cheap synthetic insulated bivy clothing

[hikingoz]

I thought I'd post this recent purchase because it's a cheap and cheerfull option for synthetic insulated jacket and pants.

After trying various fleece jackets and a lightwieght down jacket, I found warm fleece was too bulky and down jackets are too delicate. I decided to buy a synthetic jacket on a budget, basicly for wearing in camp or in freezing conditions and this is what I came up with.

The jacket and pants are brittish surplus "softie" stuff. Basicly snugpak without branding. In total they cost me AU $87.20 posted. They are green on one side, sandy brown on the other. I'm 178cm tall and the medium jacket is very big for me. The pants are even bigger. Way too baggy but still the right length and waste size. This is ok because I'm going to take the full length side zips off and sew the pants back together making them lighter and about the right fit.

As they stand, the jacket was 670g and the pants are 450g unmodified. THe jacket has no hood, and only a centre, and pocket zips so won't be modified. In the end it wieghs about the same as my heavywieght fleece but is less bulky and much, much warmer and more comfy. The jacket has a waist and neck toggle so it can be sealed up to keep the heat in.

If anyone is interested I'll post pics and wieght of the pants once they're finished.

Cheers,

ABCEIGHT

softie jacket

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[corvus]

Where did ya getit website please
c

[hikingoz]

These are the guys but I bought through ebay.

http://www.guardsarmygear.com/cold-weat ... 17_24.html

[Moondog55]

Yeah, I have been watching those and thinking about them for a month now, i'll watch for your review of the pants

[hikingoz]

My pants are finished. Now they have no zips and are a better fit. Total wieght 350g and they are pretty comfy.

I'm going on a trip this weekend and might use them. I've been wearing the jacket around the house in the evenings and so far my impressions are that it's warm, comfy and good value for money, but ideally I would go for a pullover type with a hood if I could find one, and in a slightly smaller size. Anyways I'm pretty happy and will probably pull these out pretty frequently on the other side of summer .

Here's a pic of the pants.

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[Liamy77]

is this the less baggy modified version? - i dont mean too have a crack at them just not sure ...

[Moondog55]

Hmmm Both top and pants look a little small to me, they are designed and intended to be worn over 3 layers of polarfleece and underwear, are they the Extra Large??

[hikingoz]

They are size medium. Yep they are are still a bit baggy but much better than they were. I didn't want to cut into the pockets so they could only come in so much at the sides (not that I did the work myself). They certainly aren't too small considering I don't plan to wear them over all my other clothes during sedintry duties like they were intended. They are just for the evenings over one or two layers.