How to dry sleeping bags / tarps?

[Anagor]

Hi!
Just a question that came to my mind ... I'm testing my gear right now in the garden and of course the sleeping bag or tarp gets wet from time to time. From rain or condensation. Here it's not a problem, I just take my stuff home, unfurl it and it'll dry over the day.
But on the road? Packing a wet sleeping bag into its bag or a wet tarp into its bag seems not to be a good idea to me. In summer, with the sun shining, I guess you can easily unfurl the stuff at noon, wait an hour and pack the dry things and head away. But what if it's cloudy, chilly, raining all day long (I'll visit UK)? What do you do under these circumstances?

 

[skitter]

take em to the launderette and throw them in the dryer for 30 minutes on high.
never tried to dry a tarp. guess you could just fold it up carefully

 

[Anagor]

take em to the launderette and throw them in the dryer for 30 minutes on high.

Thanks. Haven't thought about that. It'll not harm the sleeping bag?

 

[skitter]

i mean, the ones I have are all synthetic materials and dry really quickly in the sun. The bag probably has machine washing instructions somewhere on the tag but yeah, they're supposed to be machine washable.... no idea about the down filled ones.

This might not be a problem for you but in the past when dealing with rain, or lice, when I washed the sleeping bags they became much "poofier" and took up marginally more space in the backpack than they did in an unclean state. but just straight drying them didn't really affect their size.

I used to have one of those swiss military packs and a cheap-o sleeping bag so every little bit of space counted. Now I have a large alice pack and one of those really small backpacking type sleeping bags..... it rules.

 

[Anagor]

I used to have one of those swiss military packs and a cheap-o sleeping bag so every little bit of space counted. Now I have a large alice pack and one of those really small backpacking type sleeping bags..... it rules.

That's great. I have a used german army backpack, so I can relate:

My sleeping bag is an Ajungilak Kompakt Twin ... present from my parents many years ago. Before a few weeks only used indoors (sleeping at friends places after a party or alike).
But I checked ... seems to be okay to tumble dry at 60°C ... I think it's quite a good sleeping bag. DuPont's Quallofil-7 fiberfill ... as I read comfortable down to 0°C/32°F ...

Thanks for your tips!

 

[Art101]

If you are going to dry a down sleeping bag in a dryer use 3 tennis balls with it seems to work well and keeps the down from clumping.

 

[NoComplyKid]

i just hope its sunny the following morning and for the tarp ill pack wet on the underside of my pack and will usually dry for the most part whilst im out and about

 

[wrkrsunite]

I've had to dry a lot of shit out, while on the road and one option is those hand dryers in bathrooms. It can take a while but always works.