10oz Cuben fiber quilt

[Gordon Gray]

Last night at our Boulder LightPackers meeting, I was able to show off my new EE Revelation quilt.  I was quite proud.  This was all until one of the members, Pete, broke out his MYOG Cuben Fiber 30 degree 10oz wonder.  900 FP. Yep, you heard that right.  I don’t have all the details but it was pretty light CF and didn’t feel harsh at all.  The top has a strip of 10d nylon for feather breathability and stuff sack packing purposes.  The single wall, single person, full bathtub floor, tent he made and shared a couple months ago only weighed 10oz a well.  He is working on a backpack next.

 

Pretty cool, huh!

[Paul S.]

1. It’s very narrow, but he looks to be a small fellow.
2. Under filled for the temp rating, so can’t be compared to an EN quilt. For reference a 30 degree EE quilt has 9.31 ounces of 950 down.
3. Cuben makes it a vapor barrier. No way I’d want that in above freezing temps.

[JCH]

“But other than that, heck yeah…very cool!”  :)

Seriously tho, that quilt needs to satisfy exactly one person, and I suspect it does. Rock on, HYOH, and all that other stuff. Thanks for posting it.

[Peter Nash]

“Cuben makes it a vapor barrier. No way I’d want that in above freezing temps.”

This is a very common viewpoint, but I don’t share it.  I have 4 MYOG down top bags, all made of cuben fiber. The bags have different temperature ratings:  50, 40, 30, and 15 degrees.  My 50 degree summer bag has 5.5 oz. down fill.

Vapor barriers work at any temperature, and they are lighter than breathable bags.  They also keep insensible perspiration from infiltrating the down and degrading performance.

Vapor barriers may be essential for extended trips below freezing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use one in the middle of August at low elevation.  I do.  Yeah, I get a little condensation inside the bag in the footbox.  I wipe it off after I get up.  No problem.

I’m impressed with the cuben quilt shown in the post above, and I like to see a photo of the guy’s MYOG 10 oz. tent.  And his backpack when it’s finished.

Here’s my 50 degree bag:

 

[Nick Gatel]

I have a quilt made from cuben. Yeah, no problem if the weather is warmer than its “rating” — quilts are easy to vent. But when the temp is colder than the quilt is rated for, adding extra layers of down clothing doesn’t work out well as you can imagine.

[Steven Evans]

Very nice job guys – impressed. I’ve been using mine for 8 years now, it sort stinks, but man is it light and warm! This picture is from when I just got it…and was young….:)

[Peter Nash]

Steve Evans,

I remember viewing your quilt and it made a big impression on me.  Your quilt, and the Cuben one I ordered from Enlightened Equipment (back when Tim was making Cuben quilts), inspired me to make my first one four years ago.  I’ve made a total of six Cuben bags, but I cannibalized two for their down after I refined my design.

I changed from quilts to top bags because I don’t like dealing with drafts.  My bags are designed to fit my Thermarest Neoair inside the bags.  My first bag was .34 oz. Cuben, but I have switched to .51 oz. for greater durability (after I woke up one morning with a rip in my bag and down all around in my tent.)

[David Gardner]

Oh man, would I love to see that tent! Any chance of getting Pete to share pictures and design details?

I’m at the design stage of making two Dyneema Composite Fabric (nee Cuben) tents with a buddy Les Waddell who is a sewing and MYOG maestro. They’ll be two-pole free-standing domes and we were shooting for less than two pounds including all poles, stakes and cordage, but a 10 oz. tent makes me wonder how low we can really go! The Fibraplex CF poles weigh about 7.5 oz, so maybe we could even crack the 1.0 lb. barrier.

[Tim Marshall]

All these cuben quilts are fun. I’d love to still make these but the skill required  of the user is higher than with a nylon quilt and I was running into problems with users abusing their quilts and causing damage.

Im working to get a high quality .5oz ripstop nylon made that should allow the same light weights hit by the cuben quilts (all but .33 but most aren’t using that). This new nylon should make the lightest quilts even lighter while not requiring special skills to use them.

Great job on these!  It’s fun seeing my designs being evolved by others, that’s what I’ve been doing all this time.

-Tim

[Steven Evans]

My memory is going in my old age, but I think the idea for  my cuben quilt was after I saw Bill Forsnell post pictures of his…I don’t see him around anymore but that guy was doing some wild stuff. Tim and I discussed it for a bit before committing to it. I remember I was initially hesitant to go with the 0.33 but Tim convinced me and it has been holding up well for me. It’s thin so it has to be treated and I am sure one day I will have a nightmare and rip it open during the night, but so fr so good.

