If they wanted to skimp on fabric, it should have been used on the outside and bottom of the bag! On the Pacific Crest Trail, I learned the importance of a GPS satellite communicator, and it’s been a trail companion ever since. I’ve upgraded my Garmin InReach Mini to the Mini 2 to take advantage of the longer battery life and improved satellite acquisition time. And it pairs nicely with the Garmin Explore and Messenger phone apps for expanded functionality. First-aid kit contents get used or go missing over time, so I like to replace mine every so often. Armed with the knowledge and skills from umpteen Wilderness First-Aid courses over many years, I tend to carry a lot less, so the Medical Kit 0.5 from Adventure Medical Kits (3.6 ounces, $23) fills the bill, with a few extras tucked in.
From the perspective of the average person…the Ozark Trail Cocoon 200 is a great bag…that is both well-designed and well-made for about the price of your average discount bag. The compromise is not in insulation value…but primarily weight and compression. The hood of the Ozark Trail Cocoon 200 uses some of the very best design features found in sleeping-bags made by such notables as Western Mountaineering. For example…the hood uses what is called a reverse differential construction which is a fancy way of saying that it uses over-sized cuts of fabric on the inside of the hood to allow the down to fill in around the head without the need to over-cinch the hood.
My wife and I used these bags for four nights on our hike to Snowmass Lake on the Snowmass Creek Trail outside of…you guessed it…Snowmass, Colo. Wife had not really touched hers until she laid it out to sleep in. When she crawled in the first thing she mentioned, in about 30 seconds, ozark trail sleeping bag was how warm and comfy it was. It can be difficult to get reliable measures of a sleeping bag by yourself…so I will use my body-measures as reference…I am 5-10 and have a 48 inch chest…the bag fits me with room to spare lengthwise and comfortably snug in the chest and torso area.
Inside the sleeping bag, the manufacturer skimped on the softer inner lining, by making four inches around the interior zipper, and about two feet from the interior bottom of the bag, a rough cheaper vinyl or nylon fabric. And every time you move your feet you get to hear the crinkle of the fabric on the bottom. I purchased this sleeping bag for warm weather camping trips at the local lake. For fifteen dollars I wasn’t expecting (or needing) anything that would stand up to freezing weather. Unfortunately the workmanship was more than a little upsetting, even for that price.
Beyond this…the cord-locks and shock-cord used are too large in size and diameter respectively. It is such a value in fact…that I have on more than one occasion found myself laughing (alone in the woods) at what a great overall value the bag is…and I promised myself in those moments that I would do a review to share my discovery. Our proprietary tech ensures that recalled items are never listed.
I bought the zero degree bag and nearly froze to death. Day one, night one…the zipper tore and cord in hood broke. Day 2 …it was closer to 6 degree and I froze…I had to hike into town, replace the bag.
Ear buds, compliments of Delta Airlines, complete the package. An emergency rain poncho from Walmart (Ozark Trail, 1.4 ounces, $3) lives in my day pack, so on those days when you leave the house without a rain jacket, well, at least you’re covered. Ben’s (maker of the ultimate bug repellent) Invisinet does the trick (1 ounce, $12); it resides in the pack during bug season. I do a lot of winter backpacking and needed a bag for my big, but short haired, canine companion. I picked this up at Walmart one day and have had it for two years it has withstood 4 continuous months of winter backpacking the AT. This involved a big dog crawling in an out of it every night for a third of a year and never once tearing it with his claws.
I could have gotten better quality from a teenager’s home ec project and lighter weight. The big things – pack, tent, sleeping bag and such – yes, they’re huge, but a few key small items also border on essential. The foot-box of the Ozark Trail Cocoon 200 is all quality…roomy and delightfully filled…you will not want for cold feet in this thing…though you should certainly wear socks inside your bag! The only difference between the foot box on the Ozark Trail Cocoon 200 and a top-quality bag is that some of your more quality bags will sometimes use a heavier fabric on the foot-box to prevent holes from abrasion and puncture…but this only adds undue weight in most cases…and not something I prefer. I notice this isn’t the first review with this complaint.
I imagine it would hold up for a while with only a person using it. In addition…the bag was also subjected to three days and two nights of biblical proportion rainstorms during the month of October 2013. There is a lot of truth to the old adage…you get what you pay for…though many times you do not get what you pay for…and only rarely do you ever get more than what you pay for.
I’m on my second pair of Seirus X-treme All Weather gloves and I love them. Softshell material, waterproof (to a point) yet ozark trail sleeping bag breathable, and light (4 ounces, $60). Thank you for choosing Wills Deals Liquidation Services for your shopping needs.