Backpacking gear I should've NEVER bought

hey what's going on everybody welcome back to the channel thanks so much for being here today we're talking about gear i never should have bought i'm not saying that you shouldn't have bought it that's why i said i should never have bought it in the title uh so some of this gear may actually work for you some of it you may actually have so if you own it don't be upset i'm not saying you should throw it in the garbage at all i'm just saying it doesn't work for me how i backpack the style of backpacking that i do the places that i go just that kind of stuff so it is good gear for the most part there's one piece of gear i'm going to show you right out the gate that is literally the worst piece of gear in human history and no one should buy it it's actually kind of comical but other than that keep that in mind before you start typing in the comments and telling me how wrong i am this is an air pillow look it's got a piece of down on it must have been in the wrong bin this is an actual air pillow uh no one should buy this this particular air pillow ever and i've stopped using air pillows all together this is literally the worst pillow in human history don't buy it anyway now before you get mad at me because i tell people to buy this still it is the trek ology air pillow the reason i tell people to buy this is because it's just inexpensive it's like 15 maybe 20 and it's really lightweight and it does a decent job for what it is however you will not get as good of sleep or at least i don't get as good of sleep on this as the other thing that i use now and if you follow my channel you already know what it is it is the therm-a-rest compressible the therm-a-rest compressible pillow this is actually a real pillow and it weighs about twice the weight of the trichology but i have been preaching about this pillow for quite some time now it is like sleeping on your pillow at home very similar it's not super stiff it has just the right amount of cushion on it it doesn't feel like it goes super flat it's not you know real ultra bulky and it compresses actually pretty small and for me it's way worth it to bring something like this because my sleep is so important to me and i want to have a good hike the next day and sleeping on this i really do feel like i'm sleeping on my pillow at home and it's got this really nice soft outer part to it that really feels like an actual pillowcase so that's really nice too so this is a great pillow i wish i would have bought this one i should have never bought the air pillow all right the next thing on the list is a synthetic sleeping bag so if you follow my channel at all or if you've been following it for quite some time you may think that i've never slept in a synthetic synthetic sleeping bag i have as a matter of fact it was the very first sleeping bag i ever bought and it's actually very similar to this one right here uh this isn't it because i can't even find the one i started with but this is like one of those sleeping bags and the one that i used was like one of those sleeping bags that you would see at pretty much any like box store big box store like a walmart like in the car camping section it's like one of those rectangled sleeping bags very heavy very bulky and not very warm at all you know they'll say they're rated to like 40 degrees fahrenheit and then you sleep in them at like 60 degrees and somehow you're cold they're just terrible absolutely terrible as a matter of fact i don't like any synthetic sleeping bag and i can already hear people saying they're ready to type in the comments how you know they're better in wet weather and how even if they wet out they're going to be better or in certain environments it's obviously the way to go but i've only had one time that my down bag wetted out and it was completely my fault i will link that video right up here for you guys it's because i didn't have a dry bag inside of my backpack every other time since then i've never had a problem so here is here's the bag that i switched to and it is my absolute favorite sleeping bag of all time now this is super expensive there are alternatives to this bag on the market this is the western mountaineering elpin light this is a 600 sleeping bag now i'm not saying that anybody should go out and buy a 600 sleeping bag unless you go backpacking a lot like i do and then it's worth it to you um i'm just saying i never should have bought a synthetic bag and the reason i love the down bag is because it is so much lighter weight it is so much more compactable and it is way warmer than any synthetic bag i've ever used anything that's gonna try to equalize this warmth out of a that's a synthetic bag is gonna weigh a lot more and it's gonna be a lot more bulky and so for that reason i love the down sleeping bag the reason i like this particular sleeping bag it's so nice it's built like a tank it is extremely roomy and the warmth to weight ratio is probably the best on the market that i found this is comfort rated at 20 degrees fahrenheit and it only weighs two pounds okay the next item on the list that i should have never bought is one of those foldable sleeping pads before you chew me out in the comments this does have a place i get it some people think these are like the greatest thing ever and for a couple of reasons they're cheap they're very lightweight and they are bomb proof so you're not gonna like poke a hole or rip a hole in it okay that's awesome i however can't stand these things because they're super bulky and they are the most uncomfortable sleeping pad ever anybody that thinks these are comfortable i i don't know how you think they're comfortable they are nothing more than something that's gonna take the bite out of the ground and the warmth that you get out of these is very very little i've probably slept on this pad maybe six times ever it's been sitting in a bin for probably five years and i don't think i've used it since then now i will use a uh foam pad similar to this if i want to add extra warmth to my other version of a pad that i'm going to show you um or if i just want to like put it underneath uh that version of a pad so it doesn't slip around or something like that but that's really the only reason i wish i never would have bought this i should have never bought this i'm not saying you shouldn't have bought this but definitely me i wish i never would have bought this okay so what i have to replace that that what i've been using and love is an actual air pad you know this is i'm not going to spend a ton of time