Walking Forum
Main Boards => Gear => Topic started by: gunwharfman on 09:09:26, 27/05/20
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I was trying to think about what I have done over the years?
My most important adaptation was to put a shoe length edge of running shoe insert under my Sorbothane inserts to stop so much edge wear on the soles of my hiking boots and to correct my gait to neutral. That's worked really well, my boots now wear evenly and I can walk much further in comfort.
I also sewed (correction, my wife's friend sewed) a piece of 2" soft cloth around the inner tops of my Rab gaiters, I tend to wear my gaiters under my walking trousers and without the soft cloth, my skin became sore.
The same lady also fitted weighted hems around my Vaude poncho, my rain skirt and around the hem of my waterproof long coat, to stop the wind blowing the items out of place.
I also got a sailmaker to fit four 2" x 4" see-through patches 2" around and above the bottom hem of my outer tent cover. After being 'got at' but 5 large domesticated pigs in 2015 I decided I'd like to not only hear what is going on outside my tent I like to see as well as an aid to decision making. I can't see clearly what's outside but by just opening my eyes I can at least judge by the physical outline if its the noise is coming from two legs or four and to make an instant judgement as to how many are out there.
It wasn't an adaptation as such but I did change from using ordinary grip walking poles to Pacerpoles, for me the Pacerpole grips are far better and more comfortable to us.
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I am currently (literally) just modifying my small tent and camping chair to have carbon fibre poles and legs.
Just came online to order some adhesive.
I think they tent may come in for several modifications to make it easier to erect and more liveable.
I think I can temporarily (with some Velcro) attache the inner and outer together to make setting up and packing up easier and quicker.
I also want to try out my idea of using a cheap sleeping roll as a footprint.
May just weigh them and leave in bath, while I go out for a coffee, to see if they absorb much moisture.
The aim of all this is to get my backpack mass down from the current 8.8kg to 7kg before food.
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A very interesting exercise, I'm always trying to do this.
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A very interesting exercise, I'm always trying to do this.
it was you mentioning that you had your kit down to 8 kg that made me want to do better.
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Beyond changing boot insoles and strapping up a recalcitrant knee - no.
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In the dim and distant past when gear wasn't so well designed, yes. These days not so much, the exception being getting trousers shortened. Why do manufacturers think everyone is 6ft 20ins tall?
I've added guying out points to tents changed a few peg attachments. Also added pole carrying loops to a couple of rucksacks.
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I've also made a couple of slip-on/slip-off Goretex elasticated tubes that I fit around my wrists, under the sleeves of my waterproof jacket to keep my hands dry when walking in the rain. They are designed to overlap my fingers by about 1" and they work very well.
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In the dim and distant past when gear wasn't so well designed, yes. These days not so much, the exception being getting trousers shortened. Why do manufacturers think everyone is 6ft 20ins tall?
I've added guying out points to tents changed a few peg attachments. Also added pole carrying loops to a couple of rucksacks.
Good question!
Bottom of my waterproof overtrousers always end up in tatters.
I've done plenty of repairs, but the only design mod that springs to mind is the addition of an ice axe loop to a cheapo day sack. I may sew a chin strap on to my new sun hat, though.
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I may sew a chin strap on to my new sun hat, though.
Should have gone with the Tilley. Mine has 2 straps and a bayonet fitting. ;)
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In the dim and distant past when gear wasn't so well designed, yes. These days not so much, the exception being getting trousers shortened. Why do manufacturers think everyone is 6ft 20ins tall?
or 5' 8" for that matter.
I see trousers with 36" legs, in Cornwall. There has never been Celt that needs that.
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I also want to try out my idea of using a cheap sleeping roll as a footprint.
May just weigh them and leave in bath, while I go out for a coffee, to see if they absorb much moisture.
Right, dumped my two cheap mats in the bath for a good 3 hours.
Reweighed them, dried them with towel, 10 minutes on the washing line and the mass has not changed.
So it seems that they do not absorb moisture.
Masses are 220g and 150g for the 8mm and 6mm respectively.
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Good question!
Bottom of my waterproof overtrousers always end up in tatters.
I've done plenty of repairs, but the only design mod that springs to mind is the addition of an ice axe loop to a cheapo day sack. I may sew a chin strap on to my new sun hat, though.
If I carry my old Karrimoor S65 sack, then I add an leather bike toe strap to hold my ice axe the way I like it.
