Ray Jardine

[ASH]

Has anyone looked at the Ray Way products that he seels on his website.
I am interested in lightening my pack and would also like a lighter pack.
I have looked at commercial products all of which have a nice price tag.

The Ray Way packs are actually kits for you to make at home and as a result are very reasonably priced.

These packs are only suitable as part of a lightweight system so make sure that it is the right type of product for you (read his website & other light weight walking sights for reviews).

This is not the same as the golite packs designed by Ray although very similar in ethos & style/weight.

Ray's website states that their are discounts for larger orders which will help pay for delivery charges.

If anyone is interested in making their own pack then this might be the option for you.

Has anyone made one of these kits? If so what were your thoughts on it?


To cut short my ramblings if we have 10 or more interested then this might be worth while.

 

[Aliwren]

link to web page?

 

[HERBz]

http://www.rayjardine.com/

there you go.

 

[Huon]

link to web page?

Google?

http://www.rayjardine.com

 

[hammock monkey]

i have a newish bag already, but otherwise i'd be interested.
There is a huge ovelap between what ray and chris townsend do and bushcraft yet the two types of people barely acknowledge each other in my experience.
There's a lot each could learn from the other in my view, their principles are essentiall very similar.

 

[litefoot]

I have made one,lets put it like this,the A4 instructions wiegh more than the materials that also come in the envelope.They are a very light bag to start with,but you have to go very light with rest of your kit as this is no 100 litre monster.
Making it was ok for me as I had warmed up by making the quilt he sells,but if you are new to sewing you may find it a bit tricky as it is quite fiddly in places.
I have used mine for backpacking trips and it more than copes,I use a bigger bag for my bushcrafty trips as I tend to carry all the usual cutting tools and assorted stuff for which there is no room in a RayWay pack.
Litefoot.

 

[ASH]

Litefoot,

How much weight do you carry in your pack. I am currently down to a base weight of 8kg with 2kg of food/water. However I have identified at least 2kg of weight savings (three if I use a ray way pack) This would bring my base weight down to 6kg.

Would this be an appropriate amount of weight for this pack.

Thanks for your comments so far!

 

[ASH]

It is good to see that I am not the only one to see the obvious links between the somewhat seperate communities of Survival/bushcraft/ultralight.

 

[Lithril]

I saw one of his bags the other day and they're well made. I've just bought a GoLite Jam (managed to get one half price). Nice pack very light (about 600g) and because its made of ripstop dyneema its strong, carried it for 2 days in Dartmoor couple of weekends ago and was quite impressed. Unfortunatley the key to making the biggest adjustments in weight tend to be the most expensive (sack, shelter and sleeping bag). Its something I'm working heavily on as I'm hoping to do the Cape Wrath trail in the near future.

Matt

 

[litefoot]

Tha Jardine bag is made to accomodate 2 bags that fit inside the rucksack.The quilt set up that they use has a stuff sack, and the rucksack is exactly the right size to fit the quilt in the stuff sack and another stuff sack of the same size on top of that with your other stuff in.One of the reasons for the Jardines being able to go so light is that it is physically impossible to fit loads of stuff in this bag,smaller bag,less clutter,less wieght.
It sounds as though you have got your pack wieght down to the point where you could use one these smaller,lighter packs.As has been mentioned already the Golite bags have had input from Jardine at some point and are worth a look at if you do not want to sew it yourself.
Just a word on the kit,it comes with very good instructions,but it would be daunting if you had never sewn before.The material with the kit is completly uncut so a good deal of time has to be spent cutting the component parts to the right size and shape before firing it through the sewing machine.I say this not to put you off,but so you know what you would be letting yourself in for when the A 4 envelope drops on your mat and upon opening it you say to yourself "is that it,where`s the rest of it".That is it ,and the rest is down to you.Good luck.
PS It`s made from light wieght material as you can imagine and is very slippery to get through the sewing machine,if this is your first sewing project I would advize getting used to how your machine works with some material you can have a practice with before starting on the kit .
Litefoot.

 

[wentworth]

I've made his quilt and quilt stuffsack, both good products

 

[ASH]

Thanks for your comments folks.

I will close this group buy now.

ASH