Quilt Stowbag Kit

We also sell our Ray-Way Quilt Stowbag Kit. This kit will make a waterproof stowbag for the quilt that fits perfectly into the ray-way backpack. The quilt stowbag kit contains the coated nylon fabric, drawstring cord, one micro-cordlock, a small reinforcement piece, and complete instructions.

Our stowbag is the same diameter as our backpack, and sits in the backpack vertically. This allows the stowbag to be adjustable in size, expanding or compressing to occupy however much space in the backpack one chooses. If fresh from a resupply and carrying a lot of food, one reduces the size of the stowbag. Or if several days out and carrying less food, the stowbag is expanded to allow the quilt a little more breathing room. To order the stowbag kit, see our order form.

Note that our 2-person quilt with the SplitZip requires two stowbags, one for each half.

What is the stuffed size of our quilts in whatever configuration? Our answer is that we cannot quote a specific stuffed size, because it depends on how densely one crams the quilt into its stowbag. Nor is there any such thing as an optimum tightness or looseness because that depends on the size of one's backpack and the duration of the trip.

If the trip will be short, something like a weekend, you may stuff the quilt a little more tightly - as long as you give it a few hours of relaxing out of the stowbag prior to bedtime, and once you have returned home, that you leave it out of the stowbag for a few weeks to allow it to loft back up. On a long thru-hike, one has very little time for lofting, so the stowbag should be larger.

This is why we designed our stowbag to be adjustable in volume, so that it will accommodate any of our quilts, excepting the Xtra Layer, and also fit into most backpacks.

Note, however, that the tighter the stuff, the more loft degradation, temporarily. Use a stowbag with, say, a 6" diameter by however long, and the quilt - or any sleeping bag made of synthetic insulation - would come back out flat as a pancake and require several months to recover. Clearly that would be a case of misuse.

More info on Page 21 - Loft Retention.

Incidentally, we recommend using a second Ray-Way stowbag for your spare clothing and other items inside your backpack. Load the heavy food items into the pack first, followed by the quilt in its stowbag, and then the clothing stowbag. Both stowbags sit in the backpack vertically, and since they are the same diameter as the backpack, they both fit it perfectly.

Discover the advantages of the ray-way quilt for yourself!

"Can a 2P quilt (without the Split-Zip) fit into one Stowbag? If not, can the Stowbag be made longer to accommodate the quilt? Thank you very much." Vail7nbsp;P.

No, and yes you can easily make the stowbag extra long, if you have a piece of extra-long fabric. When you are ready to order, let us know and we will place the X-Long Stowbag Kit on our order form.

The X-Long Stowbag will hold a Standard two-person quilt. But this arrangement in a small backpack would not leave much room for anything else. That is why we designed the Split-Zip so many years ago, and have been using it ever since.

For backpacking that is. On some of our other trips where we have lots of room in the sled, canoe, or whatever, we use a 2P without a Split-Zip, not because it is warmer (it is not), and not because we worry about a zipper failure (we have not seen that in all these years), but because it's somewhat lighter without the zipper. But again, for backpacking or mountaineering, the Split-Zip is ideal.