Back when I was at junior school I sewed a leather patch into the shoulder an old jumper, so that I could use it for traditional abseiling. ie no sling, just using your body as a brake.. Not the safest of after school activities, now I look back on it, but a lot of fun at the time and I'm still here.
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If I carry my old Karrimoor S65 sack, then I add an leather bike toe strap to hold my ice axe the way I like it.
Back when I was at junior school I sewed a leather patch into the shoulder an old jumper, so that I could use it for traditional abseiling. ie no sling, just using your body as a brake.. Not the safest of after school activities, now I look back on it, but a lot of fun at the time and I'm still here.
I have done a few classic abseils in my time too. Still managed to have children. O0
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Those were the days, no fancy gear, just a rope and a rock face O0
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Those were the days, no fancy gear, just a rope and a rock face O0
And balls of steel ;D
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Those were the days, no fancy gear, just a rope and a rock face O0
And lots of accidents.
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One of the scariest things I have ever done.
When my backpack unclipped itself, tilting me head down above a slab, 60 feet below, I now know what happens just before death.
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One of the scariest things I have ever done.
When my backpack unclipped itself, tilting me head down above a slab, 60 feet below, I now know what happens just before death.
If you are not wearing tweed and hobnail boots while carrying a hemp rope, it’s not proper climbing.
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If you are not wearing tweed and hobnail boots while carrying a hemp rope, it’s not proper climbing.
And a climbing harness consisting of several yards of thin rope wound tightly round your middle, tied with a reef knot, with a Karabiner hooked though it. But you tell the young people of today ....
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And a climbing harness consisting of several yards of thin rope wound tightly round your middle, tied with a reef knot, with a Karabiner hooked though it. But you tell the young people of today ....
Funny you should mention that. Summer 2018 I scrambled up Great End to Scar Fell Pike via Cust Gully with my son. It was only the second time we had climbed on Rock together. I made a very comfy harness from a piece of rope and a carabina. He brought the one he uses on the climbing wall. I have since bought a modern one though. To convenient to ignore. ;)
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Another adaptation I've made is about trying to improve my personal security and the possibility of loss so I've sewn two credit sized pockets onto the chest area of two of my baselayers, I fit my card(s) in plastic pouches and keep them in the pockets, both day and night and they are always 'close to my chest.'
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Improvised a harness out of a large climbing sling before now, managed to incorporate leg loops so wasn't too painful an abseil.
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Another adaptation I've made is about trying to improve my personal security and the possibility of loss so I've sewn two credit sized pockets onto the chest area of two of my baselayers, I fit my card(s) in plastic pouches and keep them in the pockets, both day and night and they are always 'close to my chest.'
Right, now we know where to find them ;)
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:-[
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When my son went to university I gave him my old Lifeventure Down sleeping bag, he has just given it back to me about 8 years later.
I cut one piece about 3' x 4 (the sleeping bag has a zip all down one side) and my wife's friend sewed all of the edges for me with 4 small toggles attached and I can now 'clip' onto part of my sleeping quilt which covers my torso and upper limbs.
I slept out in our garden last night (a good idea Richard) in my bivi and I was warm as toast. Too warm in fact, by about 5 a.m. I 'unclipped' it, put it to one side, and went back to sleep.
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I soldered a powercable to my powerbank to make the whole system more robust for long-distance walking. Fortunately, I discovered just in time that I would never have got that thing past airport security! So I packed a conventional one instead.
I have modified an electric travel shaver to make it plug into a solarpanel or powerbank instead of using two replaceable AA-size batteries. Not only does this save weight, but it prevents it from failing. My experience is that humid conditions corrode the battery contacts and make the shaver fail after some time.
My Terra Nova Superlite tent was on my request modified by the manufacturer to make it more windproof. They added two guy-lines at the front and an extra hook to fix the flysheet to the inner tent. This was not my own idea, I got it from the internet somewhere. It's a much better tent now so I don't know why the manufacturer doesn't make this a standard feature.
Made own pot-cozy, saving lost of gas.
I modified one of the side pockets of my Osprey Aether 70 backpack, glueing in a piece of plastic to prevent scratching of the screen of my phone that I carry in that pocket (used as a navigation device and field guide).
