Tip for use of basic army bivi bag, as they are sooooo loooong, is to turn it upside down to give you a "roof" over your head.
Hooped Bivi Bags....thoughts!
- Thread starter Barney Rubble
- Start date
I'd quite fancy using a bivi bag type thing as I am tired of lugging around a 3kg tent but worried it would be too claustrophobic.
Absolutely! A tarp can be a real blessing as it allows you to open things up a little, avoiding the claustrophobia that some folk feel as well as giving you a drier area when it's raining.
I've done it but getting dressed, including Goretex, as it's lashing down is a select skillset.
Sorry, if you want something better than the issued British army bivvy bag, there is only the German Army bivvy bag, made by and sold new by Carinthia where you can breath through the fabric.
Should you want something lighter, choose a Snugpack Special Forces bivvy bag. With the half length zipper it's pretty comfortable.
If you don't breath outside the bivvy bag you will get massively condensation problems. So if you don't want to lighten the load I recommend to stick with the issued British army bivvy bag.
For warm weather Snugpack SF and Carithia are the better choice, but in British conditions the British army bivvy bag is probably the best option if you still get easily in and out.
That is Goretex three layer fabric.
Only Goretex gas permeable technology fabric is better, and this is as far as I am informed only available from Carinthia.
ASMC sells German Army Carinthia bivvy bags used in usually good conditions for the price of a new Snugpak SF.
They are heavier than the British army bivvy bag.
If you think about carrying a hooped bivvy bag you should think about the Hilleberg Akto tent as well.
Far more comfortable, very light too.
Should you want something lighter, choose a Snugpack Special Forces bivvy bag. With the half length zipper it's pretty comfortable.
If you don't breath outside the bivvy bag you will get massively condensation problems. So if you don't want to lighten the load I recommend to stick with the issued British army bivvy bag.
For warm weather Snugpack SF and Carithia are the better choice, but in British conditions the British army bivvy bag is probably the best option if you still get easily in and out.
That is Goretex three layer fabric.
Only Goretex gas permeable technology fabric is better, and this is as far as I am informed only available from Carinthia.
ASMC sells German Army Carinthia bivvy bags used in usually good conditions for the price of a new Snugpak SF.
They are heavier than the British army bivvy bag.
If you think about carrying a hooped bivvy bag you should think about the Hilleberg Akto tent as well.
Far more comfortable, very light too.
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A bit of a tangent to this thread but hopefully there may be some answers. I've got an old surplus hooped bivvy with loads of room in the top, I can put by rucksack in there with room to spare. Has anyone had any experiances of sleeping with a dog in the top of the bivvy bag? We want to introduce our dog to camping but I think just an open bivvy and tarp may be a bit much for her just yet.
(6-month late reply but am enjoying reading through these excellent posts.)
Yes. Only once.
I was on an overnight site-recce trip away from the group (they used dome tents, I used a Wild Country single-hooped bivvy bag, excellent kit IMHO) in Torridon one autumn and the dog chose to come with me. Hoofing down with rain in the late arvo and poor old muttly was gibbering cold, so in she came, curling up at the head-end under the sloping door. She actually managed to stay quite still for the most part, sleeping on top of my damp clothing throughout a long rainy night but for me the wet, smelly "pillow" did not let me sleep much and as for just getting in and out of clothing and trying to stow gear/organise myself before exiting the bivvy bag, well that was just a mad, claustrophobia-inducing contortionist trick! What the heck was I thinking? But we all loved that dog and so what else are you going to do at 2000 feet up a wet mountainside?
The holes in the groundsheet caused by her toenails were easily repaired with duct tape. Gawd bless her.
I also have an observer and second what Scoman has said. Excellent Kit.
If anyone is still considering a hooped bivi, they may also wish to consider the Snugpak Ionosphere or the Jack Wolfskin Gossamer 1.
Jack Wolfskin seems to lower the quality since a couple of years. That became short lasting dog walking equipment and summer camping stuff.
