Many of you no doubt use a trash bag as a liner for your pack – which is a great use for them. As a spare ultralight raincoat is another. Still another is re-purposing one as a pad inflator (bag). I almost never carry the inflator bag (because of the weight which came with my sleeping bag, preferring to dry it out properly when I get home and taking the chance that mould etc will shorten its life – but I am incurable.
You may prefer to make yourself a less than one ounce bag inflator with a trash bag and a bottle cap. You can use an ordinary drink bottle cap or if you hunt around you will find an even lighter alternative.
Lighter
You do not need to use a large trash bag for this purpose so you can have an inflator bag which weighs under 6 grams as in the attached Youtube:
PS: It occurs to me that the lightest practicable way to do this would be to use one of those reusable cable ties do secure the bag to the valve, the kind which have a small toggle on them so you can undo them easily.
Also See:
DIY Ultralight Hiking Projects
Thankyou – always used to enjoy John’s Intense angler channel – hope he’s ok, the youtube channel is still live but his last post was in 2018 after a serious accident. Ive made these and they work!
I just wanted to share that I went one step simpler – just the bag with your hand as the valve closure, found it works quite well (trick is fill with air and “attach” and then lean on it between elbows and knees to pump air into the mat). It means one less “thing” to misplace (the valve). I cant claim this innovation – i saw it on mentioned on grizzle gear’s channel, and as he notes he didnt invent it either. It works too! (https://youtu.be/ybRUAgXwiEs)
Really enjoying your blog and site, thankyou for all the info!
Thank you for your comment and your compliment Craig. I’m sure your further advice will be appreciated by other readers. Cheers, Steve.