Gear: What breaks when and why?

[John Nausieda]

This really does look like a new approach.
http://flipanzip.com/default.aspx

[Jerry Adams]

I like the wearing shorts in the snow picture : )

[German Tourist]

After the positive response to my original post I have gone through my whole gear list and completed my report now. Here are some observations on the rest of my gear:

Clothes: Here is some good news: Clothes like T-shirts, fleece pullovers, trekking shirts and pants have a surprisingly long life expectancy. No matter whether you buy cheap no name/generic stuff or expensive brands outdoor clothes survive up to a year and more before they start falling apart. It does not pay off to invest a lot of money into brand stuff. Pants have a shorter life expectancy and survive only about 6 – 9 months before the zippers start wearing out or the fabric starts ripping. But if you have chosen a light colored (T-)shirt you will encounter a cosmetic problem first. After a couple of months of wear the shoulder straps of your backpack will start rubbing off onto your shirt discoloring it. No washing machine will be able to remove those discolorings and the shirt will always look dirty. Either chose a dark color or live with the discoloring.

Insulation jacket: I have used a Montbell Thermawrap jacket for 4 years and it still has gotten some life in it. To my big surprise the zipper has not worn out yet and the synthetic insulation is still decent, though degraded by several washes and hundreds of times being compressed into the little storage bag. I will definitely buy it again.

Socks: Socks have a much higher life expectancy than shoes and survive about two or three times as long as shoes. On a thruhike I have to change shoes about every 4 to 6 weeks, whereas socks survive upt to 4 months when using gaiters. Gaiters increase the life expectancy of socks a lot by keeping debris out of your shoes that wears out the socks (and the skin on your feet). My observations are based on wearing Wigwam Cool-lite socks in combination with gaiters. Thinner or non-hiker socks will not last that long.

Gaiters: I have used the same pair of Simblissity LevaGaiters for almost 20,000 km of hiking although I had to repair them several times. After about 6 – 9 months of constant use the lace hook will break. The problem now is to find an appropriate replacement. You will usually some sort of hook in a sewing shop and you can then sew it on with dental floss. I have replaced the hooks on my Simblissity gaiters 4 times before I decided to bury them. After 20,000 km of use the seams had come off and there were too many tears in the fabric. Considering the price and the weight of the gaiters this is a fantastic and very durable piece of equipment.

Pot: My Tatonko 1 l titanium pot is the oldest and longest surviving piece of gear I own. I have used the same pot for all my hiking career cooking in it over a thousand of times. It does not even look very battered now. After a couple of years the rubber insulation of the handles has come off but this is only a major flaw. If the pot handles are sticking out while cooking they will not heat up anyways and therefore you do not really need this insulation. Bottom line: a titanium pot is an investment that will almost last forever.

Spoon: I started out using a plastic spoon out of weight reasons. But Murphy's Law has struck several times and the plastic spoons always broke at the most inconvenient moment. Although this is not a life threatening situation it is a major annoyance. No matter what plastic spoon I bought they all broke sooner or later. I have now changed to a Sea to Summit Titanium spoon and have been happy ever since.

Wallet: My Simblissity UL wallet is my second oldest piece of gear and has accompanied my for over 5 years. I like it so much that I even use it in my non-outdoor life. Only now after 5 years of almost constant use some seams are coming off and the velcro is wearing out. This is a very well thought out and built piece of gear and I cannot recommend highly enough.

Outdoor watch: I have used a Suunto Vector for over 4 years for outdoor use and in normal life. Although the watch itself still worked fine I had to replace it after 4 years because of problems with the battery compartment. The battery is covered with a plastic cover that is held in place by 3 little plastic catches and waterproofed with a plastic O-Ring. After so many years of use the O-ring material deteriorated making it more and more difficult to close the battery cover. And while trying to force down the battery cover the plastic catches will break off eventually. This leads to two problems: The battery compartment cannot be closed properly any more and water can penetrate. Also the battery is not held firmly in place any more. As soon as it loses contact the watch will reset itself… leaving you in the middle of nowhere with no idea of what time it is. Change the O-Ring as soon as it deteriorates and always be very careful when closing and opening the battery cover.

Head lamps: Depending on how long and where I go I use one of my three Petzl headlamps: E-Lite, Tikka and Tikka Plus. Neither one of them has ever failed me. Even when changing the batteries often the plastic battery cover has never broken. I only had to replace a Tikka once after it had gotten very wet. Although it worked again after drying it it seemed to go through batteries much faster than before and I therefore decided to replace it.

