The 2GoSystemsV2 is awesome for sure. Last year did some tarp camping with the gen 1 version and a wool blanket and a foam mat down to 25 with no problems. thanks for sharing atb John
This is the best piece of gear I ever had for camping - I use it as a blanket over my bedding. It has been in the 20s here in Vermont some nights, and zero condensation. IMHO, so awesome that it can be opened up.
Hard to imagine anyone loses their life from cold in San Diego county lol - it was 19 degrees camped out last night, had some technical difficulties - getting his Therme bag any day now. That's gear you don't need there for sure. Best to you. Good to warn folks, most really don't get how quickly hypothermia can come on.
People think Southern California is always warm. Nope! I'm from Southern Cali and I can confirm it can get cold at night. Especially in the desert. Great review Jon.
+Wingman115 wow I guess everything is relative cause I live in Alaska and these old ones hate the damp more than the cold (probably cause we think it gets cold when it's under zero). great video though & thanks for the info on what looks like a good product. stay safe keep warm have fun and whittle to keep your sanity ;-)>
but...55F or even 45F is hardly cold. We've got plenty of other people on youtube camping out down into the 20s. That's cold! I'm in San Diego not far from the location in the video. It's rarely very cold.
I like that setup already more then my heavy canvas tarp in my jeep. Cool test Jon, you really went all out sacrifice some good rest for just using the bivi only. I'd be sore in the morning for sure lol. Great job on this review, and the mountains still look great there! Those white flowers were everywhere now
Excellent review brother! The upgrades on the V2 look fantastic. It's great to see somebody else do an overnight test with it. Haven't had a chance to try mine out yet, but I've used the original a bunch of times and its holding up very well.
envelope this bivy with a couple of taped together, 2.3 oz each heavy-duty 55 gallon drum liners, with a net hammock and a ridgeline pulled thru the bivy. Pull another ridgeline thru the envelope That layer of "trapped air" around the bivy, and the bivy not touching you, is the key. Hang the hammock about 6" off of the ground if it's cold and kick debris under it so as to stop air from flowing under you. Then you can sleep ok at 40F in just cammies, balaclava, unlaced shoes, shemagh, gloves and 3 pairs of sock liners. If youll add a bit over one lb of polypro longjohns, you can sleep ok at 34F in wind and rain. That's quite a feat for 4 lbs of gear, which is not affected by its getting wet, can be worn as clothing and is useful in not weather. I add a couple of Amazon's 1/2 lb each 'cut leaf" type of camo nets and a couple of their 1/4 lb each bugnet "suits". If I wear those as longjohns, it adds 10F degrees to my warmth. If I stuff debris between the bugnet suits and the wraps of the camo nets (this time, outside of my cammies) that gives me yet another 10F degrees. I wear a set of wiggys' net longjohns while moving and save the polypros' for sleeping only. I dont wear the sock liners (next to my skin) for sleeping that I wore for hiking, either I wash out the socks and underwear every morning and secure them to my pack hardness so that they dry out as I"m moving. Clothing that's full of sweat, body oils and dirt has no insulative value. I keep the longjohns in a dry bag, in case I get soaked. I can remove my wet clothing, dry my body with the shemagh, don the longjohns and the bivy and its envelope, and wear them as clothing as I twist/wring out the clothing and look for a place to get a fire going to dry out my stuff. This can be done discretely with a Dakota fire pit and some rocks heated in the pit. Get 50 ft off trail, and replace the excavated dirt, putting the top layer back as it was and nobody will ever know that you had a fire there.
I tested this in many ways and love this bivy. Well done man, good testing. always best to have a back up plan. Thanks for sharing and i found this does work well .
if the suns not out, the minor amount of smoke from DRY wood and a Dakota fire put, used only sporadically to heat up some stones, is not much of a risk to be taking, as vs freezing to death, or getting pneumonia from constantly being nearly in a hypothermic state.
This looks great. i already have their poncho and while i haven't used it yet (it might rain tonight so maybe io can at least check it out) i defiantly am impressed with the build quality. This bivvy looks like something right up my alley. Good video man and thanks for the other as well. I dont post often but i watch and thumbs up often.
I’ve used this with a closed cell mattress and snugpak jungle blanket and was warm all night... woke with frozen dew on the tent so must’ve got down to freezing
There should be a supplier here in the UK,.....because I want one too. I couldn't help but laugh when he showed that a blanket were in there as well, I can't blame him, I take a small hot water on camping trips, never fails to keep a bag/me warm for hours.