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Just got a new tent (Lightwave T10 Trek), and after spending a couple of nights in it (in the garden of course) I'm thinking of a few simple mods:
- Sew on a hanging loop for a light - strange that they did not include this. I'll be raiding the wife's sewing box for some thin ribbon.
- Add an extra front guyline under the fly to the apex of the front hoop - this will easily attach to a velcro loop that goes around the pole, and will lift up a rather taut ventilation flap giving a bit more airflow, as well as strengthening the tent. No sewing required for this one.
- see if I can add some tensioning straps to the single rear and two front guying points- important to get these guying points just right on a tunnel tent. I'll see what odd pieces of strap and buckle that I have. Again, no sewing (I hope).
I'll also need to do a bit of sewing to repair the small hole that I made next to the rear hem of the flysheet - those square aluminium nail type tent pegs have some sharp corners! My bad, irritating but nothing critical - mistakes sometimes happen when you familiarise yourself with a new tent. I'll be throwing three rounded wire pegs into the peg bag for the guying points in question.
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Sewn on a light hanging loop, nice bit of thin red ribbon - I won't be winning the Sewing Bee, but it will do the job. Also fitted loops of cord with linelock adjusters to the three critical guying points, strong and easily adjustable.
But I've given up on the idea of guying out the flap - it added extra stress to the flap sewing in a way that I didn't like.
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Just sewn a small loop of ribbon inside my elderly backpacking rucksack's top pocket, so that I can clip my car keys into the pocket; nice and safe.
The rucksack is a Karrimor Jaguar GR66 - goodness knows when I bought it - must be over 30 years old. Still going strong, although I had to repair the plastic attachment points for the internal frame a few years back - much drilling and sewing with heavy yachting whipping twine, and it is now stronger than when new.
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I always carry a cheap lightweight walking stick.
When camping,i stick a nail in its rubber foot,it fits in the eyelet of the door of my tent,raise it up,instant sunshine,and no need to stretch too far,a lie in ;)
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I made a map pocket using a zip and nylon cut from a cheap rucsac I bought off the market. It later got recycled first as a cycle tool pouch, then a bumbag. A couple of the pockets from that rucsac are still in use as a washkit pouch and a compass case.
I have a homemade sun hat that's better than anything money can buy. My hat of preference was a knotted hanky, but one day I decided it would be more convenient to sew the hanky into shape permanently, and dispense with the knots. It's cooler, lighter, more comfortable, more wind resistant and smaller to pack than anything you can buy.
I once modified a pair of polycotton walking trousers into zip-offs, and altered another pair for use as cycling trousers. I also made a small lightweight rucsac. I have two or three that pack down into their own pockets, but this one is much smaller and lighter because it's made from fabric cut from an old cagoul. It just needs to hold a waterproof, sandwiches and water whilst sight seeing.
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Deleted - wrong thread
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Deleted - wrong thread
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Added a "cris/cross" of shock cord across the top of my rucksack using the existing loops. My OS map in the map case sits under this.
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You have reminded me of the simplest rucksack modification that I've made, two short pieces of elastic cord with a 'J' shaped bit of plastic at one end of each cord. The other end of each cord is attached to the top of my shoulder straps. I always carry my tent and poles in one bag and it sits horizontally on the top of my rucksack, secured in an instant. When I arrive at a shop, site, or wild camp, etc, the tent comes off the pack easily, so no messing about with straps.
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I've not modified anything, but I need to. I have a Zephyrous 2 tent which I was doing a test run with yesterday. After just putting up the tent, the heavens opened heavily. When it had calmed I had to move in and out the tent and the openings of the outer dripped all over my sleeping bag. What it needs is something so I can attach the bottom of the opening to the outside of the tent. There is actually an a loop on the inside to fix the opening, which, to me, is a silly place to put it. Anyone know an easy way of doing that modification please. Preferably a way that doesn't require a needle and thread lol.
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I've not modified anything, but I need to. I have a Zephyrous 2 tent which I was doing a test run with yesterday. After just putting up the tent, the heavens opened heavily. When it had calmed I had to move in and out the tent and the openings of the outer dripped all over my sleeping bag. What it needs is something so I can attach the bottom of the opening to the outside of the tent. There is actually an a loop on the inside to fix the opening, which, to me, is a silly place to put it. Anyone know an easy way of doing that modification please. Preferably a way that doesn't require a needle and thread lol.
A clothes peg?
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A clothes peg?