on this you guys know i love my ear pads and a lot of people do and they're just they speak for themselves uh anything by nemo or anything by therm arrest is going to be fantastic so this is just the nemo tensor insulated pad this is the therm-a-rest uber light i love both of these pads they're both fantastic they're so close in what they can do just one's a little bit warmer than the other this one's a little bit more comfortable than this one however this one's still great um anyway but the downside to an air pad really is that it can break it can pop and you could deflate your pad in the middle of the night i haven't had that happen to me yet which is a miracle but that's probably because i take really good care of them and i baby them while i'm out there and if i know i'm going to be in an environment where there's going to be let's say you know cactus or something that could poke a hole in it or rocks or something i'm really really careful with it so i love sleeping on an air pad because it makes me feel like i'm sleeping on an actual mattress at home and it's just so much more comfortable for me i never should have bought that foldable foam piece of garbage okay next on the list one second this isn't my backpack this is my son's backpack and i sold all of my backpacks that were similar to this or i gave them to people but i never should have bought a backpack that was way too much organization so when i first started out backpacking i bought a backpack very similar to that that had just pockets and bells and whistles and it weighed way too much it had too much going on and i kept actually losing stuff in it i would think that it was helping me because it had so many pockets and i could just put things here and put things there and i would just know where everything was to the point where i knew where nothing was and so what i did was i just got a backpack that was very simple and it's the backpack if you follow my channel you know i use a lot it's my favorite backpack of all time it is the hyperlite mountain gear this is the junction but it is a very simple backpack so it's essentially just a big bag now the reason i don't like all that organization is one it adds a lot of weight so this other backpack from hyperlite is much much lighter weight and two all i've got to do is put a diddy bag in it so how i don't lose things is anything small from you know well let's just dump it out and see what's in here from my last trip okay i've got my potable aqua tabs i got an air pump got some charging cables chapstick head net toothbrush repair tape stuff for my camera you know things like that so anything small that i could potentially put in a pocket of this super organized backpack i just throw it in this bag and if i think i've lost something all i got to remember is oh it's in my ditty bag and then i know exactly where it's at so all of my small gear just goes right in here all of the stuff that i could you know put in an organized pocket on some other big backpack i just shove it right in here now anything else that may be too big for this diddy bag let's say uh maybe you've got a big water filter system like a gravity filter or maybe a ground cloth or something like that i just put that stuff on the outside of my backpack most of that stuff is stuff i don't really care if it gets wet anyway so then i know exactly where that is as well okay before i get to the last piece of gear i want to just let you know that all of the gear that i'm talking about here that i do use now currently that's replaced stuff that i shouldn't have used you can find it over at backcountry.com i have never found a website as easy to operate for people who are looking for gear to get into backpacking than backcountry for two big reasons number one the way that they filter for being able to search for things is super awesome you can literally narrow down to the most minute details color weight all of those things to be able to find exactly what you're looking for and number two they have a chat function that allows you to talk to people that actually know what they're talking about they're former olympians former athletes former trail guides they know their stuff and they're able to help you instantly find exactly what you're looking for or actually suggest things that can be better for you so back country did give me a coupon code it's dan b15 for 15 off some exclusions do apply but you could try it out and hopefully it will save you a couple bucks okay this last piece of gear some people are going to be not happy with me about that i am saying that i never should have bought it i'm just gonna say it uh i never should have bought a hammock as a shelter now i've used hammocks probably a hundred different nights uh over several years and um they are great for some people however uh when i switched to a tent i realized that um it was so much more room i could spread my stuff out it's an actual living space and the reason i switched to a tent originally was because i started bringing my kids with me and so i needed to have a place with myself and them because they much preferred sleeping with their dad then often some hammocks somewhere else so um i started to realize how great sleeping on the ground actually could be and how comfortable you can actually be a matter of fact i've made a couple of videos about it i'll put one right up here for you guys to check out so i actually sleep way better in a tent than i ever did in a hammock and i just love it so this one's the big agnes copper spur if i was gonna pick one tent for the rest of my life this would certainly be it for a lot of different reasons it's fully freestanding it's double wall it's made by big agnes so you're not gonna go wrong and it's just super spacious and comfortable and very lightweight so um for that reason i probably should have just bought a tent now again i'm not saying that you shouldn't buy any of this gear or that it will never work for you some of you may want to switch from a tent to a hammock because you're gonna find out it's gonna sleep way better than you ever thought but for me this is the gear i never should have bought all right guys if you like this video make sure you hit the like button subscribe for more hit the bell notification so that i can send you a video every single time it comes out and i will see you on the next one [Music]

Channel: Dan Becker

Views: 446,012

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Id: 0UxIY0gtLRI

Length: 13min 32sec (812 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 30 2021