Buzzbait
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2001
- Messages
- 6,781
Here's a little project I've been working on. It's sort of a makeshift bottle sling.
I've been doing lots of short hikes with my daughter lately, and lugging along my Guyot Standard, filled with either tomato soup or hot chocolate. I replaced the cap with a Human Gear capCAP, which makes sipping much easier. I've been using a Nalgene Cool Stuff neoprene cozy to keep the liquid warm. The cozy insulates well enough for the short trips, but really isn't very good for this purpose. You have to hold the bottle by the capCAP's attachment loop the whole time, and the neoprene isn't really durable enough for extended ground contact.
A took a close look at the Maxpedition 10 X 4 bottle folder, but decided against it. The attachment points, insulation and accessory pocket were very cool, but I didn't like the zipper closure. Viewing hydration as a huge factor in outdoor survival, it just doesn't make sense to me, to make the liquid so hard to access. You have to unzip the pouch, pull out the bottle, take a sip, put the bottle back in the pouch, and zipper it back up again. That doesn't exactly promote hydration. And in my use, with my daughter wanting a sip of soup every 2 minutes, the 10 X 4 just wouldn't be practical.
So I grabbed an old Maxpedition Mini Rolly Poly out of the garage. I had it left over from an old pack setup. The fit was very good with the Guyot. The problem was insulation. In the end, I ended up lining the Rolly Poly with some of the German towel stuff. It's pretty much the same stuff as Vince's ShamWow towel, but I bought the cheap version at a job lot store.
I figured that the ShamWow would do a great a job of absorbing condensation on the outside of the bottle, and also help to insulate it. The ShamWow should also have some great uses on the trail, for pulling moisture out of clothing and such, and for cleaning up messes. Lots of possibilities.
The only problem was putting the whole thing together. The fit was just a tad tight, so when inserting the bottle into the pouch, the Shamwow would get pushed down into the bottom of the RollyPoly, and just get bunched up. In the end, the wife broke out the sewing machine for me, and sewed the ShamWow into a cozy with a round side and sewn in bottom. Now I can insert the bottle into the ShamWow, and just push the whole thing down into the bottle.
Here's the final product, with an added nylon sling from an old laptop bag:
I tried out the rig today and it worked quite well. Accessibility to the hot chocolate was excellent. My hands were free while hiking. The liquid stayed reasonably warm. It's a good rugged setup. All in all, it was a success.
I only wish that the insulation was a bit better. I talked to my father-in-law tonight, and he suggested lining the pouch was some of that mylar space blanket material. That will take some thinking on how to do it properly, but it could do the trick? Any good ideas for improvements?
I've been doing lots of short hikes with my daughter lately, and lugging along my Guyot Standard, filled with either tomato soup or hot chocolate. I replaced the cap with a Human Gear capCAP, which makes sipping much easier. I've been using a Nalgene Cool Stuff neoprene cozy to keep the liquid warm. The cozy insulates well enough for the short trips, but really isn't very good for this purpose. You have to hold the bottle by the capCAP's attachment loop the whole time, and the neoprene isn't really durable enough for extended ground contact.
A took a close look at the Maxpedition 10 X 4 bottle folder, but decided against it. The attachment points, insulation and accessory pocket were very cool, but I didn't like the zipper closure. Viewing hydration as a huge factor in outdoor survival, it just doesn't make sense to me, to make the liquid so hard to access. You have to unzip the pouch, pull out the bottle, take a sip, put the bottle back in the pouch, and zipper it back up again. That doesn't exactly promote hydration. And in my use, with my daughter wanting a sip of soup every 2 minutes, the 10 X 4 just wouldn't be practical.
So I grabbed an old Maxpedition Mini Rolly Poly out of the garage. I had it left over from an old pack setup. The fit was very good with the Guyot. The problem was insulation. In the end, I ended up lining the Rolly Poly with some of the German towel stuff. It's pretty much the same stuff as Vince's ShamWow towel, but I bought the cheap version at a job lot store.
I figured that the ShamWow would do a great a job of absorbing condensation on the outside of the bottle, and also help to insulate it. The ShamWow should also have some great uses on the trail, for pulling moisture out of clothing and such, and for cleaning up messes. Lots of possibilities.
The only problem was putting the whole thing together. The fit was just a tad tight, so when inserting the bottle into the pouch, the Shamwow would get pushed down into the bottom of the RollyPoly, and just get bunched up. In the end, the wife broke out the sewing machine for me, and sewed the ShamWow into a cozy with a round side and sewn in bottom. Now I can insert the bottle into the ShamWow, and just push the whole thing down into the bottle.
Here's the final product, with an added nylon sling from an old laptop bag:
I tried out the rig today and it worked quite well. Accessibility to the hot chocolate was excellent. My hands were free while hiking. The liquid stayed reasonably warm. It's a good rugged setup. All in all, it was a success.
I only wish that the insulation was a bit better. I talked to my father-in-law tonight, and he suggested lining the pouch was some of that mylar space blanket material. That will take some thinking on how to do it properly, but it could do the trick? Any good ideas for improvements?
