Just Jeff's Outdoors Page

"Going to the woods is going home, for I suppose we came from the woods originally." ~John Muir

Zippered Segmented Pad Extender

Looking for a better cold weather solution. I really like the DownHammock for three season trips, and it's more comfortable than sleeping on a pad, but I don't want to go into true winter conditions without a pad so I needed a way to incorporate one into my system. I really like the SPE concept from Ed Speer and Youngblood, and my homemade SPE works pretty well...but how else could I improve it?

I wanted a way to zip my winter bag onto it so I wouldn't have any drafts. So I combined the Big Agnes system with the SPE and solved a few problems. I basically made a pad sleeve, then sewed on a zipper to match my Wiggy's sleeping bag set, then sewed on the SPE wings.

Benefits:

Details:

Here's the SPE Mod on a ThermaRest. It's just a SPE with a separating zipper that matches whatever sleeping bag you have. I didn't see a reason to put an upper and lower wing like the real SPE - it works just as well with one tube.
Close-up of the wing. I put some elastic in the wing's hem to hold the pad in.
And a close-up with a pad inside the wing and the bag zipped on.
The back side of the SPE Mod. The real SPE uses spandex here, which would work MUCH better than the elastic. My fabric store didn't have anything like spandex so I grabbed some elastic for this prototype.

I think using the elastic like this causes bad drafts, though. It lets the material bunch in places and pull off the pad in other places, so the only thing between me and the cold air in those places is the layer of DWR. Spandex should keep the DWR in contact with the pad along the entire length, eliminating drafts from underneath. I'll test this before I hit really cold weather.

Close-up of the back side to show the flap of DWR on the back side of the pad. I put the elastic on this flap, but next time I'll use spandex.
Close-up of the bottom of the zipper...this is where I attach the sleeping bag to the SPE Mod. I meant for the whole sleeve to go all the way down instead of making the "V" at the bottom, but I guess I measured wrong. Next time...
The bag zips onto both sides like this, turning any bag into a Big Agnes-style setup.
And with the bag zipped completely onto the sleeve. The opening is pretty big, but it snugs up nicely when I pull it around me. I can either push the hood down inside, or lay on my side and wear the hood.

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