Insultex Underquilt Help

[KLHinNC]

I bought 3 yards of Insultex, and 3 yards of 1.1 ripstop nylon. I kept the Insultex as a continuous roll, and just layered the roll three layers deep. Ended up with 3 layers about 40" x 60". I sandwiched the insultex between the ripstop, folded over and sewed it.

I then sewed the ripstop and insultex together to keep the insultex from shifting, added shock cord, cord locks, and adjusted fit to loosley hang under my hammock. The Insultex was not compressed when I laid in the hammock.

This past weekend I went to a national forest to test it out. Temperatures dropped to about 55°F, with a bit of wind, and a slight drizzle.

I was cold.

I had a 50°F fleece sleeping bag as a topquilt doubled over myself, was wearing synthetic DWR pants, long sleeve underarmour shirt, wool socks, and used my fleece jacket under my legs.

About 2AM I had to take out my 35°F Wilderness Logics underquilt and used that as a top quilt to stay warm.

So, how can I modify the 3 layers to adapt to cooler temperatures? I have ripped the threads out and am now looking at starting over. Would like some advice from anyone that has worked with it and had better success.

I have followed the sticky, however I did not cut pleats in the Insultex layers (i wanted to preserve the insulation in case I had to start over). I still have 3 yards of insultex, and the original ripstop nylon to work with.

I see some are adding several folded over sections lengthwise to separate the layers, how is that working out?

Or, has anyone added channels between the insultex layers so that it will loft itself?



K

[RootCause]

About 2AM I had to take out my 35°F Wilderness Logics underquilt and used that as a top quilt to stay warm.

Was your backside cold, or your top? When I get CBS, more insulation on top doesn't help.

(Clever planning on preserving your Insultex, btw. I am hoping for a good outcome to this story.....)

[AaronAlso]

Insul-tubes® or is that trademarked?

Anyway, IX needs air space beteen layers to be most effective. This is usually accomplished by making differential pleats in some form or another. If done correctly the IX should loft when unpacked and trap air inside the layers. That's is what keeps you warm; the dead air space. You can put a small amount of Primaloft, Climashield, or even generic poly batting between them instead, but my understanding is that it's not required if pleated correctly.

Hope that helps

P.S. I have a MolyMac Shamu that has been plenty warm down to 45*F for 3 night so far and might go a little lower for me. (YMMV) McIntyre uses the pleated design and my experience is it works incredibly well.

[KLHinNC]

Was your backside cold, or your top? When I get CBS, more insulation on top doesn't help.

(Clever planning on preserving your Insultex, btw. I am hoping for a good outcome to this story.....)

I was not having CBS issues. I just had a chill. When I threw the 35°F UQ on top of me I warmed up significantly, so perhaps the insultex underquilt was fine.

Isn't it the basic therory that a layer of insulation under you is better than two layers of insulation over you (layers being equal)?

Tonight after work I'll look at adding some pleats to the middle IX layer. Also, I'll probably only use one layer of ripstop on the bottom. The insultex material is fairly sturdy as is, making the top layer of ripstop unnecessary.


K

[KLHinNC]

Insul-tubes® or is that trademarked?

Anyway, IX needs air space beteen layers to be most effective. This is usually accomplished by making differential pleats in some form or another. If done correctly the IX should loft when unpacked and trap air inside the layers. That's is what keeps you warm; the dead air space. You can put a small amount of Primaloft, Climashield, or even generic poly batting between them instead, but my understanding is that it's not required if pleated correctly.

Hope that helps

P.S. I have a MolyMac Shamu that has been plenty warm down to 45*F for 3 night so far and might go a little lower for me. (YMMV) McIntyre uses the pleated design and my experience is it works incredibly well.

Definitely helps, I'll give it a try on the middle layer tonight. Heading to Pisgah next weekend, although I think the temps are warming up this week again.


K

[sclittlefield]

Hey KLH,
The differentially sized layers are extremely important in using this insulation material. The top layer (against the hammock) must be the smallest layer, with each layer after being sized a bit bigger (I recommend 2") to make compression impossible. This ensures that when your suspension is pulling it tight up against you, no matter how tightly, only the top layer is against your back.

You can sew the pleats w/o cutting anything out so you can save it to rework again if desired. And if they're all the same size sheet, you could just fold an inch or two lengthwise and sew together to shorten it, then do the same widthwise - again, to keep the material uncut for other use if you want.

Putting climashield between layers as AaronAlso mentioned works extremely well.

I was camping this weekend and loaned my 3-layer IX UQ to a friend. We were in the mountains, low 30's the first night, not sure if it hit freezing, but if not it was hovering right close. He said his back was cool but slept just fine - I wouldn't call that good to the 30's. Survivable yes, but not rated for it. I've been good to the high 20's with this quilt, but I also had a windshield reflector pad between it and hammock and a good base-layer for clothes.

[BillyBob58]

Hey KLH,
The differentially sized layers are extremely important in using this insulation material. The top layer (against the hammock) must be the smallest layer, with each layer after being sized a bit bigger (I recommend 2") to make compression impossible. This ensures that when your suspension is pulling it tight up against you, no matter how tightly, only the top layer is against your back.

You can sew the pleats w/o cutting anything out so you can save it to rework again if desired. And if they're all the same size sheet, you could just fold an inch or two lengthwise and sew together to shorten it, then do the same widthwise - again, to keep the material uncut for other use if you want.

Putting climashield between layers as AaronAlso mentioned works extremely well.

I was camping this weekend and loaned my 3-layer IX UQ to a friend. We were in the mountains, low 30's the first night, not sure if it hit freezing, but if not it was hovering right close. He said his back was cool but slept just fine - I wouldn't call that good to the 30's. Survivable yes, but not rated for it. I've been good to the high 20's with this quilt, but I also had a windshield reflector pad between it and hammock and a good base-layer for clothes.

Ditto that. Unless you can figure out how to do what MacEntyre does with the quilts that tttg offers, just make yourself a true dif cut, with a layer of nylon which you can pull tight against your hammock, but with the IX layers hanging somewhat loosely from that nylon layer. With 3 layers and a good dif cut and a perfect fit to a bridge hammock ( ends and edges well sealed against draft) TeeDee and Tiredfeet have done about 11F with 3 layers and been plenty warm, if memory serves.

[KLHinNC]

Ended up using a strip of climashield between two of the layers. I tried putting some pleats in the insultex, but it really didn't loft it that well. The climashield added very little weight, totalling 16.8oz up from ~16oz.

The climashield was for a top quilt. It turned out alright. I'll post some pictures of these later.

Thanks for the help guys!



K

[KLHinNC]

Finished Insultex / Climashield hybrid under quilt.

Top layer insultex.
1 pleated layer of insultex
1 layer of climashield apex
1 layer of Insultex
Bottom layer is 1.1 ripstop in camo
Total weight 16.8oz









K

[Redoleary]

Look'n good. Nicely done.