BOB tip from the River Rat

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Here's a space saving, water proof tip from you Brownwater Riverrat. If you have a Vacuum sealer or "suckee machine" as some like to call it. You can take your sweat pants, hoodie, long johns and socks and suck them buggers right up! Saving a butt ton of space in your BOB for a winter change of clothes. Come summer change those out for a summer light weight set of clothes. Vacuum sealing also keeps them high and dry. If you pack them in a 1 gallon freezer bag first (unzipped) you'll have bags for your dirty soiled ones. Don't forget your undies.

Note: The reason for not sealing the 1 gallon bag is you'll never get a good squeeze on your stuff with a sealed bag, in case you were wondering...........

Also in my bag of long johns is also a set of Under Armor cold weather long johns.



http://imageshack.us/a/img267/2598/bob1l.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/267/bob1l.jpg/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img32/244/bob2g.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/32/bob2g.jpg/)

[David Armstrong]

The vacuum sealer is a great machine. Other ideas are a sealed container for copies of important documents, light-duty battle packs of ammunition, maps, and so on.

[Sniper-T]

I love my vacu-sealer for my truck stuff. change of clothes, food, etc. I spend a lot of time driving gravel roads, and the dust gets everywhere, Not having to bang the dust out of everything is nice. plus I... kinda... leave my windows open a bit sometimes.... It's nice having stuff dry and or not covered with snow.

lol

[greg48]

to add to riverrats post; every thing weatherized, in ziplock bags, will also give your BOB some bouyancy.

[2die4]

to add to riverrats post; every thing weatherized, in ziplock bags, will also give your BOB some bouyancy. If the air is sucked out of the bags wouldn't they sink like rocks? I really don't know. I've never used one before. (Yes it's on my bucket list to get of everyday use/SHTF gadgets and gizmos)

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

I used to train Marines in Combat Water Survival, part of that training was was packing their gear in their rucks. It encompassed the packing of said gear in plastic bags. If the Marine did not do as instructed, the Marine started to sink. The Marine essentially failed and had to be rescued, hence becoming a burden to his fellow Marines. Or a casualty of the sea, chalk one up for Davy Jones.

So the answer to the question is YES, it does retain it's buoyancy even if it's vacuum sealed. Not so much as without the sealed pouches but if you "packed" your ruck full it would still be there. Now we are also talking about a Marine in full "battle rattle" which is a lot more gear than you might be toting. Believe you me there were many a humble Marine that we pulled out of the training tank. Hey, better there than in a real life situation. Lesson learned............but at least then they got another chance.

The sea takes what it's given and never asks why.

[Sniper-T]

it is impossible to suck ALL the air out of anything porous. That said, wether something floats or not will depend more on its bouyancy that how much air is in the bag with it. A pair of workboots will sink a large ziplock with air in it. (don't ask :p )

[greg48]

a person should weatherize everything that you don't want wet in your BOB. putting socks, t-shirts etc... in ziplock bags will not make neccesarily make your bag float but it'll make it alittle more bouyant. the army issues a water tight bag that is fairly good size, fits most in a ruck/pack in it, a person has to figure in a gone to s##t world, humping your BOB is gonna require water crossings. also a good reason for a good length of 550 cord, so you can work across a body of water and then drag yoyr bag acroos if it happens to be a fast moving stream etc...i know most of you know this i'm just adding to, talking out loud, going over the "good ole' days" in my head....

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

it is impossible to suck ALL the air out of anything porous. That said, wether something floats or not will depend more on its bouyancy that how much air is in the bag with it. A pair of workboots will sink a large ziplock with air in it. (don't ask :p )

It's that dang math that we love so much.......weight overcomes the cubic inches of air. There fore the boots sink..............ah maybe.

Now a full grown man can jump in the water, take his dungarees/blue jeans off while treading water. Tie knots in the ends of the pants legs, holding them by the waistband and catching air by whipping them over his head and down on top of the water the legs will fill with air. This will actually keep him afloat for along period of time. As the cotton dries out it loses air. So this will have to be repeated. But you look at the size of those legs which ain't much bigger than about 2 one gallon ziplocks per leg and a grown man of about 190lbs. and it really kinda debunks your workboot theory. This is taught in Navy water survival. No offense brother...........

[Sniper-T]

if you want to get into a discussion about Archimedes' principle with a retired commercial diver, I'll be more than happy to.

1. your grown man is almost neutrally buoyant to begin with. most regular people are between 5 pounds of being neutral buoyant. the light ones float, the heavy ones sink.
2. work boots are negatively buoyant


3. all objects are buoyed up by the amount of water they displace. when the object is heavier than the amount of displaced water, said item sinks.

Even a solid cube of steel is buoyant. negatively so. 1 cubic foot of steel on the surface weighs 480#, under water it weighs 417.5, because it is buoyed up by the cubic foot of water it displaced. (water=62.5#/cf; 64#/cf for salt water)

So in your jeans example, assume that after tying the knots, you manage to get 1 cubic foot of air into them. in fresh water, that will provide roughly 62.5 pounds of buoancy. Give that to a man that is only 5 pounds neutrally buoyant, and it holds him up very well. If your man was extraordinarily muscular or geared up, he may of course, be more negative than that.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Ooooooh, you're a bubble buster! Calculatus eliminatus! Yes I am a diver as well, got my first basic scuba back in 76 but I'm not going to sit here and blow bubbles with you because you are correct Sniper. You have way to much time on your hands in the Great White North to do the math for this thread that's for sure. Must have alot of snow on the ground, eh?

