Which gets priority Top Quiilt or Under Quilt?

**Trambo** · 02-03-2019, 03:12

One quilt will be made with new down and new fabric, and the other will be made with scavenged down and fabric. Which do you feel is more important? Would you use the older salvaged down for an underquilt, and keep the good down for the top quilt? Or, should I put the quality into my underquilt, since it's harder to supplement than a top quilt (which I can add my down jacket on top of?

**Baka Dasai** · 02-03-2019, 05:05

Underquilt is more important.

A story to illustrate: I sleep in a hammock every night. If its below 80 I need an UQ to avoid feeling chilly. I have a 40 deg down UQ, and with temps between 70 and 80 I'm caught between being too cold with no UQ, and too warm with a 40 deg UQ. So I bought some thick fleece and made an UQ out of it for these nights. It surprised me that there are nights when the fleece UQ is only barely warm enough, yet even a light cotton sheet covering me on top feels too hot.

**sidneyhornblower** · 02-03-2019, 06:26

Originally Posted by Trambo

Which do you feel is more important?

Knowing what I know now, I would spend the time, effort and money on the underquilt. As you say, it's easier to supplement on top than on the bottom. Also, if the top is good but the bottom has issues, it's much harder to fix on the fly. I can't count the number of times, mostly backyard testing, where I've been fine and warm all over EXCEPT for my back, or my butt, or the backs of my legs or whatever. Underquilt definitely.

**RazorSharp** · 02-03-2019, 07:17

UQ. You can always wear more clothes but your weight will squish any insulation below you.

**Five Tango** · 02-03-2019, 07:19

I second what S.Hornblower says plus you might take a play out of the Shug handbook and keep a small piece of reflectix to put in areas of concern like the feet or back etc.Reflectix is good stuff and can keep you from having to tweak your setup in the middle of the night.

**JmBoh** · 02-03-2019, 07:49

UQ definitely. Go with a quality UQ. As others have said, you can always improvise for top layers, but if you're losing heat from underneath you're gonna struggle to be comfortable.

**TominMN** · 02-03-2019, 09:06

I believe we have consensus!

**Groundskeeper** · 02-03-2019, 11:45

UQ. Several nights back it only got down to 40 degrees and I was roasting with my 0* UQ. Last night it only got down to 54 degrees and I tried out my "new" PLUQ. With the same TQ on both nights, I was chilly. At 2:30am I had to stuff the pad into the sleeve. Then all was good.

**TrailSlug** · 02-03-2019, 15:23

Under quilt all the way. You can improvise on the top quilt side but that harder to do on the bottom side.

**Vanhalo** · 02-03-2019, 20:53

Originally Posted by Trambo

One quilt will be made with new down and new fabric, and the other will be made with scavenged down and fabric. Which do you feel is more important? Would you use the older salvaged down for an underquilt, and keep the good down for the top quilt? Or, should I put the quality into my underquilt, since it's harder to supplement than a top quilt (which I can add my down jacket on top of?

UQ