Tim,
Looking forward to the new material! Put me on the waiting list!

Steve

[Gordon Gray]

I will ask for pics and details.

[Peter Nash]

Reminiscing about those early Cuben Quilts, I remember seeing this Steve Evans video that really sparked my interest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g46SUD27nf0

and this BPL forum about Lynn Tramper’s MYOG Cuben quilt:

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/31690/

Continuing to reminisce, here’s my Enlightened Equipment Cuben quilt, with its inflation sack seen at the foot:

I now use only my four MYOG Cuben top bags when backpacking, not just to save fabric weigh, but also for the Vapor Barrier.   My bags have 5.5, 8, 12, and 16 ounces of down:

[David Gardner]

Peter: I’m clueless I guess. What is the inflation sack for? I know the quilt needs some breathable portion so that it will loft, but why a sack instead of a panel?

[Peter Nash]

Tim Marshall of Enlightened Equipment designed the quilt, so he can best answer your question.  The inflation sack is connected to the footbox with a breathable gusset.  You can rapidly loft the bag using the inflation sack.

I built my bags after acquiring my Enlightened Equipment quilt.  I noticed that I didn’t really need to use the inflation sack to get the quilt to loft; it lofted on its own after awhile.  So I opted to build my quilts with the breathable square patches.  (I did build one bag with an inflation sack, but I didn’t like the fit of that bag, so I tore it apart for the down.)

[Steven Evans]

Peter, you don’t mess around! Nice assortment of quilts!

 

[Peter Nash]

Peter, you don’t mess around! Nice assortment of quilts!

Thank you.  I’m indebted to you and Tim for demonstrating that Cuben fiber is a great material for quilts (and top bags).

[Chad P]

Very nice bags all over! I’d like to make one sometime. I remember when EE made them. Also remember when Adam of Hammock gear made and all cuben underquilt. It worked but slow to puff up. Then I had him make me a underquilt with a cuben inner and 7d outer. Best thing ever. Used it for a couple years then had to sell it out of poorness.

[Colin Krusor]

Tim, I’m interested in the nylon you’re sourcing. Any plans to make any of it available to the MYOG crowd?

[Tim Marshall]

I’m not planning to sell any fabric. Not sure this is going to happen. I’ve bought 2000 yds of fabric and so far only 250yds has been good. I can’t keep spending good money on bad.

Im trying to figure out how to keep chasing this without breaking the bank, it’s going to have to go on hold I think. Just need to free up some funds

-Tim

[5# Pete]

Thank you for your feedback and here is an update:

Before I took this quilt on my Boulder to Durango thru-hike I tested it out 5 nights in a row at 35 degrees. The first night I was cold but by the 5th night I was very warm. I adjusted the snaps I use to connect it to my NeoAir matress and added more down. The final weight is 11.76 oz. I understand that this may be closer to a top bag than a quilt but it does not have a pocket for the mattress.

The bag worked well and I was never cold. It was a very wet hike with 17 days of rain out of 29. The seams are all taped and not sewn except for the collar, including the baffles, The bag is waterproof from the collar down which helped keep the down dry even on a night when the tent got wet inside (user error). It did feel a little clamy, but so did everything after a solid week of rain. For me making it waterproof but clamy is a good trade off given its weight. I did seperate a small section of one of the baffles but it did not impact performance.

I plan to replace this bag with one that is 4 inches wider so I can curl up, and 6 inches longer so I can sleeping on my stomach with my feet straighten out. The extra length will allow me to keep my neck covered and I probably won’t need to add more down. Just in case I leave a small part of a side seam externally taped so I can add down if I need to.

[Steve M]

Pete,  very impressive.  I’m quite jealous of your quilt—especially the non-sewn (taped) seams/baffles.   As someone who loves using a VBL (inside sleeping bag), I’ve wanted to go the next step to a waterproof (mostly) quilt.   A design like this eliminates the need for a separate VBL (2-6oz), an outer bivy bag (in many cases, another 6-10oz) and protects the down from almost all moisture/water intrusion.   Please feel free to send me any prototypes you no longer need :-).

[John Dallas]

Why doesn’t down clothing help when it is a little colder than quilt is rated?

[Greg Mihalik]

^^^

It does help. If you’re going to take down clothing along anyway, and you’ve got room in your bag or under your quilt, it allows your to take a lighter bag/quilt.

Taking down clothing solely for the purpose of augmenting your bag/quilt would result in a significant net gain over the additional 4 to 8 ounces of down needed keep you just as warm.

 

[Steve B]

I think the reference to the down clothing under a vb quilt/bag is that the down in the clothing is not protected from your moisture.  The moisture has no where to go but into the down.

[Author]

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