Here’s a little look at the Dutch Army Poncho and how it can be used as a shelter for lightweight camping ⛺️ treedeepout... buymeacoffee.com/treedeep #camping #militarysurplus #poncho
I carry a standard British army poncho, an arctic bivvy bag and an 8'x6' basha tarp. There's a couple of bungees in my kit, but mostly I use paracord. The flexibility is off the chart, but mostly, I make a lean-to or teepee from the basha, with the bivvy bag inside, using the poncho for extra cover, or as my wind break, my ground sheet, my pillow, a camp chair or even a hammock!
I love my Dutch Army poncho. Highly functional without spending big money, and is perfect for those of us that want to use a tarp with a bivy but don't want to carry a tarp in a backpack.
Mine would always rip around the eyelets. But if used above our bivvy bags, this combo was the best in our standard gear. Used it for 15 years. Great for wrapping around our backpacks to cross water. It would make my 37kg gear float like it was nothing. We would use the connection points to construct a shelter for the whole squad, next move just roll it up and stuff in a bag on our webbing and we'd always have just the right amount of gear to stay kind of dry during rain season (dutch winter).
Plow point is the way to go first time, every time. I keep mine low to the ground with the lower aspect facing the wind. An 8' x 10' tarp is the way to go. The poncho can be used for other purposes, namely a ground cloth.
In the US Army, 50+ years ago, we could snap two ponchos together. A piece of paracord between two trees at crotch height and the two ponchos over it like a pup tent, would be an adequate shelter for 2 soldiers. I carried 2 ponchos so that the pup tent could stay up while one of us had watch. Our single poncho set up was usually tying the hood to an overhead branch and staking the corners. Do those ponchos snap together? My old ponchos delaminated after only 30 years. Get a woobie(poncho liner) for the poncho. It will give you a lot more comfort. Look up the "Alpha" poncho as another option. Good video. Good Luck, Rick
Nice video - thanks! I like the plow point, and I have a 7' x 7' ultralight tarp rigged to unroll in that configuration right from whatever attachment point I pick. Unlike anything with a ridgeline, where you need two trees conveniently spaced, and the line between them only gives you two choices for orienting the shelter, you only need a single attachment point, and you can go in any direction 360 degrees from there to get the best orientation to the ground, wind direction, etc. I also include 1 extra long guy line so I can set it up with the downwind corner raised, either by connection to a tree or supported by my hiking staff. That allows extra headroom for getting organized, starting a fire, etc., then I can peg it down if need be for extra protection from the weather. I also added 5 interior attachment points for a triangular sheet of clear, 3mm vinyl sheeting I bring with me, and when rigged with that, it becomes an enclosed Mors Kochanski "Super Shelter" and can be very warm with just a small fire outside radiating heat through the vinyl. I would only bother with that under extreme conditions, but in that case it could be the difference between survival and the other thing. The vinyl sheet weighs 6 oz. and can easily add 30 degrees F. of warmth, more if the wind is not too strong. The whole setup, including a half a dozen aluminum stakes, is under 1 kg. I can obviously choose many other configurations if time allows and conditions require, but I find the ready-packed plow point to be the fastest, most flexible option.
I have them to, with the liner. Ideal for 24 h races. Warm, cosy and if you have empty seats in front of you, you can even make a nice hot cup of coffee. 😊😊
Great video! The "poppers" as you call them also allow for two ponchos to be connected together if you want a larger shelter and don't mind the extra weight or if someone else is with you and has a poncho.
Love that Dutch Poncho. I once saw a company in Australia that was selling brand new ones, "woobies" too... I wish that they would make these again. I have never seen a better one. Lightness... Durability. (Currently using the USGI from Amazon, and "woobie".)
For emergency shelter with my day hike bag I combine poncho with a 55gal contractor bag that is worn as a bivy sack, bag comes up to my arms, then I lay the poncho on the ground so I lay on back half and fold the front half over my head except I come at it from the side, not over the top of my head. Or, I can wear the poncho and sit with my back against a tree while pulling the contractor bag up over my legs. Or, I can fill the contractor bag with leaves for ground insulation and cover myself with the poncho like a sheet while staking out one side.
I have always used military equipment weather it be poncho trousers jackets, boots or basically anything you can think of because they are more versatile, hard wearing, some kit is multi functional and the clothing is quick drying and their gortex and ripstop gear are all better than siht you buy in shops
I like setting my hootchie up off the ground another way to gain a wee bit of height is to use sticks on the corners with the para cord wrapped around it and pegged out 🔥
I wish I could recommend them. I got a brand new Dutch poncho still in it's plastic foil 2 years ago and I was a happy camper, and after a few month the thing delaminated. Now it's just a nice piece of camo fabric. I will have to remove the rest of the PU layer and brush some silicon on it. possible, but unneccessary ...
