Zipping together matching WM bags of mismatched length?

[Golly G. Willikers]

My girlfriend and I are looking at a pair of matching Western Mountaineering sleeping bags (Versalite). She needs a short and I need a medium, but we want to zip the bags together most of the time. Looking for advice or experiences with zipping together bags that are different length, but otherwise compatible.

Do the bags zip together from the top down, just leaving a longer foot box for the taller occupant? Or do the foot boxes meet together and result in an uneven opening? Thanks.

[Gary Dunckel]

I’m fairly sure that the foot will be even. and that the different lengths will be at the head end. Then you will decide whether you want the longer length to be on the top (which I recommend) and the shorter bag on the bottom. Keep in mind that the baffle for the zipper on one side will be upside down, which could create a slight draft or cold spot for the person sleeping on that side. With the quality lofty down of the WM bags this should not be a huge problem. Why don’t you go to a store that sells WM bags and try it out there?

The other thing you might consider is to buy a WM ‘summer coupler’ for the longer bag. This is intended to be a sort of bottom sheet to use with one bag in mild summer conditions. You fully unzip the bag and then re-zip it to the coupler sheet. This works pretty well for my WM Ponderosa, which is a 15 degree barrel-shaped bag. We once spent a very comfortable +40* F night using the coupler. I don’t know if WM makes different summer couplers for different bags, or whether they even offer them anymore. I bought mine over 10 years ago.

[Golly G. Willikers]

Thanks very much for your reply, Gary.

From your description, it sounds like one bag forms the top and the other the bottom. For some reason, I was thinking that the bags would preserve the orientation they normally have as single bags, with the ‘hoods’ flat on the bottom (hence why choosing L and R zips for his/her bags). I could be mistaken…?

I would like to pop into a shop and try them out (a store in my hometown actually carries many of WM’s bags in stock!), but currently we are travelling in countries that don’t have them available. We’re doing some shopping online, then shipping stuff out to our location in a few weeks.

Thank you for the idea of the coupler, although I think this does not work with bags of a hooded design.

[Gary Dunckel]

Whoops…you are likely correct about the hooded bags. I’m not familiar with the Versalite. The Ponderosa I mentioned is a semi-rectangular barrel-shaped bag, with no hood. I’ll bet that the summer coupler will only work with that type of bag. Sorry…

So now the question is whether a LH and RH zip will connect. I think some of Marmot’s bags are intended to do so, but I’m not sure about the WM bags. It might be best for you to just send Western Mountaineering an e-mail about this. Maybe some of their bags will zip together and others won’t. WM can give you an accurate answer.

[David Thomas]

I’ve done this a lot, both vocationally (working in a backpacking store) and recreationally.

If the two zippers are the same type (e.g. YKK#5), it works.  You start them both at the bottom.  As a result, the feet line up and bags of different lengths will have the hoods at different points (better for playing footsie than kissing).

Even if you have a RH and a RH, they will still zip together, but someone will get the hood over their face instead of under their head (creating a relationship extinction-level event akin to asking your partner to take the spigot-end of the bath tub).

But you’re remote.  Send a pic of the zipper, alongside a ruler or dollar bill or pound note (so they can count teeth/inch and see the style of the teeth) and someone should be able to confirm another bag has the same zipper.  Also, look closely at the zipper pull.  It will say “YKK” all over it (my MTC jacket zipper pull says it in four places), but look for a number like 5 or 7 my jacket zipper pull has on the slider, in small print, “5GNG”.  YKK is the company that makes almost all the zippers.  The number is the size.

Heavy-weight bags tended to have larger-sized zippers.  Medium-weight bags get medium zippers, etc. So a manufacture might not use the same zipper across their whole product line, but bags of the same or similar model usually have the same zipper and therefore can be joined.

[Roger Caffin]

H David

YKK is the company that makes almost all the zippers.
Not really. They are indeed a big name in the game, and much respected, but there are MANY other good brands on the market (eg riri). Some of them seem to be just as reliable in my experience. The long zips on my tents and packs are not YKK, and they have lasted for many years.

Cheers

[Cameron M]

I have zipped up mis-matching lengths and models of WM bags. Yes, they align at the footboxes. In practice no problem.

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