I've just lol'd at that answer as I was expecting the solution to be a bit technical. Can't believe a peg didn't even cross my mind. Thanks for pointing out the obvious to me!
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I've just lol'd at that answer as I was expecting the solution to be a bit technical. Can't believe a peg didn't even cross my mind. Thanks for pointing out the obvious to me!
Clothes pegs can be extremely useful. If they are wooden ones, you can even use them for kindling if you need to!
Safety pins and paperclips can also be handy, and weigh hardly anything. Another potentially useful item is a tiny reel of Kevlar thread, which is very strong. You'll need to have a sharp knife with you, though, to cut it!
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From long ago, I have a magnesium bar with a flint striker like this one (though I didn't buy it from this vendor):-
https://www.bergzeit.co.uk/coghlans-magnesium-lighter/?gclid=CjwKCAjwxqX4BRBhEiwAYtJX7XVdWZLDQl9DpOUKHmH6A62FgoeAB_BNZolgOPR0-xoph44YXgc2oRoCdNMQAvD_BwE
The idea is to scrape off magnesium filings to use as tinder for the sparks. It works, but the Mg-scraping is tedious work and bad for your knife. The supplied scraper won't hack it and who carries an actual coarse file?
I haven't actually adapted it but I have found a secondary use for it. It can give a superb final edge to a knife - perhaps even that one you just blunted by scraping magnesium!
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I've not modified anything, but I need to. I have a Zephyrous 2 tent which I was doing a test run with yesterday. After just putting up the tent, the heavens opened heavily. When it had calmed I had to move in and out the tent and the openings of the outer dripped all over my sleeping bag. What it needs is something so I can attach the bottom of the opening to the outside of the tent. There is actually an a loop on the inside to fix the opening, which, to me, is a silly place to put it. Anyone know an easy way of doing that modification please. Preferably a way that doesn't require a needle and thread lol.
I think the best answer there is to shove your sleeping bag out of the way to the far side of the inner. It doesn't do that in my Zeph 1, I guess it's because you have less porch in the Zeph 2. Wet drips from the flysheet door are inevitable during or after rain, while after you've spent a night in the tent you you have to push past a door wet with condensation, which isn't very nice when you're trying to get out first thing.
My mods, involving a needle and thread, sorry, were to attach a length of guy (I used Dyneema) to the bottom corner of the flysheet opening so that I can hold it open over the tent with a spare peg on the other side, or, using the same line and peg, I can hold the door up with a walking pole. Light rain doesn't get in with the latter method, providing the tent is correctly pitched with it's back to the wind.
As for the silly way of holding the inner tent door open with a plastic peg, I chopped that off and I simply let the door lay on the groundsheet.
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Clothes pegs can be extremely useful. If they are wooden ones, you can even use them for kindling if you need to! Safety pins and paperclips can also be handy, and weigh hardly anything. Another potentially useful item is a tiny reel of Kevlar thread, which is very strong. You'll need to have a sharp knife with you, though, to cut it!
Good idea. I'll make sure to take the paperclips and pins when I go camping this week. I've been meaning to get myself a decent camping knife, and one of those little multi-tool things too.
I think the best answer there is to shove your sleeping bag out of the way to the far side of the inner. It doesn't do that in my Zeph 1, I guess it's because you have less porch in the Zeph 2. Wet drips from the flysheet door are inevitable during or after rain, while after you've spent a night in the tent you you have to push past a door wet with condensation, which isn't very nice when you're trying to get out first thing.
My mods, involving a needle and thread, sorry, were to attach a length of guy (I used Dyneema) to the bottom corner of the flysheet opening so that I can hold it open over the tent with a spare peg on the other side, or, using the same line and peg, I can hold the door up with a walking pole. Light rain doesn't get in with the latter method, providing the tent is correctly pitched with it's back to the wind.
As for the silly way of holding the inner tent door open with a plastic peg, I chopped that off and I simply let the door lay on the groundsheet.
I'll see how I get on using it this week and look at maybe modding it for future. That inner door, when testing it out the other day I kept securing it back, then the next min it was loose again. I wasn't sure if my son was knocking it or if I wasn't securing it tight enough. I will do what you suggest and not bother at all with it!
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Some corrections are needed to my earlier post, in which there was some muddled thinking on my part, well it was in Feb 2016 that I did the mods!
