3F UL Gear Rain Skirt

[Richard Nisley]

I lab tested this rain skirt today. Its combination of price / performance for UL backpacking is without equal. The lab test results are in the next post.

[Richard Nisley]

I purchased the test garment using Amazon Prime and paid $19.99. It is made of white ripstop silnylon and weighs 2.065 oz. It uses silicone seam tape on the single vertical seam. The garment sewing is flawless and the pattern allows for a wide stride as is required for boulder hoping or log crossing. I lab-tested the hydrostatic head at >3,500 mm; this is the highest quality 15 denier ripstop silnylon that I have tested.

It fits waist sizes from 23.6″ to 39.4″.

[Graham F]

G’day Richard I have owned this for a quite while and combined with my Columbia Outdry Ex Featherweight I look quite the part I can tell you. The field testing I did in the COEF last year was with the kilt on. Love it.

Just the whole band of velcro can be snaggy but it is a monster bargain. Put the flap behind the left knee for best effect-doesn’t blow open in very strong wind! Below is part of a review I did for it on an Ozzie bushwalking site amost exactly  a year ago. Some feedback you will notice, should you read the comments after the review, your waist-(natural) should not be over 100 cms or you will struggle to get it on and have adequate coverage.

http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=27532

Yes, highly recommended from me also.

Viva Scotia.

[Richard Nisley]

• My previously used rain skirt was a blue ULA (Large) at 3.065 oz. My HH lab-test was only 700 mm when received and so I had to recoat it (3/1 MS/silicone caulk) prior to its first use. It kept me dry but the non-adjustable elastic waist prevented it from optimally serving double duty as a rectangular ground cloth.

[Matthew / BPL]

“this is the highest quality 15 denier ripstop silnylon that I have tested.”

”the garment sewing is flawless”

Wow! I would not have expected that.

/Ultralight seems very enthusiastic about 3F products. I assumed they were the knockoffs that Ron Bell shows failing in his HH tester and tear tests.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I have a ULA rain skirt. Works great, but it is always too warm when I wear it. I guess the advantage of the one shown above is that it’s a wrap-around so it will allow for a wider stride. It also looks like it will lay flat and thus serve dual purpose as a small ground sheet you could use to put stuff on if needed.

Oh to have a 24″ waist, though. Wouldn’t that be nice?

[Matthew / BPL]

I modified my ULA skirt so that I can relax the tension and lay it flat. It wasn’t very hard to do with my mom’s help. :)

100cm = 40” not 24”

39.37” I suppose is more accurate…

[Ralph Burgess]

Thanks so much for this work Richard.   I would have been dubious without your test, but I love the look of the design.  No messing with a zipper, and the overlapping wraparound should give enough mobility while covering the knees.

[Stumphges]

Richard, is the fabric of the silicone outer, PU inner type?

I have 3F UL’s hexagonal pyramid shelter (SL3 clone) made with 15d fabric that is silicone/PU. I have no complaints about this shelter, although I’ve never seen an original SL3.

3F UL is doing some interesting things with XPAC fabric of late.

[Matthew / BPL]

Any thoughts on this video Ron from MLD just posted?

[JCH]

Personally, I would not buy any of the “imitation” Chinese shelters to which Ron is referring.  Many reasons for that decision, not the least of which is I choose to not reward theft of IP.

However, in the case of this rain skirt, the design is generic enough to alleviate those fears.  Further, I’m not convinced that tear strength is of key importance in a rain skirt.  For me HH is the principal issue in this application, and the 3F product appears to excel in that regard.

[Tom V]

If Ron is referring to the Lanshan, I really can’t think of a tent that it is imitating. It doesn’t have an off-set ridgeline like the Haven and it’s double walled unlike the duplex. That being said, I’ve seen several tents that blatant ripoffs of his trailstar and and duomid.

[Brad Rogers]

There are certainly Chinese cheap mids available, I’m not sure if you can really call a mid a knock off though, I mean I guess everyone is knocking off Hemiunu’s original design.

MLD, Locus Gear, HMG – all “premium” brands with very similar mids.

Now a knock off of a Trailstar or a more complex design is probably more an issue of intellectual property theft.

That being said, I’ve always thought the Tarptent Scarp and Hilleberg Atko (Hilleberg existed first) looked very similar, as well as the Tarptent Moment and Hilleberg Enon (Tarptent existed first).  Of course you have to be careful as the Durston X-Mid looks very similar at first glance to a Tarptent Statospire 1 but in reality is quite different.

 

[Zachary T]

It doesn’t appear that this 3UL rain kilt has any means of securing the two flaps at the bottom of the kilt. Do you think that this is something you would add (velcro strips or a button snap)?

I don’t have any experience with rain kilts, so curious how this would perform in winds without means to secure the bottom together.

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