They run a shop in every larger town in Germany and lost the reputation in the serious outdoor community here.
They run a shop in every larger town in Germany and lost the reputation in the serious outdoor community here.
I am glad this thread popped again. I have recently moved city and there is a great big 'bare-assed' hill not far from me which has no light pollution and therefore offers terrific opportunities for observing stars and space junk. I don't want something for all night, just a low and light solution for a few hours supinity in different weathers, which may involve a sleepmat of some description.
I am cycling through options with existing bits and pieces, and may try an experiment by stitching loops for a bendy pole into a GB army bivi. But I feel a slightly more voluminous, purpose-built, hooped bivi is going to be in my future some time.
I am cycling through options with existing bits and pieces, and may try an experiment by stitching loops for a bendy pole into a GB army bivi. But I feel a slightly more voluminous, purpose-built, hooped bivi is going to be in my future some time.
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I doubt that hooped bivvy bags work as well as usual ones like the British army version. I talked pretty long to a man who works for Carinthia, which make the German army Goretex sleeping bag cover and the Observer from the most vapour permeable fabric that Goretex offers.
And this gentleman told me that you get sooner or later in their current bivvy bags a condensation problem if you breath into it. That means that the simple bag is the technical superior design if you want to sleep in it.
And this gentleman told me that you get sooner or later in their current bivvy bags a condensation problem if you breath into it. That means that the simple bag is the technical superior design if you want to sleep in it.
It's not often I would take exception to something Erbswurst says
, but the last sentence above I do!Horses for courses? I prefer a hooped bivi, yes you can get horrible condensation in it, as you most certainly will with a plain bivi, certainly if it's raining in the latter!!!
The optimum conditions for a Goretex is cold wet inside and warm dry outside. Those are not met very often in The Real World (TM). Next best would be dry outside whatever the other variables.
Bivvies usually have a fairly sturdy outside fabric for apparent reasons, again that is not good for moisture permeability.
Goretex is based on the idea that water escapes as a gas through the small pores not as droplets. So anything that slows down gas exchange on the outside is bad.
A single skin bivvy with good ventilation might actually work better in some conditions but probably more heat would be lost in the process.
Bivvies usually have a fairly sturdy outside fabric for apparent reasons, again that is not good for moisture permeability.
Goretex is based on the idea that water escapes as a gas through the small pores not as droplets. So anything that slows down gas exchange on the outside is bad.
A single skin bivvy with good ventilation might actually work better in some conditions but probably more heat would be lost in the process.
My point is that for example the British army bivvy bag enables to breath outside the bivvy bag while you are in it. Like this you avoid the condensation of the moisture of the air that you breath out inside your bivvy bag.
Is the air in Britain really so moist that it doesn't matter?
Is the air in Britain really so moist that it doesn't matter?
Surely the answer to this problem is to not zip everything up tight, leave some space for air to circulate a little?
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I thought about that earlier. The first Dutch army bivvy bags were made by Carinthia so far I am informed, but they don't sell it to private clients. Carinthia offers the better ventilated Observer instead of it, or you can get there the simple German army bivvy bag that's constructed like the British army version but due to the here warmer weather fitted out with a central zipper like the sleeping bag.
(By the way, I slowly get indeed the impression that the German army spends much more for individual equipment like that then most others. They decided now to give everyone a Snigel 100 litres rucksack that costs nearly 600 € for example. And also the Carinthia bivvy bag that's issued to the German army seems to cost ten times more than the British version. )
(By the way, I slowly get indeed the impression that the German army spends much more for individual equipment like that then most others. They decided now to give everyone a Snigel 100 litres rucksack that costs nearly 600 € for example. And also the Carinthia bivvy bag that's issued to the German army seems to cost ten times more than the British version. )
Depends on your bag, and the weather? Hooped bivis do allow that more so than the bag type in inclement weather. But you'll still get condensation!!
Best result on the "bivi" idea I've had......is the Snugpak Ionosphere..... more a bivi/tent?
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