View Full Version : Rucksack Raincover
Hello I'm looking for a rain cover for my Web-tex PLCE 3/4 size, know of somewhere i can buy one?
TheViking
03-10-2004, 17:04
Instead of buying all my stuff, I try to make it myself. :wink: I just use a black garbage bag, with some holes for the shoulder strops. The holes are reinforced with duct tape. :biggthump
I know my shop sells them. You can find a lot of rucksacks actually have them hidden! But your best bet would be your local outdoors shop.
Squidders
03-10-2004, 18:11
Young bushman, I wouldn't use a bin liner as you'll just end up throwing lots of them away and that's:
a. bad economy
b. environmentally unsound
Webtex do make them and you can see the item at:
http://www.web-tex.co.uk/accessories_webbing.asp?ProdID =329
On their site, they have a list of stockists who will be able to order in one or provide one to you mail order.
Cheers
Joe
Paganwolf
03-10-2004, 19:17
Camping and general in canvey island does them.. :wink:
beachlover
03-10-2004, 19:19
They are only environmentally unsound if you dump them all over the place, unless you are someone who thinks that they are unsound cos they are plastic and fundamentally unsound. In which case our use of them as rucsac covers is negligible in the worldview of things.
In terms of cost they are negligible compared to retail stuff.
Squidders
03-10-2004, 19:29
They are only environmentally unsound if you dump them all over the place, unless you are someone who thinks that they are unsound cos they are plastic and fundamentally unsound. In which case our use of them as rucsac covers is negligible in the worldview of things.
In terms of cost they are negligible compared to retail stuff.
Well, I doubt anyone on this forum would be dumping bin bags all over the countryside but flimsy bags like that are going to have bits torn off of them by simply putting the bag down, brushing past branches and bits will fall off and fly away. I agree, it's not a big problem like dumping thousands of barrels of crude oil into the ocean but it's still wasteful and damaging.
As for the cost, yes, binbags are cheaper and more redily available than 3/4 size bergen covers but you're going to get through them like hot cakes and then there's the gaffa tape re-enforcement and it just seemed like more agro than it's worth.
Camping and general in canvey island does them.. :wink:
oohhh I went there the other day, I'll have to cross over into the forbidden lands and visit it again. :wink:
Best rucksack covers I have are from these guys: http://www.sasskit.co.uk/ ... they are excellent quality and double as emergency shelters.
why not just ger a rucksack liner.. or a large drybag.. put it inside your backpak and put you kit in that.. and just let your backpack get wet..
the propblem with those rain covers, or bugs as they are called.. are often a bright colour, which sticks out like a numb thumb in the woods!
Try your local Blacks. They do a coupe of brand in various sizes. I just got one that goes up to 45L for my two smaller sacks and a 75L for my main sack.
They cost between £5 & £8 IIRC.
Id go for making sure that all your kit was water proofed inside your ruck sack first and not to worry about the ruck sack getting wet. Bin bags as mentioned are to thin and don't last five minutes. You can buy really thick black bags from Builders merchants for putting building rubble in . Cheap as chips(20p) and accompanied with a thick elastic band is as good as any shop dry bag.
I am with Tomtom, in the army we always used garbage bags as liners for our packs. You can put your clothing in one bag and your sleep system in another and then pack them inside your pack out of harms way that way it doesn't matter what the weather does and as a plus you can still access the outer pockets to get at your food, water or in a soldiers case ammunition.
I've had rain covers blow off, get trees puling them off so don't bother.. pack it in carrier bags inside (or any other bag I really dont care)
I'm with Zac and Andy - I use insertion bags for my daysacks and such - I use a dry bag for my bergen so i can be 100% my dry stuff stays that way and I either pack my sleeping bag still inside the bivi and just pack it in or I will stick it into the dry bag as well.
Rain covers look very amateurish in many respects.
However I do carry a hi-Viz yellow one in my pack if I leading a group or going out onto the moors or mountains so if I need to be seen I can be - a sort of reverse of the Marines using white ones to hide their dpm bergens when in the snows of Norway.
bigjackbrass
05-10-2004, 14:00
However I do carry a hi-Viz yellow one in my pack if I leading a group or going out onto the moors or mountains so if I need to be seen I can be.
A good idea, although I carry a bright red windshirt instead of a pack cover, one of the teeny-tiny Montane ones, and that gives me an extra functional garment as well as a visibility marker. In my experience pack covers are never terribly weatherproof and seem to collect rain in every wrinkle. For the cheap-at-heart bin liners work far better inside your pack than over it, where they are protected by the pack fabric, but generally I wrap items in thin supermarket carrier bags and then tuck them into a GoLite pack liner (which is an hideously bright shade of orange - also handy when you need to be seen) to keep out the wet. Do consider how heavy the liner or pack cover you are buying is, as you might be surprised at the extra weight you could be toting around especially if you go for a canoe drybag or similar. You can buy ponchos designed with a sort of hump below the shoulders so that you wear them over yourself and your pack (more common in the USA than in Britain) and those might be an option if your idea of sartorial perfection is to dress like Quasimodo in a bag.