Correct me if I'm wrong, in tarp confirguration I believe the reflective side can be set up facing up to keep the suns heat off of you as well, same as a car reflectix.
I thought that the Trifecta was breathable. You claimed that you were sweaty, typical of a waterproof bivy. What's the truth about breathability and water resistance?
Thanks for the honest review and the fact you got a little chilly. I'm curious how well this would work with a wool blanket in a hammock during the winter. It shire would be a lot lighter than my winter sleeping bag. Keep up the good work.
I like it! That's a pretty cool thing to have as a backpacker if you plan to do an overnight stay somewhere. PS, the wife and I drove through the Laguna mountains on Thursday on our way to LA. It's quite beautiful.
I got mine, just waiting for the next weekend. Material seems very similar to the SOL Escape Bivy which I'm already very familiar with. Seems like a great option.
Is the high tech material used in the bivy that must better than similar materials that have been made for decades? Is it that breathable? There are no cold spots where you touch the material? Are you normally a warm sleeper? How long did you last until a blanket was needed? Did you use the blanket above/below you and was it a large 100% wool Hudson Bay blanket folded in half or something a lot lighter? We need more to go on at this point because this looks like just another mirrorized 6x8 tarp with a perimeter zipper. I am certain this would be better than nothing for an emergency situation yet what is the advantage of this over $10 piece of polycro sheeting (what I carry) that is far lighter, smaller to carry and much larger?
I doubt you could survive with just a sheet of Polycro, especially used on its own. If you were to make your own bivvy bag out of Tyvek as part of a sleeping system you'd be on to something, but as a single emergency solution there's not really anything cheaper, lighter or as useful as the Trifecta. If there was it would have been commercialised by now.
Great video. I really enjoy your reviews. Just a thought, I know every youtuber says to sub to their channel, but maybe you might want to add in real quick, that they should also click on manage their subscriptions and make sure that they check the box to receive new videos from all the channels they sub too. I missed tons of videos because I had no clue. I was subbed to channels but never got any emails and always wondered why until I figured it out. You have a great channel and people should know when you put out a new video. Keep up the great work.
Yeah, I sub to a new channel and the next thing I do is go right to manage subs and click on the little star on the right hand side where their channel is, and the little window pops up and EVERYTIME I have had to click the box that says "Send me all notifications for this channel". I wish someone would have let me know this years ago.
Say Heah John, I would like to Wish you a Safe Memorial Day. Lets take a silent moment and let's ALL Remember the fallen, especially my best buddy Dan Hanlin 1966 Vietnam.
I also have a discrete way of drying out the debris needed as insulation around my body. It takes all night to do this, in a seated position, the hammock rigged as a "slingchair". Hot rocks are between my feet, the UCO lantern is suspended from a stick that's across my thighs, and the debris to be dried is around my lower legs, between the bivy and the drum liner"envelope". Obviously, I get no sleep while doing this, I can "aim" the clear PEVA oval at the morning sun, in the hammock, (rigged normally) and the "greenhouse effect" of the PEVA and the reflective interior of the bivy will make it 20F degrees warmer inside of the bivy at 11 am than it was at dawn. So I can then sleep from 11 am to 5-6 pm. Sedative, sleep mask, earplugs are all vital gear. Brisk movement is worth almost 20F degrees. If hostiles are why you can't have an open fire, you need to be moving at night and hiding during the day. The low slung hammock and the camo nets help with that (a lot).
I'm interested to see how this thing would stand up to extended use. It's sure to be pretty short lived, but the question is how short? Like could a person do the PCT if they cared for it properly? I realize it's an emergency item, but wondering how far you could push that. It probably takes the most abuse as a bivvy with you rolling around grinding against the material.
I messed around with it last night and found there are good ways and bad ways to fold it up ;-) Keeping the zipper bulk distributed makes it a lot easier to pack.
SOLD. Even though it's now 2020, it's been so hard to find a simple lightweight bivy that would do the job and doesn't break the bank. Thanks for the great review.
Im digging it, I watch revhiker thrash it, it held up, Im probably going to put one in my shore kit for a casualty / hypothermia blanket this winter in antarctica.
As a sleep system, is it breathable or not? I will not put my sleep system in a non breathable bag and become soaked with condensation. So? Is it breathable or not?
It’s a survival system with dual purpose. Bivi sack and tarp. Of course it’s not gonna breathe it’s meant to keep the elements off you in a survival situation.
