You don’t need to spend $500:
Let me start by saying that I sleep cold. At 20 degrees, I’m comfortable in a -20 degree bag. I’ve tested way too many sleeping bags over the years. I currently own a warm large heavy and inexpensive Kelty. A -30 degree Slumberjack Big Timber, A 0 degree rated Qualofil mummy bag, A 0 degree rated Coleman, A Summer rated North Face a Wiggy’s Ultima Thule a Wiggy’s FTRSS Overbag, as well as a couple of other bags that I’ve collected over the years. I’ve always known that I can spend over $500 on a bag and get a great product; lured by promises of extreme cold temp ratings, Iv’e typically gone the cheap route. I’m writing to share what I’ve learned and hopefully help you avoid making the same mistakes.

Jeeps don’t have much storage space:
All but my Qualofil and Wiggy’s bags do not compress well. They’re all warm, but when I pack for more than a two day trip, the space that two of these bags takes, is too much. Thus, my quest for the perfect bag continued.

Not down with down:
Down has some problems. If it gets wet, it does not work, does not like to be compressed for long periods of time and is expensive. These are deal killers for me, unless I’m hiking.

Does your bag make packing complicated?:
I do what I can to minimize the amount of work required to pack and unpack my gear. Unpacking and uncompressing a bag for storage is unnecessary work.

For cold weather, go for a fitted bag;
When it comes to warmth size matters more than you might think. My first Wiggy’s bag was a Super Light with a hood, rated at 0 degrees. Iv’e used this bag in 30 degree weather and did not sleep warm. What this bag taught me was how important bag size is. The Super Light is a large rectangular shaped bag. A low volume bag is much warmer than a large volume bag. In the summer time, go for a larger volume bag and for winter camping, go for a fitted bag.

After all of my testing, I’ve ended up with a Wiggy’s FTRSS sleep system. The most popular Wiggy’s FTRSS is the “Super Light FTRSS”. A true 4 season, two bag set, that covers ratings at 40 degrees, 0 degrees and -40 degrees. MSRP is $408 and JeepSWAG sells it for under $290 shipped. The Overbag is a large warm bag that gets me through over half the year. If you’re a fair weather camper, the Overbag cannot be beat. It’s a 2 lb. bag that compresses very well. Wiggy’s have what I’d call a cult type following. Those that use them love them. As far as I know they are the only sleeping bags manufactured in the U.S.A. They can be stored compressed and compress down to a very small size.

Heater Tip:
I use a four season tent for winter camping and a great tip that I have is to purchase a Mr. Heater Buddy heater. This little heater will heat my tent from 20 degrees to 70 degrees, in about five minutes. I pre-heat my tent, then roll the bags to remove all of the cold air from them. In the morning, I’ll fire up the heater a few minutes before climbing out of my bag. You won’t believe how much more comfortable this is.

LINK TO THE JEEPSWAG SLEEPING BAG PAGE

Here you can see why my “big bag” took too much room in the Jeep:

Compared to another warm sleeping bag

Video Review of how the Wiggy’s FTRSS System works:
Wiggy\'s Sleeping Bag Review

Good review that I found on Youtube:
Cold Weather Sleeping

Another vid with some extreme camping (sleeping details start at min. 3:30:
Snow Camping

Some pics:

[View with PicLens]

Bronco Peak Connector Jan 2010 from troy tertany on Vimeo.

We finished so fast, that we decided to do Cleghorn backwards.  Cleghorn is in great shape right now (read as lots of rutted trails and Cleghammer is great. I think that the V-notch mid way on Cleghammer is doable, but it would take way more cajones than I’ve got.  Lower CH is way fun right now.  Amazing how that trail changes after a good rain.

Hammer Down track in Google Earth LINK

Bullfrog track in Google Earth LINK

Some pics:

[View with PicLens]

And a link to more: LINK

Video:

Sunday morning we rolled up the hill to meet group for Mottino Wash.  Mottino is great, but it was a larger group and the wheelin was slow.

Couple of pics from Bullfrog;

Bullfrog Day

Bullfrog Night

]]> http://www.jeepswag.com/blog/2009/10/mottino-wash-again-and-bullfrog-night-run/feed/ 0 http://www.jeepswag.com/blog/2009/10/2009-fall-and-winter-wheelin/ http://www.jeepswag.com/blog/2009/10/2009-fall-and-winter-wheelin/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:29:02 +0000 Woods http://www.jeepswag.com/blog/?p=5 I’ll still be doing some Saturday night camping trips.  After soccer is over, I’ll be planning some longer trips.  With Soccer games every Saturday through mid November, my schedule is a little limited.

Short trips include Calico, an extreme rock crawling trail (no kids) at Johnson Valley, and exploring in Afton Canyon.  I’m sure I’ll end up with two to three trips, in addition to the ones listed.

I hope that the Afton Canyon exploring turns out to be really interesting.  There’s a wash that I’ve started up and would like to continue to explore.  The big quest is to see if we can work our way up to the top of the mud caves in Spooky Canyon.  This will require driving up the back side of those mountains and I have no idea if it’s possible.

Longer trips will include a Death Valley Trip with visits to Panamint City and Barker Ranch (Charles Manson’s last hideout)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamint_City,_California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barker_Ranch

Road to Panamint City

Backdoor at Johnson Valley

I design and market a line of Jeep JK aftermarket products.  Be sure to check www.JeepSWAG.com