i.d.i. poncho + liner: Insultex Material

**TeeDee** · 03-10-2009, 11:18

Originally Posted by GrizzlyAdams

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Based on TeeDee's initial report I put in an order for the poncho. I'm just back from being out of the country for a week and a half, and hope to see it in the pile 'o mail that awaits me tomorrow. It's still cool at night around here so I hope I can work in some cold testing as an UQ.

Grizz

Great! Another possible cold weather tester. I had the one morning of cold weather and even then it was only a degree or 2 or 3 below freezing.

The days have been downright balmy now and just dipping into the 40s. We're barely into the 30s at night.

I don't necessarily like cold weather, but it would have been nice to get a little more testing in.

Looking forward to both Grizz's and guySmiley's results now.

**guySmiley** · 03-11-2009, 17:36

Hey Grizz! Have you had a chance to take a look, or get a feel for that poncho yet?

Mine still hasn't shown up in the mail yet.

**GrizzlyAdams** · 03-11-2009, 22:02

Got the poncho, put loops on the edge last night, and shock cord on this evening.

put up the narrow foot DIY bridge hammock and the poncho-cum-UQ on it. Interesting thing about the narrow foot hammock is that past the shoulders it is quite a bit narrower than the poncho, and so the edges of the poncho can wrap over the edge, making much of the hammock cocoon-like. It is easy to snug this poncho up to the bottom side of a bridge hammock.

Spent about 45 minutes in it tonight. Normal street clothes, with a GoLite Ultra 20 over-quilt. Temperature 24 degrees, a little bit of wind, not much. Enough humidity that the "feels like" temperature that weather.com reports is 15 degrees.

Had CBS and chilly shoulders, with the chill deepening as the time went by. So the threshold for this as an UQ alone is for me higher, somewhere. I'm not surprised. The fabric is pretty thin.

The significantly lower temperatures claimed for the fabric by its owners are of course for a different use, where the fabric is trapping some air between the garment and the wearer. The only air being trapped as a "tight" solo underquilt is in the fabric---which is thin.

I then fished out of the gear-pile a pad project I did last year, that layers
(1) a sheet of 1.9 ripstop, (2) one sheet of insulbrite, and (3) a 1/8" thick evasote pad. Sewn through edges hold it all together. I slipped that pad between the hammock and UQ, and pretty much immediately my backside was happy. I'll be heading out later tonight for a more extended stretch with that combination to see.

Grizz

**Mule** · 03-11-2009, 22:13

Thanks for the report, Griz. Mule

**GrizzlyAdams** · 03-12-2009, 06:22

I stayed inside until 4:45 a.m. when I awoke (still working through shifting my body clock from GMT+1 to GMT-6). 16 degrees outside, brisk 15 mph wind.

I'd left the whole rig set up (poncho with light pad sandwiched between it and the hammock) and climbed back in. No immediate happy back this time. I was cool from my shoulders to my feet. Not exactly cold, but definitely cool. While all of me not touching the hammock bottom warmed up pretty quickly (kudos GoLite Ultra 20!), that coolness did not depart throughout a 45 minute sojourn, during which time I did nevertheless drift off to sleep briefly.

I can see potential here for it being a key part of a pad-based insulation system where you get weather coverage as part of the deal. Tonight it will be cool again, but maybe 5 degrees warmer. I'm going to replace the insulbrite+1/8" pad with a 1/4" evasote pad and see where that gets me.

Ultimately I want to know at what temperature I could use this as an UQ with no pad assists. Fortunately warmer weather is on the way.

Grizz

**TeeDee** · 03-12-2009, 19:39

Grizz - thanks for the report.

That fixes the usefulness of the Insultex material at lot better than what I was able to get.

It will be interesting to see just what the lowest unassisted temp will be that you are able to attain with the Insultex and then to compare that against the weight of the fabric alone.

That will give us a lot better estimate of the real usefulness of making under quilts or Under covers of the material.

As an aside on that: I haven't been able to get any response back again from the Insultex people. After no replies to my emails, I called the CEO again to see if I could get some information.

I wanted to know the size and weight of a 325 yard roll of the stuff and then truly decide if I would be able to physically manage the roll for a group buy. If it weights something like 300 lbs

or is too big to get through a normal size door

, I probably wouldn't be able to physically handle it.

The CEO was out for a dental appointment, but the person I talked to didn't think that I would be able to buy the raw material since it has to go through their legal dept and legal papers have to be signed about non-competing or some such thing. When I mentioned that the CEO has emailed that I could buy, but only a full roll, he backed off and said ohhh and that the CEO handled all of that stuff and I would have to talk to him. When I asked for information on size and weight of a roll, he couldn't say because it would depend of which raw material I wanted/needed and then proceeded to rattle off about 4 to 6 different forms for the "raw material".

So right now, that's where it sits. I decided to wait on Grizzs's and guySmiley's reports before calling back for more information.

Let's see the test results before deciding.

**IndyDan** · 03-12-2009, 21:36

TeeDee:

I have been getting the same run-around with the Thermadrape company!!!

Today, I sent a RFQ (Request for Quote) for 1500 cases of Thermadrape. Let's see if a Sale Rep wants to screw-up a $60,000 deal. Everyone plays the legal card ...

I appreciate your efforts.

**Rushthezeppelin** · 03-12-2009, 21:41

Hrmmm I wonder how well 2+ layers of this stuff will perform. It's so light it wouldn't add much weight or bulk to the setup I'd imagine.

**guySmiley** · 03-12-2009, 22:51

My poncho showed up today. I haven't really had a chance to test it out in any thorough way yet, but I did spread it out on the bottom of my hammock and lay on top of it briefly in my 50* basement. Not much of a test but I didn't get any hint of CBS while I was in there, for what that's worth.

First impressions:

It's big. Not so much bulky, but it's long and wide. I'm only 5'10" but this thing is longer than I am tall, and it's quite wide too. If it ends up being a suitable material for an UQ than there is definitely enough material there with which to manufacture one.
As a seat cushion or a pillow, it will work very well.
As a poncho, mediocre at best. The hood is not so good. A poncho w/out a decent hood is pretty useless.
As a blanket at the very least I can see it being nice to have while sitting around a campfire.
It weighs 32.2 oz.

Grizz, how did you attach this thing as an underquilt? I'm just not seeing an easy way to do it. You must have had to do some modification to get the thing on. Am I right?