Synthetic to Down Sleeping Bag Conversion

[LO Gan]

in a week my brother in law, me and a friend of his are all going on a 3 day hike in big bend state park. I am trying to go as light as possible not only for my own benefit while on the trail, but also because we are flying in in his small plane. Currently i have my pack weight down to 16.5 lbs including food(water we will get at the ranger station when we get there)
The main place where i see that i could shave some weight is my sleeping bag.

I have a 20* REI cat's meow.
It is a good bag and has always served me well but it weighs in at just over 3lbs. I was thinking about making small incisions on the side of it and taking out the synthetic stuffing and replacing it with down.
I was wondering if anyone has ever tried this before with any luck.

And if anyone has any other good weight saving techniques that would help i would greatly appreciate them.
Thnx
AK_SAE

[Brad Groves]

Hi- Not worth it. Major pain to do this, and much of the weight savings you'll find can be in the shell materials. Also a matter of difference in synthetic vs. down construction, say shingled vs baffled. Even if the shell would work, the down alone would set you back ~$150+. Consider checking out an 800+FP down ~30*F bag, should get you in the 16-20 ounce range.

[LO Gan]

Wow, i had no idea that down was so expensive.
My friend had a light down bag and i was surprised at how small it packed up.(the size of a large grapefruit)

The problem i have is that I have a child on the way and I know that the responsible thing to do is to save money up for when he gets here.
But on the other hand my brain is telling me things like, well if i get a new bag then he can use mine when he grows up.

[Brad Groves]

Just to be a good gear enabler…
You won't have much (if any) money for gear once the baby arrives, so you might as well get it now, right?!

Watch Gear Swap and Gear Deals like a hawk and haunt Ebay, you might find a good price on a bag.

[Raymond Estrella]

LO Gan,

I have a Moonstone Lucid that has between 10 and 12 nights in it sitting here. I really should sell it as I have way too many bags. If you are interested email me.

It is a long by the way as I am 6' 3"

I used a Cat's Meow for many years. While TNF gets a lot of flack these days I have to say that it worked very well and racked up more nights than any bag I have ever owned.

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