In my hillbilly opinion, you should be fine. Unfortunately, I've got to go to ground this weekend. I'll be using a JRB (25-30 degree) quilt and my Thermarest xlite. It's supposed to be 30F. I'm not worried at all. I am a cold sleeper and I have no doubts that I'll be warm. I did get the wider JRB quilt. I've used my son's 30F synthetic quilt before with success. It's 54" wide and the wider width helps if you do 'toss and turn'. I ordered the wider JRB version which is in between the 'standard' 48" and 54" wide versions that most manufacturers offer.
I have used my JRB Old Rag and a Synmat 9 (R value 6) down to single digits with no issues. The way I use it is to make the foot box, then lay on top of the mat with me in the foot box. Sort of like being in a bridge hammock with a pad under me. In fact, I use my TQ when family camping all the time and just recently donated my sleep bag to a shelter near me.
So short answer is yes, you most certainly can use your quilt and mat together on the ground. No one can really answer if your pad will keep you warm enough because if you sleep cold it may not. If you sleep warm it might be too much. You will need to test it to see and I would suggest you test it in your back yard or garage rather than in the woods where it's more difficult to bail out if you are too cold.
Deb
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"The older I get, the more I appreciate my rural childhood. I spent a lot of time outdoors, unsupervised, which is a blessing." Barbara Kingsolver
dkurfiss is right, no one can really answer it for sure, only you and some testing. in theory, you should be fine. there are a few folks that make quilts that work just as well on ground, myself included. check my site if interested.
www.mid-atlanticmountainworks.com
the quilts have features that address the draft issue
Enlightened Equipment, Katabatic, Nunatek (and others i'm sure), address ground sleeping as well
The question is not will a quilt keep you warm with a pad vs. a sleeping bag with a pad... rather, its how good is your pad? Sounds like the pad should be good (though R value is nefarious), so the combo should be good in 30 degree weather, and more than sufficient in 45-50's. Clearly with a quilt, there is more potential for cold spots, so its good you're trying it out in temps well above its rating so you can learn about dealing with cold spots and not be miserable. You should be fine, but its more technical gear that does require some learning.
"I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe... ?"
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