[Kier Selinsky]

Excellent info – thanks for the additional insight!

[Mobile Calculator]

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[Erik Basil]

Excellent thread, Christine! I'd love Roger, Ryan and crew to help you lash it into an article without our kibbitzing in it. It could be a report from the field, to enable the brand loyalty without manu's griping. GREAT info in here!

[Brett Peugh]

Is there rain wear that you never have to worry about wetting out? Durable with maybe a few vents?

[Franco Darioli]

Thanks Christine, great info !
Franco

[Sam Farrington]

Thank you, Christine, for taking the time to compose your reviews.
Lots of heads ups in there. Very helpful.
Only one niggle: Several Leki poles lost the ability to tighten at the joints, as did some other brands. Kept changing brands until found some that hold up better.

[John Nausieda]

So what poles have you found better ? I'm hard on equipment and am considering poles for the first time ? Thanks, John

[Tad Englund]

Thanks for the info Christine,

I would be interested in seeing you "repair" kit.

[Ryan C]

Thanks for sharing your gear experiences Christine. This is one of the best threads I have seen that highlights LONG term gear use and expectations.

[Mary D]

Thanks, Christine, for all the helpful comments!

It's fairly easy to translate, for example, 6 months of constant use to 6 years for those who are out for a month a year!

I agree with others that this would make a wonderful article for BPL. BPL editors, please take note!

[Dustin Short]

Mary your calculations work right. They're actually probably conservative since gear has a tendency to "heal" when not used. Mainly fabrics can air out and sort of self clean with time which helps them last longer. Think 6 months of being soggy versus soaking just a few days and drying out. Probably applies most to down, which would explain why some people can get decades/generations of use from a quality bag and GT all but kills it 2.5 years later.

[James holden]

a very important point is how much a particular item gets used

the posts of high use in this thread are particularly relevant and quite useful … at a certain point IMO, if you use items enough, certain items basically become consumables … it is interesting that the OP isnt too worried about particular brands of clothing, they all wear out with enough use

i have climbing friends who brag about how long their ropes stay in perfect conditions, etc… when i ask them how often they use it, its usually every weekend for 3 months in the summer at most … i suspect many "reviews" of gear online are like this …

at a certain point i think gear is just gear as long as it does the job and meets yr spec … if you use it enough youll replace it eventually …

[Brian Lewis]

Having done the three long trails over the last four years, I’ve had some gear issues too; I think I tend to trade out my gear/clothing more often than Christine. Certainly more than some other folks I’ve hiked with; for example, the guy I finished the CDT with in November had used the same jacket on all three trails (and it showed).

So a few thoughts along this line:

Ditto Christine on the thermawrap jacket, and vest, with the caveat that it depends on which year you bought it. My thermawrap jacket originally had the sort of “hidden zipper”, which had a rubbish zipper pull (partly plastic). Montbell was very good about replacing the whole zipper when it went out, cudos to them.
I bought an OR Helium jacket for the CDT, and after wearing it a great deal on that trip (a lot more than I wore a jacket on the PCT or AT), it still seems in quite good condition, despite more sort of bushwhacking action than on the other trails. Since it’s a pretty lightweight jacket, I was impressed with that.

Pants indeed wear out, though “function over fashion”, one can wear them fairly ragged for a while when needed. As Christine said, shirts get wear marks on the back and shoulders. But you sort of look like a hobo a lot anyway, so … I’ve not really managed to wear a shirt out, though I’ve started each trail with a different one.

My underarmour boxer briefs lasted extremely well, somewhat of a surprise as I pretty much only change them for washing in town.

Golite shoes got better over time for durability, but also somewhat narrower in the toe box so I switched to Asics. I actually felt kind of bad throwing out my Asics every 500 – 600 miles last year as they looked to be in good shape each time I did so, apart from some bits of sole that were sort of almost designed to calve off (?!).
eVent gaiters and eVent mittens lasted better than expected, and w.r.t. the latter note that I’m a full-time two-stick hiker, so for those times when deployed (and again, more this last trip than others) they got a fair bit of use with trekking poles constantly in hand.

Sun gloves wear out after a while, I think I can get basically half a thru-hike out of a pair, unless I lose them (they’re sort of earth-colored after a while, can blend in if I set them down).

My OR sunrunner hat held up well into my third long trip, but I felt like my bald head was getting more tanned than it should have right through the hat so I replaced it along the way on the CDT last year.