What I did was to remove the plastic toggle and the bit of elastic for holding the flysheet door open, which I found rather ineffective. This was superceded by my aforementioned mod for either holding the door back over the flysheet or held up on a walking pole.
On the inner door I removed the pair of male and female clips that were on the lower front edge of the inner tent, which were intended to keep its door rolled up when fully unzipped. They seemed a bit superfluous to me and, as I wrote earlier, I now just let the inner door lay on the groundsheet. A bonus was that I would no longer kneel on the hard lump of plastic - ouch!
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I've been meaning to get myself a decent camping knife, and one of those little multi-tool things too.
Watch the weight, it all adds up (as well as the cost)!
A little knife cuts just as well as a big one, and you need to look closely at a multi-tool and think carefully about how much of it - if any - you are likely to need on a camping trip.
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I only carry a tiny knife on short camping trips, Littlefoot, with a blade about 3cm long, weights next to nothing. Adding a thin lanyard to a small knife is a good idea, and helps prevent me losing it.
For a longer trip, a swiss army knife is a good long term buy, not too heavy and very useful. I would recommend a knife with a good blade, tin opener, scissors and a cork screw - covers most eventualities on a longer trip :) Anything else is pretty superfluous. Scissors can be useful, but are not essential. No point in carrying a multi tool for backpacking, in my opinion.
As fernman says - watch the weight! I don't even carry cooking gear on short trips.
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Whenever knives are mentioned I always think of my first wife and our five years together. I met her in the middle 60s, she was a Civil Servant, 5' 2" in height, slim and I have to confess very, very pretty, and a maths wizard! She used to hitchhike alone, to and from Wales to Kent to visit her parents and she didn't like to spend money unnecessarily.
Her parents obviously were scared for her safety so I was surprised when she showed me what she always carried in her handbag when travelling, a full-blown, full-sized Bowie knife with a serrated top edge!! Her dad bought it for her and said if any car or lorry driver "tried to get fruity" just get it out and pick at your fingernails with it. She never had any trouble.
Her dad's claim to fame was that he was an engineer who worked on the first jet engine in a factory near Gloucester.
The things we remeber!
For my part, I've only ever carried a small penknife and a pair of scissors. I've never had occasion to use the knife.
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Her parents obviously were scared for her safety so I was surprised when she showed me what she always carried in her handbag when travelling, a full-blown, full-sized Bowie knife with a serrated top edge!! Her dad bought it for her and said if any car or lorry driver "tried to get fruity" just get it out and pick at your fingernails with it. She never had any trouble.
Her dad's claim to fame was that he was an engineer who worked on the first jet engine in a factory near Gloucester.
The things we remeber!
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Some knife* and some handbag!
*Utterly illegal to carry around habitually these days, of course, unless "scaring off randy drivers when hitching" counts as a "good reason" - which I doubt!
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Different then, I bet she'd be horrified to be reminded of it today. When I was a lad most of us who lived in the country carried knives, folding ones usually, I can't remember if they were used for anything useful though? Then there was a period when the newspapers went into full scare mode over 'flick knives' and from my memory, that's when attitudes started to change. Now we read and see on the TV that many youngsters are back into knives, what comes around goes around. Have I got that back to front?
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Weird, I think needing a knife in case some psycho maniac invades your tent in the middle of the night is one of the best reasons to have one, so I find it rather confusing that the law doesn't agree. ;D
I'll make sure to check my weight on purchasing something. I doubt I'll ever need a multi-tool that includes a corkscrew lol.
GWM - That story certainly made me smile. I can picture it a guy gulping at the sight of the lass doing her nails!
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When I had five pigs try to get in my tent I relied on one of my hiking sticks, a knife would have been useless. It only held them at bay, luckily for me after about 20 minutes, they heard a dog bark and ran! They demolished my tent though.
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That sounds a moment to remember! Pigs can certainly do a lot of damage.
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Regarding knives I used to carry a Draper "Swiss Army" style copy but realised that I didn't use 90% of it. So I put the removable toothpick and tweezers in the ziploc bag that is my first aid kit and leave the rest at home.
As for adapting kit, I have used some silicone tubing on the wire handles of my titanium cooking pot to give some heat proofing and a more secure grip when handling it full of boiling water. Mine was an offcut from a motorsport company but I believe it's also available online as fuel line for radio controlled cars.
My stove is a meths burner made from a drinks can but I guess that's more DIY than adapting existing kit.