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- Apr 20, 2001
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Good to hear, I've tried Gatorade ones, but not the Aquafina. I had one brand of bottled water that did split at the seam, but it was one of those real off brand dollar store ones.
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Lightweight Cheap Gear Alternatives
- Thread starter bearthedog
- Start date
Good to hear, I've tried Gatorade ones, but not the Aquafina. I had one brand of bottled water that did split at the seam, but it was one of those real off brand dollar store ones.
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
Okay, a couple of detractor comments that are meant to be constructive, but from past experience.
Aluminum cans - I went through a phase of using supercat stoves and aluminum can pots until one dayhike I put my pack down and sat on it crushing both of them. Rick Marchand told me of the story while using his more substantive coffee can billy how it burned through on him out in the middle of the bush. If there is one thing it sucks to be without in the bush is a decent pot. I had and liked my titanium pot set but lost it in an unfortunate accident. As much as I liked it, I never felt the urge to replace it given the cost. I now go with SS billies, the heavier zebra pot variety are heavy and more recently I started using lighter (but still far more robust) commercial aluminum pots of the hard anodized variety. I've decided owning a pot that was designed to be a pot is a good investment. The hard anodized Al puts seem like a good compromise of weight and price.
Water bottles. I agree that basic water bottles from vendors are great and I use them frequently. However, I still go to nalgene and wide-mouth ones for a couple of different reasons. Nalgene plastic bottles are of excellent quality for snuggling with in cold weather. Fill it up with boiling water, it doesn't deform and there is enough insulation value that the walls of the plastic do not scald your skin. That insulation value also seems to contribute to a certain longevity of heat retention. So I really like a plastic nalgene for cold weather when snuggling the water hot water bottle is an anticipated activity. The other thing is that the wide-mouth bottles work with my water filter so in part I have a certain commitment to standard water bottles as an accessory to other items. Lastly, I found some $7 SS knockoff widemouth water bottles that I've been using in summer. They are far lighter than the Nalgene/goyot ones. Probably less robust, but more so than a plastic variety. They work great as billy pots for boiling water (but too hot to snuggle with). So I switch between the SS and plastic ones between summer and winter. The SS-one coupled with a bottle cup provides both water storage and cooking solution. I wouldn't try to cook food in the SS water bottle, but it is great for boiling water and then using the SS-cup for actual cooking of food. The SS-cup + knockoff SS water bottle is $15 for both and cheaper then lets say a $27 nalgene SS one.
The main weakness of the knock-off SS one is the cap. I dropped mine on pavement and the plastic cap split in two. This of course had to happen at the beginning of my trip not at the end (literally as I was getting out of the car). I managed to get a leaky seal duct taping the lid together. Fortunately, I have a pile of old BPA-containing nalgenes at home and was able to sub one of the original and more robust caps for it.
Tinder - I agree that raiding the wife's make-up remover kit is great. She's always got cotton balls around and I like stuffing them into the Wendy's straws making some fire straws to stow away as emergency kit. Dryer Lint - I've had mixed success because it depends on what is being dried. If the material is cotton it is great, but lots of times there is a lot of synthetics in there that don't burn so good. So be aware of that if you are including it as emergency tinder in your kit.
Other cheap things. I posted this elsewhere, but I was surprised at the common variety blue-poly tarps in how compact you can get them when you get them sized smaller then the big tarps most people buy these in. This 6' x 8' tarp weighs a couple of grams less than my 5' x 7' emergency blanket and packs to a smaller volume. Now, it isn't tyvex, but this new blue polytarp cost me $4 at the local hardware store. A great piece of kit that is often over-looked because its just soooooo conventional.
Aluminum cans - I went through a phase of using supercat stoves and aluminum can pots until one dayhike I put my pack down and sat on it crushing both of them. Rick Marchand told me of the story while using his more substantive coffee can billy how it burned through on him out in the middle of the bush. If there is one thing it sucks to be without in the bush is a decent pot. I had and liked my titanium pot set but lost it in an unfortunate accident. As much as I liked it, I never felt the urge to replace it given the cost. I now go with SS billies, the heavier zebra pot variety are heavy and more recently I started using lighter (but still far more robust) commercial aluminum pots of the hard anodized variety. I've decided owning a pot that was designed to be a pot is a good investment. The hard anodized Al puts seem like a good compromise of weight and price.
Water bottles. I agree that basic water bottles from vendors are great and I use them frequently. However, I still go to nalgene and wide-mouth ones for a couple of different reasons. Nalgene plastic bottles are of excellent quality for snuggling with in cold weather. Fill it up with boiling water, it doesn't deform and there is enough insulation value that the walls of the plastic do not scald your skin. That insulation value also seems to contribute to a certain longevity of heat retention. So I really like a plastic nalgene for cold weather when snuggling the water hot water bottle is an anticipated activity. The other thing is that the wide-mouth bottles work with my water filter so in part I have a certain commitment to standard water bottles as an accessory to other items. Lastly, I found some $7 SS knockoff widemouth water bottles that I've been using in summer. They are far lighter than the Nalgene/goyot ones. Probably less robust, but more so than a plastic variety. They work great as billy pots for boiling water (but too hot to snuggle with). So I switch between the SS and plastic ones between summer and winter. The SS-one coupled with a bottle cup provides both water storage and cooking solution. I wouldn't try to cook food in the SS water bottle, but it is great for boiling water and then using the SS-cup for actual cooking of food. The SS-cup + knockoff SS water bottle is $15 for both and cheaper then lets say a $27 nalgene SS one.
The main weakness of the knock-off SS one is the cap. I dropped mine on pavement and the plastic cap split in two. This of course had to happen at the beginning of my trip not at the end (literally as I was getting out of the car). I managed to get a leaky seal duct taping the lid together. Fortunately, I have a pile of old BPA-containing nalgenes at home and was able to sub one of the original and more robust caps for it.
Tinder - I agree that raiding the wife's make-up remover kit is great. She's always got cotton balls around and I like stuffing them into the Wendy's straws making some fire straws to stow away as emergency kit. Dryer Lint - I've had mixed success because it depends on what is being dried. If the material is cotton it is great, but lots of times there is a lot of synthetics in there that don't burn so good. So be aware of that if you are including it as emergency tinder in your kit.
Other cheap things. I posted this elsewhere, but I was surprised at the common variety blue-poly tarps in how compact you can get them when you get them sized smaller then the big tarps most people buy these in. This 6' x 8' tarp weighs a couple of grams less than my 5' x 7' emergency blanket and packs to a smaller volume. Now, it isn't tyvex, but this new blue polytarp cost me $4 at the local hardware store. A great piece of kit that is often over-looked because its just soooooo conventional.
Right now Dollar Tree has aluminum water bottles which are pretty good and they have a plastic sheet that can be used to waterproof a shelter and a ball of cotton twine that would come in handy add a 3pk of lighters or the long reach lighter that and all the food and other odds and ends includeing batterys and flashlights make it possible to equip a decent kit for less than 10bux.