I used Gossamer Gear Mariposa Plus packs on the PCT and about half-way into the AT. I felt like it’s true that you get about one thru-hike from one of these. In both cases it was primarily waist-belt wonkiness that triggered a shift, other stuff seemed field-repairable. My hiking partner for much of the AT had about 5000 miles on his ULA pack, so I bought a Circuit, used that for half the AT and all of the CDT and it’s still in good condition.

I think I replace my platypus bladders just as a “this seems like a good idea” thing more often than Christine. I’ve never had one leak, it’s more about (despite only putting water in them) a sense of things growing inside that leans me to replacing hose, bite valve, and/or actual bladder at times.
I used a cuben pack cover this last year, a fair bit, and had to repair one small hole with duct tape, but this held up well, I think, still in good condition. Ditto a cuben rain skirt.

Some things get so little actual wear that it’s not an issue. Tiny pocket knife, for example. Tiny reading glasses. These sorts of things one might manage to inadvertently break in a careless moment or lose, but I think never wear out.

Inflatable pads: I’ve used various, never had delamination, but have had a leak or two. My neo-air did fine on the AT, developed a slow leak shortly afterwards. Another neo-air got a slow leak along the CDT, as did my montbell inflatable pillow, but I used the latter on much of the PCT and all of the AT and CDT, so don’t feel too bad about that. It wasn’t repairable, however; it’s a shaped pillow, and the patch just wouldn’t completely seal at the specific point where the leak was.

Polycro groundcloth is pretty tough stuff; seems like I’ll go hundreds or even thousands of miles with no significant change and then something will happen so that linear tears begin and eventually they start splitting apart. But pretty cheap to replace via a local hardware store, and also something that I can certainly do without at need.

Ccf pads certainly get worn and somewhat flat over time, but remain nevertheless useable for a good long, long time. Thinner ccf pads perhaps a bit less so, but even there with care I’ve gotten more than a thru-hike out of a 1/8” ccf pad that I used most if not every night.

I too have WM bags, one summerlite and one ultralite; I’ve swapped between these to do all three trails plus other hiking. Finally now have them in to WM to restuff and in fact overfill them; even if you just lose a feather or two now and then, after more than a years worth of nights of use it does add up so that when you hold the bag up to a bright light you see why there are cold spots. Great bags, though. No zipper problems for me. One pull cord got a big wonky so that it’s a little fiddly to tighten up into true mummy mode, but otherwise holding up great.

I’m afraid I’ve swapped kitchen pieces on different trips, to include going no-cook for the first thousand miles last year. My Caldera UL compact system took some fiddling to keep going, but it does still keep going and is still my preferred cook system now when I do cook (so I’ve used it on all of the AT and more than half of the CDT). The quart sized freezer bag cooking cozy I bought from Sarbar has held up great through all three long trips.

I had been a fan of REI branded Komperdell carbon fiber trekking poles until I slipped on a patch of ice in the Smokies and snapped one. Now I’m happy with the lightest titanium leki’s I could find.

I used a TT Contrail pretty much every night on the PCT starting in the Sierras. Carried it on the AT but mostly slept in shelters. Still works great. Driven initially by wind concerns I bought a cuben upper Lightheart Solo for the CDT, and like that somewhat better. Indeed, one of the zipper pulls on that got to be unreliable, but there are two zipper pulls on that particular zipper, so I just take care now to use the other one and things are fine. No other issues, it’s a great tent.

I think that the real answer is that, for the most part, things don't often truly wear out, even “ultralight” things for the vast majority of users if some basic care is taken. Put another way, apart perhaps from packs I don’t think that durability should be stressed so much by those that question this whole “no doubt it’s just a passing fad” ultralight movement. :-)

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Christine, Thanks for this info. I'll never use my gear as intensly as you do but I get out quite a bit.

>I too have a Tarptent (Moment) and a WM bag (overfilled Megalite) so I'll get the spare sliders for both.

>My stove is a Brunton Crux (made for Brunton by Optimus)and so far so good.
I also nave a Trail Designs Sidewinder ti stove W/ Inferno woodburning inert so I may take that for trips where I know there will be wood most of the time. Otherwise I'll use ESBIT or FireLite tablets B/C the Sidewinder is VERY efficient using ESBIT.

>And yes, I have a Thermaest Prolite also (new and replaced under warranty this year due to the very old Thermarest Lite delaminating).
That's the 2nd Thermarest they have replaced for me.