But it is cool that one can do this if one has their head screwed on straight when they hit the water. Most people have a panic attack and drown of course.

[Jimmy24]

Well shoot after I have packed, tried it, repacked, tried it again and then many more repacks, my
pack floats quite nicely...:p

Just took my pack each time and went to the creek and tossed her in. That was the bulk of my testing. Sinks, fails. Floats, passes...

Finally passed...

Jimmy

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Oh yeah, stuff was dry too....

Jimmy

[Sniper-T]

Haven't been called that in a long time - rofl (bubble buster)

I spent more than a few years calculating buoyancy of everything from wooden timbers (how much weight is needed to sink them), to how much air (lift bags) it would take to recover a D9 or a grader or a fuel truck, without launching them like rockets from the deep.

We have about 19 inches of snow right now, and it is supposed to continue snowing until thursday, so we'll have close to 2 feet by then I would think.
(assuming the weather people are correct)

[greg48]

that's why i like'd being a grunt not alot of math.

jimmy that is my approach at testing as well...

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Haven't been called that in a long time - rofl (bubble buster)

I spent moe than a few years calculating buoyancy of everything from wooden timbers (how much weight is needed to sink them), to how much air (lift bags) it would take to recover a D9 or a grader or a fuel truck, without launching them like rockets from the deep.

We have about 19 inches of snow right now, and it is supposed to continue snowing until thursday, so we'll have close to 2 feet by then I would think.
(assuming the weather people are correct)

Salvage diver? Hmmmm? Nope, never had to do that much detail dive work, spent alot of time underground, caves and such. Had to save a few CO's careers and unfoul a few screws (propellers) on a ship or two do to some shitty ship handling. But other than that wrecks reefs and selective fishin.

Sounds like you're going to have a lovely Christmas.

[rentprop1]

what type or brand of bags are you guys using for non food stuffs, are they any thicker or abrasion resistant ??

[realist]

Too much math for me. I always found if I threw something in the water and it floated then that was buoyant. If it sank then it wasn't, that's my math. I love my seal-a-meal too it works great. I have found that when you are sealing clothes there is some give as opposed to sealing a hard object. Then again for my pack it is more for the short term. If you want something more abrasion resistant you might consider a dry bag. http://www.rei.com/search?query=dry+bag

[greg48]

brownwater i work with a guy that was a cb, spent alot of time underwater...

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

what type or brand of bags are you guys using for non food stuffs, are they any thicker or abrasion resistant ??

I'm just using the regular "FoodSaver" bags in the green box. They're pretty durable, but pack your goods carefully so there are no sharp edges that could poke holes in the bags.

The Vacuum sealer I use is a Weston pro-2300 it crushes beer cans...........but I don't use it for recycling. It's the shit man. Well worth the investment!

http://www.amazon.com/Weston-65-0201-Pro-2300-Vacuum-Sealer/dp/B001GP81R2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355928197&sr=8-1&keywords=weston+pro+2300

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brownwater i work with a guy that was a cb, spent alot of time underwater...

Navy's a small world, might have known him.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Too much math for me. I always found if I threw something in the water and it floated then that was buoyant. If it sank then it wasn't, that's my math. I love my seal-a-meal too it works great. I have found that when you are sealing clothes there is some give as opposed to sealing a hard object. Then again for my pack it is more for the short term. If you want something more abrasion resistant you might consider a dry bag. http://www.rei.com/search?query=dry+bag

I do seal hard objects like I bundle a douche kit, first aid kit/gear, batteries, and a fire starter kit and then vacuum seal each one. These then all get packed in my BOB's and then thrown in the vehicles. They could sit there for a year or more, I just wouldn't want them in a dry bag getting moisture to them ya know? Same with the clothes.

[greg48]

I'm just using the regular "FoodSaver" bags in the green box. They're pretty durable, but pack your goods carefully so there are no sharp edges that could poke holes in the bags.

The Vacuum sealer I use is a Weston pro-2300 it crushes beer cans...........but I don't use it for recycling. It's the shit man. Well worth the investment!

http://www.amazon.com/Weston-65-0201-Pro-2300-Vacuum-Sealer/dp/B001GP81R2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355928197&sr=8-1&keywords=weston+pro+2300

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Navy's a small world, might have known him.

i'll find out the yrs he was in and units, he's alittle older than me, i'm 52. i have talked to him about diego garcia, that place facinates me...

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Beautiful Place! Been there a few times, don't swim or dive the outer waters, there happen to be alot of fish that like to feed on large four legged land dwellers. Oh and ask him about "Hector".

Now I forgot to mention the reason I went to the Weston vacuum sealer was because all of the others like seal-a-meal and the like is then when a part breaks you can't get a replacement! Nope! You have to buy a new one so word of warning, I'm saying to run out and buy a new one right now. Just that be prepared for it. Once it's broke, it's broke! So I did my research and found this to be the best for my budget and the long haul. It's a hell of a machine.