Backpacking Light community posts are moderated and here to foster helpful and positive discussions about lightweight backpacking. Please be mindful of our values and boundaries and review our Community Guidelines prior to posting. The bag uses Climatech fill, a down alternative, making it very light. The roomy bag, 33 inches wide by 75 inches long, rolls up to a compact 14 by 8 inches.
If you have a boat and bring kids or friends on the water, you know that once you leave the dock the requests for drinks start rolling in fast and furious. Sure, you can load a cooler out each morning packed with fresh ice, but it is just so much easier to cut down all that work with a cooler than can keep ice for days on end. I used this bag two nights last weekend and found it was too cold on its own—lowest temp was 51 degrees each of those nights. The bag is very lightweight and comes with a compression sack. It’s compact, and keeps you warm and comfortable throughout the night.
You can buy an expensive bag if you think it will make you more hardcore, but I will gladly tell everyone how hardcore you are if you pay me to do so. What bothers me the most, (and the main reason I gave it 2 stars) is that the fabric is hidden and not obvious until you get it out of the package and unzip it all of the way. If they wanted to skimp on fabric, it should have been used on the outside and bottom of the bag!
Too bad too because overall I’ve had good luck with Ozark Trail stuff. Too bad the buyer at Walmart has gone to sleep on quality control on this product. I used this bag from February of 2002 to June of 2002 on the Appalachian Trail, and ozark trail canopy I still have it. The first night out it was less than 14 degrees F, and I had at least 50 nights under 40 degrees F. I can’t say I was warm, but I wasn’t shivering, freezing, or cold either, although I did wear 2 layers of clothing.
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. I notice this isn’t the first review with this complaint. The zipper broke on my warm weather bag on the second night out.
The overall product weight of this cooler is 37lbs empty which is inline with the Pelican, but 7lbs heavier than the Ozark Trail cooler. The Tundra Haul features rubber clasps, which I really like, and hard plastic wheels. This cooler, when compared to the Pelican 45Q Elite and Yeti Tundra, has the smallest profile while still providing 45Q internal storage. It features rubber latches which I am a huge fan of for boating applications. When you are out on the water, people often sneak over to grab something from the cooler and may not latch it back up.
I could have gotten better quality from a teenager’s home ec project and lighter weight. Similar to the Ozark Trail cooler, the Pelican features orange wheel rims and also has orange clasp accents. You can get this cooler in three colors, Tan which is featured here, as well as graphite and white. The other two colors will have different rims and accents, so if you don’t love the orange you have options. Pelican is a newer entry in to the world of rotomolded coolers and have taken their own spin on design and function.
Ozark Trail is proving to be a really solid competitor for outdoor products. This cooler has a number of features that you would find on more expensive coolers and a few that you won’t find. However, I used this bag two nights last weekend and found it was too cold on its own—lowest temp was 51 degrees each of those nights.
Is Walmart’s Ozark Trail brand a true sleeper, putting out products that deserve much more attention among outdoorsmen? With that question being floated, we decided to travel down the path of discovery and start to take a closer look at Ozark Trail and some of their products. We just completed a review of the Ozark Trail Tumbler line, which is not only budget friendly but also well performing. Stay cozy even on the coldest nights of your camping or hiking trips with the Everest Mummy Sleeping Bag, +5F/-15C Degree.