sleeping bag dry storage

How do you pack your sleeping bag into your kayak hatch and keep it dry?

If I fold it over and roll it up as designed it is to big to get in a hatch and/or it takes up to much space.

I would like to roll it into a long cylinder shape (4-5’)that would fit in the storage compartment end to end but I haven’t seen any dry bag shaped like that.

Thanks for any clever ideas.



BTW, it is a 17’10" Legend (Nigel Foster design-Walden Sports)

one suggestion
is to use compression dry bag

Say this one “Sea to Summit Event Compression Dry Sack”

I am not endorsing this particular product, just giving you ideas.


i havn’t tried his but
i am told that you put the empty compression-bag into the hatch, then force the bag throught the hatch into the bag.



i have a flat dry-bag with an air-valve so i pack my sleeping-bag into that bag, sit on it to flatten and seal.

then i strap the bag to my deck.

Rolling it doesn’t compress well

– Last Updated: Nov-04-11 4:20 PM EST –

From what you said about the bag "being designed" to fold in half and roll up like a cowboy's bedding, you have a car-camping style of bag. Too bulky. If I'm wrong about the bag style, try stuffing instead of rolling.

Backpacker-type sleeping bags compress better if stuffed. And the thing to stuff into is a compression dry bag with a valve, like the one someone else referenced.

Start squeezing out air right from the very end of the bag and keep pressure on it as you go. Roll and seal over the drybag top, and THEN use the valve to get even more air/volume out as you kneel on the bag.

If this sucked-in, compressed bundle is still too big for your hatch opening, you can try the above with the dry bag already partly in the hatch. If even that doesn't work, you need either a more compressible bag insulation material or a bigger hatch opening.

I switched to a down bag. Like night and day for ease of compression!

Exactly what kind of bag?
Granted our sleeping bags are just 3 season like the tent, but they are fairly much the norm for current middle of the road sleeping bags. Lightweight material for the cover with some variation of hollofill, and each came with a fairly small bag into which we stuff them. We use compression caps as well - but even without the compression caps my husband’s long bag wouldn’t come close to taking up the kind of room you describe.



Agree with pikabike - it sounds like the issue may be your bag, not the boat. What kind is it and what is the filling?

What kind of bag do you have?
What kind of bag do you have? It sounds pretty bulky.



To pack my sleeping bag, I stuff it into a dry sack. Rolling it takes too much time and is too hard to deal with. Stuffing it is the way to go.

stuff bag, roll pad
I use a bag that is stuffed into a dry bag. I have also upgraded my bag to be one that is very small (though also barely 3 season).



My sleeping pad, on the other hand, is rolled. It was meant to be folded in half length-wive and then rolled, but I skip the hold in half. It fits well at the bow of either of my boats.



Some of the brit boats out there use round hatches. A boat with the larger oval hatches is better, but the larger oval hatches have a better chance of leaking.

I use an OR compression dry bag

– Last Updated: Nov-04-11 8:17 PM EST –

Its adaptable to being a long sausage or a short fat thing.

In the sausage mode it fits through the 8 inch diameter Valley hatch. Then it gets shoved up front. (Put a string on it to pull it back toward the hatch)

Known now as the Outdoor Research Airpurge Dry Compression Sack.

http://www.outdoorresearch.com/en/or-gear/accessories/storage/airpurge-dry-comprssn-sack-10l.html

You have to keep a sleeping bag compressed otherwise once forced through the hole the filling will loft.

Yes we use down bags that really can compress small. Its quite fun to watch someone try and stuff a Coleman camping bag into a Valley hatch.

All the others are spot on…
still- if your sleeping just can’t be stuffed into a dry bag or small compression sack, there is still a way… clean your hatch so nothing will piece the storage bags, then get some high quality (thick) trashbags.Take two and insert one inside the other. Place them inside your largest hatch, feed the sleeping bag in and seal it inside the inner trashbag. Then seal the outer trash bag.



This way is a bit of a pain to stow your gear but plenty of people have used to get by until they get a more compressible sleeping bag. Good luck and enjoy the trip.

Wet sleeping bag is a bad thing
I obsessive and compulsive about keeping my bag dry on a trip. In some situations it can be life or death. Personally, I would not trust trash bags - even thick ones. I know people do get by with them - but a good reliable dry bag (or even better two) is definitely worth the price.

long dry bag
I found an 8" dia. by 24"(?) dry bag. I stuff my sleeping bag into it and use compression straps to tighten enough so that it fits easily into the hatch.

Dry bag with purge valve
Follow the link for a nice discussion of sea kayak packing, including quite a bit of information on packing sleeping bags. Dry bags with purge valves or compression dry bags like Sea to Summit’s eVent compression dry sacks work well. Personally, I would not risk the chance of an uncomfortable or worse night by relying on the use of plastic garbage bags. Appropriate sized dry bags are not that expensive.



http://www.kayakacademy.com/pages/tips/packing.html



~wetzool

Different bag
I would look at a different bag that can be compressed smaller. My wife and I have down bags (Mountain Hardwear Phantom 32) that we use that end up the size of a nalgene bottle. I then put the stuff sack in a garbage bag and then it goes into a dry bag. That way the bag is double bagged and offers more protection to it so it doesn’t get wet.

You need a different bag…
Good backpacking sleeping bags come with a properly sized stuff sack. This can be put into an appropriately sized compression sack and it and it will compress down to about the size of a football.



If you are paddle camping in cold weather, you will want to wear insulating layers to bed to supplement your bag.

Bow/stern drybags
Sea to Summit and Seal Line both make tapered drybags designed to fit in the bow or stern of your kayak. Try Campmor.

sleeping bag goes into dry bag
dry bag does into kayak. Maybe you have the wrong kind of sleeping bag to fit into a kayak.

Sleeping bag suggestion
Here’s a sleeping bag that has the best of all worlds: light (2 lbs), large for comfort, and very compressible:

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/48813?page=llbean-goose-down-sleeping-bag-semi-rectangular-35



That bag easily fits in a medium drybag.



I manage to stuff my sleeping bag, tent, mattress, and folding seat all into the front portion of the rear hatch. They take up about 14" of space, maybe about 1/4 to 1/3 of the rear hatch. That’s what you can do with lightweight, compressible equipment.



Admittedly those items aren’t cheap, but if you camp a lot they’re worth it.

thanks
I didn’t state it very well but I was hoping to find a long skinny stuff sack. 48" to 54" long and 6" round.

I would rather the bag take up horizontal space from end to end of the compartment and not take up as much vertical space.

closest I can find
9.5" diameter by 38" long. Just guessing if you stuff it with a bag and sit on it to let the air out you’ll have something about 5" thick by 10" wide and 34" long.



http://www.nrsweb.com/shop/product.asp?pfid=2940&pdeptid=1630

The longest …
I’ve seen is the Seal Line Taper 35 long. It’s 40" long and tapers from 5.5" at the narrow end to 11" at the roll closure end. It also has a purge valve.