I have been a "minimalist" not by choice, but because we were ordered to leave our sleeping gear and most of our snivel gear behind on a winter FTX at Ft. Campbell. I had my issue leather gloves with wool liners,a wool beanie (this was before fleece enter the Army), and my poncho (no poncho liner), and no sleep pad. I got almost zero sleep on a night that the water that our canteens froze (in the neck). A foam pad and my poncho liner would have made a huge difference. That poncho looks like a great piece of gear.
The 2GoSystemsV2 is awesome for sure. Last year did some tarp camping with the gen 1 version and a wool blanket and a foam mat down to 25 with no problems. thanks for sharing atb John
This is the best piece of gear I ever had for camping - I use it as a blanket over my bedding. It has been in the 20s here in Vermont some nights, and zero condensation. IMHO, so awesome that it can be opened up.
It is a nice piece of kit to have for sure. Thanks for watching.
Hard to imagine anyone loses their life from cold in San Diego county lol - it was 19 degrees camped out last night, had some technical difficulties - getting his Therme bag any day now. That's gear you don't need there for sure. Best to you. Good to warn folks, most really don't get how quickly hypothermia can come on.
People think Southern California is always warm. Nope! I'm from Southern Cali and I can confirm it can get cold at night. Especially in the desert. Great review Jon.
Thanks Leo, At elevation it's gets chilly really quick. I was up close to 5,500 feet.
+Wingman115 wow I guess everything is relative cause I live in Alaska and these old ones hate the damp more than the cold (probably cause we think it gets cold when it's under zero). great video though & thanks for the info on what looks like a good product.
stay safe keep warm have fun and whittle to keep your sanity ;-)>
but...55F or even 45F is hardly cold. We've got plenty of other people on youtube camping out down into the 20s. That's cold! I'm in San Diego not far from the location in the video. It's rarely very cold.
+Tracy Reed Wish I could control the weather but my RUclips budget wouldn't allow it. LOL. Thanks for watching b
+Doug Duncan Thanks for checking in.
Wow, I like that. A bivy that doubles as a survival blanket. Nice find.
+Outdoor Archives It's a great kit. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for taking the time to make such a great video! Happy Trails!
+Gluckstadt007 Your welcome.
Cool light in the tent! Great review and camp set up!
+guns4funcajanajustin Thank you sir.
I like that setup already more then my heavy canvas tarp in my jeep. Cool test Jon, you really went all out sacrifice some good rest for just using the bivi only. I'd be sore in the morning for sure lol. Great job on this review, and the mountains still look great there! Those white flowers were everywhere now
The mountains are ready for our next adventure! Let's plan it.
Excellent review brother! The upgrades on the V2 look fantastic. It's great to see somebody else do an overnight test with it.
Haven't had a chance to try mine out yet, but I've used the original a bunch of times and its holding up very well.
Great to hear that brother! Thanks for watching.
I love the south west. I hope to visit again soon. Nice hands on action John!
+cyclist01222 Thank you sir.
envelope this bivy with a couple of taped together, 2.3 oz each heavy-duty 55 gallon drum liners, with a net hammock and a ridgeline pulled thru the bivy. Pull another ridgeline thru the envelope That layer of "trapped air" around the bivy, and the bivy not touching you, is the key.
Hang the hammock about 6" off of the ground if it's cold and kick debris under it so as to stop air from flowing under you. Then you can sleep ok at 40F in just cammies, balaclava, unlaced shoes, shemagh, gloves and 3 pairs of sock liners. If youll add a bit over one lb of polypro longjohns, you can sleep ok at 34F in wind and rain. That's quite a feat for 4 lbs of gear, which is not affected by its getting wet, can be worn as clothing and is useful in not weather.
I add a couple of Amazon's 1/2 lb each 'cut leaf" type of camo nets and a couple of their 1/4 lb each bugnet "suits". If I wear those as longjohns, it adds 10F degrees to my warmth. If I stuff debris between the bugnet suits and the wraps of the camo nets (this time, outside of my cammies) that gives me yet another 10F degrees.
I wear a set of wiggys' net longjohns while moving and save the polypros' for sleeping only. I dont wear the sock liners (next to my skin) for sleeping that I wore for hiking, either I wash out the socks and underwear every morning and secure them to my pack hardness so that they dry out as I"m moving. Clothing that's full of sweat, body oils and dirt has no insulative value.
I keep the longjohns in a dry bag, in case I get soaked. I can remove my wet clothing, dry my body with the shemagh, don the longjohns and the bivy and its envelope, and wear them as clothing as I twist/wring out the clothing and look for a place to get a fire going to dry out my stuff. This can be done discretely with a Dakota fire pit and some rocks heated in the pit. Get 50 ft off trail, and replace the excavated dirt, putting the top layer back as it was and nobody will ever know that you had a fire there.