My pack is a three year old REI Cruise UL 60 and I've had to sew it up a few times as well. (with button and carpet thread or take it to a ahoe repair shop to re-sew part of the belt's lumbar pad.

So yes, most gear has a "point-of-no-return" in terms of durability. But I haven't yet found that point with my ancient SVEA 123. :o)

[Mark Olah]

I've had my Garmin Vista HCx for several (5?) years. It comes with me on every hike/bike/backpack/ski trip I've done and stays on the whole trip to record my travels. It's been dropped in wet snow, onto rocks, and into water with no discernible problems. It's attached to my handlebars biking and has taken more than one direct hit on an over-the-handlebars tumble. One of those tumbles stripped the threads on the original battery case screw mount, but there are replacement battery covers available. The screen has many deep scratches but is readable still. The only problem I've had is the rubber sides come unglued after some time. I have tried re-gluing them with epoxy and gorilla glue, both of which eventually failed. Last time I used super glue which seems to be holding up OK. The device still works great and I don't see it failing me any time soon. My favourite gadget, and I never leave home without it. I hardly ever need to use it for navigating, but I love having a GPX of everywhere I've been, kind of like a journal of locations rather than words.

[German Tourist]

@Samuel: I am curious what kind of Leki poles you are referring to. I had a similar problem with my first Leki poles that you had to screw tight (not the new speedlock flip thing). If you had used the poles a lot and then stored them for a while, the inside threads started sort of corroding. The plastic locking element could then not be screwed down enough any more because of the “corrosion” on the thread and therefore the poles could not be tightened any more. This could be repaired very easily: Take the segments apart, remove the red plastic locking thing and clean the thread with a knife or a steel brush in order to remove the corrosion. Reassemble the whole thing and you will be able to tighten the pole perfectly.

@ Tad: My repair kit consists of a lot of duct tape that a carry around my trekking poles. You can solve a lot problems with duct tape the quick and dirty way…. I also carry a small patch of dedicated repair tape for long-term repairs. A small tube of Seam grip repairs little holes in TAR, tents and very temporarily fixes leaks in Platypus. I also carry one or two sewing needles, but I mostly use dental floss as thread. I always carry an extra zipper slider for my tent and depending on the tent a repair sleeve. You can see my full gear list on my blog here:
http://christine-on-big-trip.blogspot.com/p/gear-list.html

@Eric: You brought it right down to the very point: For me half of my gear is consumables and I have to plan accordingly. Especially shoes that have to be replaced every 4-6 weeks are an important factor here. When planning a long hike (I am right now planning a 5,000 km hike across Western Europe) I always look up the following: Where do I resupply on food, gas canisters and shoes. For other stuff that is a bit more durable, but will break eventually like backpacks, clothes, tents I always have a “supply” in my storage unit. I have to admit that I once bought 3 GG G4 backpacks on sale because I like them so much and I knew that I would get through them eventually. I am currently using no 2… With stuff that will be replaced under warranty I unfortunately have to wait till it eventually really breaks – which it always does with TAR Prolites and Platypus.
Unfortunately my “consumable” approach is not really considered in most gear reviews. Gear that might be great for other people who do not use their equipment very often is a waste of money for me if it breaks after a couple of months.

But generally I hope to send a very positive message: Most of my dedicated UL gear like backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, gaiters, wallet is surprisingly durable considering its weight and moderate price. The prejudice that UL gear is not very durable is just not true.

[wander lust]

thx for posting german tourist.

it is true that most ul stuff is quite durable, it just really depends where it is used.

not all ul gear works under all conditions.

I wasn't that happy with my simblissity gaiters, but I am also really hard on my footwear and bushwhacking is the best way to test gear. I could have known better :)

[Trill Daddy]

Walter, what shell do you use?

[Brett Peugh]

Chacos for shoes, they last for years and then you just get them resoled.

[Daryl and Daryl]

"Three times in my 4-year long outdoor career a tent pole has broken and I could always repair it with a repair sleeve. This usually happens when you do not insert the tent pole segments into each other correctly before bending them – they will then break at the thin segment end."

This is sometimes caused by a weak or weakened elastic shock cord within the poles. Here's one possible solution.

here

[Daryl and Daryl]

"After about 6 months of constant use the thread will wear out and you will not be able to screw the stove down to the canister any more."

Leaving the stove and cannister connected while hiking might reduce the thread wear. Here's one way to keep the two connected while hiking:

[ed hyatt]

I bet you're brilliant with ships :-)

[Author]

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