My dad was in the royal irish my whole life and got me some good stuff including one of these and i remember even as a 8 year old it never covered you're whole body 😂
Great content as always. Have you got a link for those tarp clips, I've tried some before but wasn't overly impressed with how well they grabbed the material Thanks
Lean to roof. Looks a lot like US version. It's over 25 years since i've enjoyed sitting in snow , smiling with cider. Not many flying things at this time of year - cue the shemagh. Cheers.
In my Dutch army days (1975-1977) each soldier would carry one poncho that was also a "tent half", plus one short tent pole. Together you created a 2-man pup tent. If you were alone, you were out of luck, or at least out of comfort.
Was it the same poncho as here in the video? And when was the hooped bivvy bag in service? Personally I love Dutch army equipment, as it’s usable by taller people.
@@paddor Not the same poncho at all. Plain olive green, no camo. And buttons and button holes along the sides so you could button 2 of them together. No hoop, just plain straight sticks. No idea how long this (basically) WW2 design was in service. After the queen told me she no longer needed me, but wanted her stuff back, I returned a huge duffel bag of gear and never looked back.
What is the difference between this poncho and the US military poncho which is at least 20 years old? Did the dutch just release these to the surplus market because NATO has a new design? I'm not putting it down you understand....spent a couple nasty weather situations under these and they are versatile and good.
This is a great poncho. Unfortunately, the inner lining is peeling away. Does anyone know of a spray or paint I can use to replace the inner layer? Thanks
This is my goto with the Dutch army hooped bivvy, if i think it's going to chuck it down then will pitch it above the bivvy, stops most of the rain and a place to cook or relax.
So a set of boots with no waterproof membrane, if you use waterproof socks, you could switch back and forth between very breathable but not water resistant and water resistant with less breathability
I use cammies, gloves, 3 pairs of sock liners, balaclava, unlaced shoes and a shemagh, 2 sets of milsurp longjohns and I can handle sleeping at 100F and bugs,, down to 20F in mud, snow. This is with along with 5 lbs of sleep/shelter gear. If i add dry debris as insulation, I can handle 0F. If I add hot rocks and a Siberian fire lay to the above, I can handle -20F. I use an XL size, 1.5 lb "trifecta" bivy from 2GoSystems, with an 'envelope" around it, made out of a couple of taped-together, 2.3 oz each, heavy duty 55 gallon drum-liners. Just that 2 lbs of gear, with a 1 lb net hammock, lets me sleep ok at 34F. with the above listed clothing, in wind and rain. If I add the two "cut leaf" type of camo nets-, 1/2 lb each and the two 1/4 lb each bugnet "suits", I can sleep ok at 20F. I rarely go out when there's any chance of it getting colder than that, and in any case, it almost never is colder than that around here.
Interesting, but unfortunately all the countries in the world with the exception of the United States, Myanmar and Liberia use the Celsius temperature scale. So we don't know what temperatures you are describing. Dry debris is often overlooked. You can build a bed of springy twigs with finer material on top and it's as comfortable as a mattress.
@@jonfisher9214 I use a hammock whenever possible. If there's only one suitable tree, I'll make a tripod and stake it out for the foot end of my hammock. if need be, I'll use the hammock as a sling chair, lean back on some brush, the daypack and the tree trunk, with some brush under my feet, in the reclining position. Sleeping on the ground sucks, man.. I flop around too much for merely digging some hip and shoulder holes to help much. I have to dig-loose an entire area, or have a foot thick layer of dry debris. or carry THREE sleeping pads. My hips and shoulders hurt like hell if I dont. A 1 lb net hammock gets rid of a lot of hassles and can feed me, if need-be.
Good stuff ..the best thing the gave us in the Dutch army in the 90' )before that we had the ww2 brit army raincape model).....wont click together with the other nato poncho s....and the Dutch poncho is a little bit larger..
Somebody answer please----- why don't some of the hikers use a little towable cart to put their heavy belongings in? One RU-vid said the guys backpack weighed 91 lbs.
A towable cart would be quite difficult to navigate in rough terrain? If you know you will be on a road, it will be fine, I guess. As for the weight being 90+ lbs, it is too much. 35 is enough.
Zpacks smallest tarp is much bigger and weighs 5oz. So for the weight of this boat-anchor, one could carry six Zpacks tarps and it'd still weigh less. But maybe a dedicated tarp isn't a fair comparison? What about the most famous tarp-shelter, the "Gatewood-Cape" from Six Moons Designs? Gatewood-Cape is more than twice as large, yet weighs only 11oz. And Gatewood-Cape is designed to be both a poncho and a shelter, it isn't just a square sheet with metal grommets slapping one in the face under windy conditions. Yes a surplus item may be cheaper, but what midget's sleeping under a 4' x 5' tarp? This makes no sense.
