Cheapskate backpacking rig

Rog Tallbloke

Rog Tallbloke

Thru Hiker
Due to my current lack of a paid job, I've been selling my collection of posh backpacking gear on ebay, and replacing it with cheap stuff from ebay and aliexpress. Gone is my Gossamer Gear 'The One' tent, sold on the 'bay for £265, replaced by a Chinese Knot small 'mid at a cost of £35. Gone is my beloved Western Mountaineering Ultralite sleeping bag for £240, In winter I'll make do with the lovely EE quilt made for me by Tim Marshall, plus a supplementary down item made from a £15 costco down blanket. Gone is my Patagonia ascensionist 25L 350g pack for £45, replaced by a Chinese 35L 350g pack I won for £8 inc postage. Gone is my military SUUNTO lensatic compass (for £24 - sob), replaced with a secondhand long baseplate Silva for £15. Gone is my Exped downmat 5LW for £62, replaced with a Karrimor CCF z-lite knockoff for £8.50 (same tog value, much lighter, much bulkier, just as comfortable with a few modelling balloons under it).

I'll update this thread with more cheap kit as I find it. It's an exercise in trading off price against quality and weight. I hope to end up with a useable kit which performs well enough and doesn't weigh too much more than what I had before.

Here's the list so far:
Knot tent £30 400g
Tomshoo pack £2 350g
Crisp packet mat £7.44 350g
Wedze down jacket £8.50 350g
Inner tent £26 550g
Costco/MYOG quilt £15 470g
Brasher WPB coat £4.20 735g

Total £92.70 2370g
 
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Rog Tallbloke

Rog Tallbloke

Thru Hiker
I haven't attached hip belts yet. I confess I took my old faithful frameless 40L TNF pack with me on the last trip as I was packing the Hex3 plus inner tent. Duo trips mean carrying a bit more. I think the chinese packs will be fine for solo trips with carry weights under 8.5kg.
 
Meadows

Meadows

Section Hiker
If the replacement items will keep you doing what you like, then that's a good thing.

Which pack did you get?
 
Rog Tallbloke

Rog Tallbloke

Thru Hiker
I picked up this eyecatching 35L pack on ebay for £2 plus £6 postage. It weighs 350g. All seams are piped internally and it's a lot better quality wise than I expected.

purplepack.png


Strap padding is minimal, but that doesn't bother me. I need to stitch a hip belt on. I'm going to make it a very simple strap and snap affair about 20mm wide as it won't be supporting more than about 8KG. I'm not a fan of hip belt pockets as they tend to interrupt my arm swing and ditch the contents in damp patches when I set the pack down.
 
Rog Tallbloke

Rog Tallbloke

Thru Hiker
it is a serious oversight not to fit some kind of waist/hip strap to any pack over 20L IMO.
But at that price, I'm prepared to do minor mods. :)
 
Rog Tallbloke

Rog Tallbloke

Thru Hiker
Time for an update to this thread for anyone out there trying to get a kit together for cheap.

I found this 260g inflatable pad on Ebay for £7.44:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302044100269

And bagged this hooded down jacket with a frayed elbow for £8.51
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wed-039-ze-down-jacket-/232248220036

wedze.png

The bargains are out there, you've just got to spend an hour or two hunting them down.

Anyone want to buy a patched Cloudveil endless down 700fp 12oz jacket? Here's a review:
http://www.backpacker.com/gear/gear-review-cloudveil-endless-down-jacket
 
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Enzo

Enzo

Thru Hiker
You can get very serviceable 260g down jackets off aliexpress for 17 quid, no hood mind.
 
Rog Tallbloke

Rog Tallbloke

Thru Hiker
Both the jacket and pad arrived this morning. The Jacket is great! 350g for an XL is good and it's as well cut and warmer than the Montbell UL down parka I swapped for a seriously warm and lofty Mountain Hardwear down jacket a few years ago. Speaking of which, I saw one of those sell on Ebay for £21 yesterday! If I see another going at that price I'll grab it and overstuff my Montbell spiral down hugger #5 sleeping bag with the down!

The cheapo mattress of around 330g also arrived. It's an overgrown crisp packet with toothpaste tube caps on either end! Still, what do you expect for £7.44? I think I'll be using my old BA clearview 3/4 mummy shaped pad of around the same weight this summer.
 
Rog Tallbloke

Rog Tallbloke

Thru Hiker
Just ordered this 550g inner tent off Ali for £26.78 for duo use. Kath has had enough of overnight insect bites on camping trips.

ali-inner.jpg
It's a generous 2.4m long x 1.2m wide x 1.45m high. I've had enough of inners that soak my hair and quilt footbox and just aren't long enough to stretch out in. I'm going to add some waterproof solid doors and make an open fronted half pyramid tarp to go with it. Big views. We tend to cook a little way from the tent so I'm not bothered about lack of front vestibule. Instead, I'll add a short zip in the middle of the back panel and make the tarp with a wind-deflecting angle, so there'll be somewhere to stash packs and boots at the back.
 
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Rog Tallbloke

Rog Tallbloke

Thru Hiker
Well, I'm on a spree, getting ready for a few trips. The montbell #5 down spiral hugger went for £135 at auction and I bought an el cheapo sleeping bag off Ebay for £21 brand new. It's made by Crane. It's got a duck down/feather filling which gives it around 2" of loft.

Downsides:
Duck down/feather rather than goose down
The 20D fabric isn't as downproof as I'd like
The full length zip snags easily

Upsides:
£21 !!
It's actually long and wide enough for me (and I'm 6' 7")
To my amazement, it's properly baffled, not just through stitched
It has a filled draft collar
It has a 2 way zip
It weighs a mere 800g (needs more/better filling)

Plan: Open it up, poach the down out of the two costco down blankets I bought last year and put it in. (easier said than done I expect, advice needed)

I reckon this might make a useful winter underbag for the nice EE 900fp 30F/0C quilt that Tim Marshall kindly made for me. And a summer solution for dirtbagging trips where I don't want to sully the EE quilt.
 
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Rog Tallbloke

Rog Tallbloke

Thru Hiker
Got a new tent coming for Christmas. Duomid size and shape, complete with inner for £33 (no)brand new. Not light at 1450g with 12 steel pegs, but fine for testing out whether I can live with the shape before I cut my piece of 0.5 cuben. It's mountain ninja yellow. The white version is £3 more. At this price, I might use the inner and poach the zips out of the fly for the cuben version, if I ever get around to making it...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-Person...proof-Lightweight-Hiking-Camping/202536566867

s-l1600.jpg
 
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