I tested this in many ways and love this bivy. Well done man, good testing. always best to have a back up plan. Thanks for sharing and i found this does work well .
+Kullcraven Bushcraft It is a great piece of kit.
if the suns not out, the minor amount of smoke from DRY wood and a Dakota fire put, used only sporadically to heat up some stones, is not much of a risk to be taking, as vs freezing to death, or getting pneumonia from constantly being nearly in a hypothermic state.
This looks great. i already have their poncho and while i haven't used it yet (it might rain tonight so maybe io can at least check it out) i defiantly am impressed with the build quality. This bivvy looks like something right up my alley. Good video man and thanks for the other as well. I dont post often but i watch and thumbs up often.
Thank you so much for the channel support!
I’ve used this with a closed cell mattress and snugpak jungle blanket and was warm all night... woke with frozen dew on the tent so must’ve got down to freezing
Good stuff.
Excellent (& honest) review .... looks like a winning product ..... Wish it was available in the UK.
Contact them they may ship it to you!
There should be a supplier here in the UK,.....because I want one too.
I couldn't help but laugh when he showed that a blanket were in there as well, I can't blame him, I take a small hot water on camping trips, never fails to keep a bag/me warm for hours.
Steve Clark
I started getting cold in the middle of the night and through in the blanket. Once the blanket was in there it was cozy warm..
Correct me if I'm wrong, in tarp confirguration I believe the reflective side can be set up facing up to keep the suns heat off of you as well, same as a car reflectix.
Correct.
I thought that the Trifecta was breathable. You claimed that you were sweaty, typical of a waterproof bivy. What's the truth about breathability and water resistance?
Thanks for the honest review and the fact you got a little chilly. I'm curious how well this would work with a wool blanket in a hammock during the winter. It shire would be a lot lighter than my winter sleeping bag. Keep up the good work.
I'm sure it would work great. I put a blanket in mine and was ROASTING!
I like it! That's a pretty cool thing to have as a backpacker if you plan to do an overnight stay somewhere.
PS, the wife and I drove through the Laguna mountains on Thursday on our way to LA. It's quite beautiful.
+NATEaBERGER come visit and go camping with me.
+Wingman115 I will plan for that bro, the wife and I like traveling to California as much as we can.
Looks like a great piece for my go bag. I'm gonna try to pick one up. The price is very fair.
+Traveler1226 it worked really well.
that along with a nature hike compact sleeping bag would be awsome ...add a cheap sleeping bag liner...boom 4lbs of joy
+MIKE JOHN Good stuff.
great video!! nice DDPM smock too. Greeting from Chile
Thank you for watching my friend.
I'am really liking this bivy, I think I'll be getting one.
+Jeff Buzzard Thanks for checking in.
Very good. Thank you very much
Good and honest review John, Cheers, Marc
+Scouting Free Thanks Marc.
I got mine, just waiting for the next weekend. Material seems very similar to the SOL Escape Bivy which I'm already very familiar with. Seems like a great option.
+PREPAREDMIND101 with the blanket I was sweating.
Is the high tech material used in the bivy that must better than similar materials that have been made for decades? Is it that breathable? There are no cold spots where you touch the material? Are you normally a warm sleeper? How long did you last until a blanket was needed? Did you use the blanket above/below you and was it a large 100% wool Hudson Bay blanket folded in half or something a lot lighter? We need more to go on at this point because this looks like just another mirrorized 6x8 tarp with a perimeter zipper. I am certain this would be better than nothing for an emergency situation yet what is the advantage of this over $10 piece of polycro sheeting (what I carry) that is far lighter, smaller to carry and much larger?
I doubt you could survive with just a sheet of Polycro, especially used on its own. If you were to make your own bivvy bag out of Tyvek as part of a sleeping system you'd be on to something, but as a single emergency solution there's not really anything cheaper, lighter or as useful as the Trifecta. If there was it would have been commercialised by now.
do they sell these on Amazon??
Great review looks to be a good purchase. What tent were you using? Appreciate your work. atb Opal
REI Quarter Dome 2 Person tent.
Great review man! I think i need to get one of those
+The Bulliet Woodsman 👍🏻👊🏻🇺🇸
Thanks for your videos buddy....
Your welcome. Thanks so much for the channel support.
will two of these zip together in order to make a two person bivvy?
+mrq1701 yes it should.
2GoSystems makes connector kits for doing all sorts of interesting things with more than one.
