Down Fill Power Explained — Is it an Important Measurement?

Backpacking Gear
Down jacket and sleeping bag

Recently an acquaintance asked me to help him find a suitable down jacket for backpacking when nighttime temperatures could dip down to 20° F (6.7° C). He wanted a 900 or higher fill power garment because, “The higher the fill power, the warmer the garment.”

But is this true? All things being equal, not really. The most important factor is the thickness of the insulation, not fill power.

In this post I will explain fill power, insulation thickness, and the difficulty of shopping for suitable equipment because the equipment manufacturers (clothing, sleeping bags, and quilts) try to confuse us with worthless marketing instead of useful facts.

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Senior Moments — I Can See Clearly Now!

Senior Moments, ,

On January 20th I had cataract surgery on my left eye. The other eye was done last December. Today my vision is nothing short of miraculous — a similar reaction I have heard from others who have had the surgery done.

It is time to get back outdoors for a lot of backpacking and camping.

Well, almost time. I’ll explain in a bit.

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PopUpBackpacker is 10 Years Old !!

General Talk
 

It was time to update the copyright notice in the footer of the Website when I noticed that it has been a little over 10 years since PopUpBackpacker was created.

Over the past 10 years I have covered a lot of territory backpacking, hiking, camping and writing about the things that interest me. In this post I’ll cover some highlights, where I have been and what the future might hold for me and PopUpBackpacker.

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New First Alert Fire Extinguishers for Our RV

Travel Trailer, ,
Image courtesy of the National Park Service

 We recently replaced the fire extinguishers in our travel trailer. For most people, this is an item they probably rarely think about.

This isn’t a review! A review would require a fire in our camper and a determination of how well the extinguishers put out the fire. I hope I never will need to do a review of the product.

Our last three RVs came with tiny Kidde brand non-rechargeable fire extinguishers. Kidde guarantees these for 6 years. Rechargeable units have a 12 year warranty. Most extinguisher manufacturers recommend period inspections, and replacement at 10-12 years. Since the extinguisher that came with our camper is 9 years old, it was time for replacement.

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Our New Trailer Storage Facility

Travel Trailer,

As I promised, an update on finding a new location to store our travel trailer after the catastrophic problems with iStorage as I share in this post and this post.

We found a great place in the nearby city of Beaumont, California. At first it seemed too far away, but after some consideration, it really is going to be a good fit for us. In this post I will share some pros and cons and how we made our final decision.

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How to Secure Your RV’s Dual Propane Tanks

Travel Trailer, ,

Rule #1: You cannot stop a determined thief

Rule #2: If you think you can stop a determined thief, see Rule #1 

What you can do is make stealing your property more time consuming and difficult, resulting in the potential criminal moving on to easier pickings. This is what I have done and will share in this post. Prior to this my efforts have just been to “keep the honest people honest.”

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