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Rucksack cover or drybags?

Rucksack cover or drybags?


Postby coachmacca » Sun Apr 21, 2013 4:03 pm

Hey all just keen to get your preferences - I recently started using small multi coloured dry bags to pack my gear inside my pack and its great but there is extra "faff" at times.

Heading into what the Meteorological boffins call Spring and something they refer to as Summer I was thinking about ditching all the wee bags and just carrying a cover should I really need it for the whole pack.

Are they any good? Do they just create a sail for wind to pluck you off a mountain and carry you over an edge? Do they just end up trapping water Inside the pack etc...

Does anyone just use 1 big dry bag as a liner inside their pack? (I did for a while and seemed to do the job) except for kit in top pockets etc

For single days we just use a 25L pack , winter its 45L and for multi day camping I'll have a 65L and will probably still use internal dry bags to make sure..... so anyone with any comment welcome.
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby Rudolph » Sun Apr 21, 2013 4:34 pm

Have tried a rucksac cover but never quite got on with it.It always seemd to be making itself difficult by
1) stopping me getting to those pockets which contained the 'wanted on voyage' stuff (snacks, gloves, waterproofs etc.)
2) Flapping about so that I wasn't convinced it would keep the stuff dry I really needed

I was too disorganised to use a single large drybag inside the rucksack - could never find anything.

So i'm back to using the light alpkit drybags to hold the stuff I really need to keep dry (4l bag for batteries, matches etc. and 8l for spare clothes, down jacket and sleeping bag. It's worked so far. The advantage of using the small drybags for down is that it acts as a compression sack to keep the packed size down
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby bootsandpaddles » Sun Apr 21, 2013 5:41 pm

I agree. Dry bags are the way to go. I had a rucksack cover once but it blew away :lol: I wasn't sorry because it just got in the way of getting things in and out of the rucksack.
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby andyfitz » Sun Apr 21, 2013 6:06 pm

I used a cover until one particularly foul day on Ben More (Mull) last November. It blew away and was last seen heading for Arbroath. Don't miss it. As Rudolph has indicated they cover pockets you need access to for water / snacks etc. Dry bags - or indeed poly bags - are the future!
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby RockyRab » Sun Apr 21, 2013 6:54 pm

I own both but I only ever use my rucksack cover over a small day trip bag when milling about in the city, they tend to annoy me too much on the hill. Every time I stop to take something out they get in the way and I've had a lot of water collect in the bottom of one after a day of really heavy rain.

I use loads of little drybags because otherwise I'd never find anything, I did toy with the idea of using a big liner with lots of smaller ones but I find the individual bags keeps things perfectly dry as they are.
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby coachmacca » Sun Apr 21, 2013 8:51 pm

Aye thats it decided then I'm sticking with dry bags ;-)
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby The Rodmiester » Sun Apr 21, 2013 9:53 pm

coachmacca wrote:Aye thats it decided then I'm sticking with dry bags ;-)


Count me in for another vote, Dry Bags anytime. I cannot imagine the noise a rucksack cover would make in the wind, it would do my head in! , not only that the faffing about gaining access to the rucksack, nightmare. :crazy:
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby weaselmaster » Tue Apr 23, 2013 8:28 am

I use a big drysack inside the rucksac and about 4 smaller drysacks inside that for assorted bits of kit.
If I'm out overnight I just take a big black bin-bag - one of the thicker ones - and shove the rucksack inside that to keep it dry overnight as my tent doesn't have much space to keep it inside. :(
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby whiteburn » Tue Apr 23, 2013 11:25 am

Tried a rucksack cover years ago and after suffering drenched rucksack contents chucked it, a waste of money unless you just go out in drizzle!
Used the roll top dry bags from various makes for a while and now have lots of leaky ones, I reckon they only last 1 year!
Only thing that I find reliable is a heavy gauge poly bag at the base of the rucksack to put the sleeping bag (in its dry bag, I’m cautious!) and spare clothes etc. inside; cheap and reliable.
Small stuff like electronics, 1st aid kit, etc. get packed in aLoksaks, the rest can get wet.
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby rabthecairnterrier » Tue Apr 23, 2013 12:41 pm

I have a couple of drybags for small items (camera's etc.) but generally rely on rubble sacks from the hardware shop - cheap, and strong enough to last a few trips. Not so many pretty colours though!
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby Phil the Hill » Tue Apr 23, 2013 1:37 pm

I just use an old dishwasher salt bag to line the rucksack and various plastic shopping bags for the stuff in pockets.

I was looking at the various multicoloured drybags in Cotswold yesterday, but couldn't really see the need. If you need them to organize all your stuff, you're probably carrying too much stuff. They might help keep your kit drier in a really torrential downpour, but if the weather was that bad I wouldn't go backpacking or would turn back anyway. Maybe for when I go for a smaller pack and strap stuff to the outside they'd be better than a plastic bag or bin bag to wrap it in.
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby Glencoe Keith » Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:47 pm

Drybag liner and dry bags here too. Seems like a consensus on this one!

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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby Johnny Corbett » Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:22 pm

I also use a drybag but occasionally take it out if i head out on a nice day as i cant be bothered at times opening firstly the rucksack and then the inner bag. The downside of the outer cover is when you have an ice-axe attached, it doesn't go on properly. :?
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby RockyRab » Tue Apr 23, 2013 4:54 pm

Phil the Hill wrote:I was looking at the various multicoloured drybags in Cotswold yesterday, but couldn't really see the need. If you need them to organize all your stuff, you're probably carrying too much stuff. They might help keep your kit drier in a really torrential downpour, but if the weather was that bad I wouldn't go backpacking or would turn back anyway. Maybe for when I go for a smaller pack and strap stuff to the outside they'd be better than a plastic bag or bin bag to wrap it in.


Why should anybody else get to decide how much stuff is too much? Surely that is up to the individual rather than anyone else. When I'm working I need to carry loads of equipment and instruments and having smaller bags to keep things in is great.
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Re: Rucksack cover or drybags?

Postby Rudolph » Tue Apr 23, 2013 5:04 pm

RockyRab wrote:Why should anybody else get to decide how much stuff is too much?


The debate as to how much is too much comes up now and again. I find it a useful prompt as to whether the stuff I carry up and down is really neccessary. Some people seem to get away with far less than others and are probably just as safe.

There is certainly some learning in that for me.
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