Great video. I really enjoy your reviews. Just a thought, I know every youtuber says to sub to their channel, but maybe you might want to add in real quick, that they should also click on manage their subscriptions and make sure that they check the box to receive new videos from all the channels they sub too. I missed tons of videos because I had no clue. I was subbed to channels but never got any emails and always wondered why until I figured it out. You have a great channel and people should know when you put out a new video. Keep up the great work.
+wjf213 Thank you for the info. I might just put out a video on that topic.
Yeah, I sub to a new channel and the next thing I do is go right to manage subs and click on the little star on the right hand side where their channel is, and the little window pops up and EVERYTIME I have had to click the box that says "Send me all notifications for this channel". I wish someone would have let me know this years ago.
That chick on your arm is hot
+Clinton Gfroerer Yes she is. Thanks.
Say Heah John, I would like to Wish you a Safe Memorial Day. Lets take a silent moment and let's ALL Remember the fallen, especially my best buddy Dan Hanlin 1966 Vietnam.
Thoughts and prayers my friend for all our fallen brothers and sisters.
Thanx, Brother John.
I also have a discrete way of drying out the debris needed as insulation around my body. It takes all night to do this, in a seated position, the hammock rigged as a "slingchair". Hot rocks are between my feet, the UCO lantern is suspended from a stick that's across my thighs, and the debris to be dried is around my lower legs, between the bivy and the drum liner"envelope". Obviously, I get no sleep while doing this, I can "aim" the clear PEVA oval at the morning sun, in the hammock, (rigged normally) and the "greenhouse effect" of the PEVA and the reflective interior of the bivy will make it 20F degrees warmer inside of the bivy at 11 am than it was at dawn. So I can then sleep from 11 am to 5-6 pm. Sedative, sleep mask, earplugs are all vital gear. Brisk movement is worth almost 20F degrees. If hostiles are why you can't have an open fire, you need to be moving at night and hiding during the day. The low slung hammock and the camo nets help with that (a lot).
pretty certain that its made in China. But I have 2 of them and they are awesome.
great video John by the way and what's the price
I'm interested to see how this thing would stand up to extended use. It's sure to be pretty short lived, but the question is how short? Like could a person do the PCT if they cared for it properly? I realize it's an emergency item, but wondering how far you could push that. It probably takes the most abuse as a bivvy with you rolling around grinding against the material.
I'm doing long term testing will do another video at a future date.
I messed around with it last night and found there are good ways and bad ways to fold it up ;-) Keeping the zipper bulk distributed makes it a lot easier to pack.
@Hugh Jarce The zipper seam area is bulky. Preventing the zipper from bunching up as you fold makes things a lot easier.
So a fleece sleeping bag inside that an your gtg ?
SOLD. Even though it's now 2020, it's been so hard to find a simple lightweight bivy that would do the job and doesn't break the bank. Thanks for the great review.
Im digging it, I watch revhiker thrash it, it held up, Im probably going to put one in my shore kit for a casualty / hypothermia blanket this winter in antarctica.
I love that its huge and tough... Thanks for watching brother.
As a sleep system, is it breathable or not?
I will not put my sleep system in a non breathable bag and become soaked with condensation.
So? Is it breathable or not?
It’s a survival system with dual purpose. Bivi sack and tarp. Of course it’s not gonna breathe it’s meant to keep the elements off you in a survival situation.
I like what you said about an emergency situation, like if your going to drink. Keeping it real, lol
Hey it works. Lol thanks for watching.
very good review and chance to see that thing. The guy outs are put on good. Thanks for the look and link.
Alan thanks for stopping by.
I have been a "minimalist" not by choice, but because we were ordered to leave our sleeping gear and most of our snivel gear behind on a winter FTX at Ft. Campbell. I had my issue leather gloves with wool liners,a wool beanie (this was before fleece enter the Army), and my poncho (no poncho liner), and no sleep pad. I got almost zero sleep on a night that the water that our canteens froze (in the neck). A foam pad and my poncho liner would have made a huge difference. That poncho looks like a great piece of gear.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
Very good. Thank you very much
Thanks for stopping by.
IS IT WATERPROOF ?
I slept in one last night at 45 degrees f. Very comfy with an Xtherm pad and clothes on. 10/10 would buy again.
Thanks for commenting John.
Looks nice, an addition of a "hood" with possible screening would make it perfect.
Ron W
+Ron Weiss they also make a rain poncho I will be testing.
Cool piece of gear or should I say warm. Thanks Wingman.
+Handsworthalpha Thank you.