DIY: Pad Straps for a Backpacking Quilt

A quick project to connect your quilt to your sleeping pad.

I’ve been using my Climashield Apex quilt for a couple seasons now, and overall I’m very pleased. I’ve slept in the quilt down into the upper 30’s, it’s lightweight, compressible and quick to dry.

One thing I’ve noticed is that, as I toss and turn, I can work my way out from under the quilt and into the cold. Especially if I’m wearing extra layers under the quilt to push it down into colder temps. This got me to thinking about some kind of pad strap to connect the quilt to my mattress so that I could turn under the quilt rather than thrashing myself out from under it.

Elastic pad straps with clips. Enlightened Equipment.

My web searches turned up two basic types of straps. One uses an elastic strap around the pad with plastic buckles that allow you to unclip the strap from the quilt for ease of getting in and out. The other uses toggles on an elastic bungee cord to connect pad to quilt. Here are a couple links to commercially available options:

Enlightened Equipment Elastic Pad Straps
UGQ Outdoor Ultralight Pad Straps

I read a few reviews, looked at a few different designs and decided to come up with a sort of hybrid between the two. One thing that I saw in reviews was that stretchy straps made from elastic bands or bungee seemed to shift around for some users. With this in mind, I decided to use 550 cord for the strap with a combination of toggles and KAM snaps to secure the straps to the quilt. These materials would eliminate stretch in the pad straps while still allowing adjustability and ease of entry.

The following images and captions walk you through the project, which took about 15 minutes and used materials that I had sitting in the junk bin.

I cut two pieces of 550 parachute cord roughly 3 times the width of my pad. I melted the ends and tied them together with a triple fisherman’s bend. Pulling the separate halves of the knots tight allows you to slide them on the cord to adjust for different pad thicknesses and widths.

I added a KAM snap to a couple pieces of scrap. One was a reflective tieout salvaged from an old tent.

Using salvaged accessory cord I made four prusik loops with toggles. These would connect the pad straps to the quilt. Toggles are salvaged guy-line adjusters.

Attach the accessory cord loops to the paracord with prusik knots.

One completed pad strap in place. You can slide the prusiks along the cord to adjust tension on the quilt and how much of it ends up tucked under your body.

Underside of the pad strap. The two halves of the triple fisherman’s bend slide when you need to adjust the strap for pad size, but grip well enough to prevent the strap from loosening in use.

Toggles slip through the grosgrain loops that I sewed into the hem of my Apex Quilt when I assembled it.

Quilt and pad connected. The snap allows you to open the quilt for ease of entry and exit.

I learned that the toggle didn’t hold the snap to the quilt as well as it did with the other connection points. There has to be a little tension to keep things in place. I could go to larger toggles, but for the moment I just girth-hitched the snap loop directly to the quilt.

Lessons Learned
The toggles seem to hold the quilt well with the exception of the one connecting the snap to the quilt. I learned that when I undid the snap, the toggle didn’t have enough tension to stay connected to the loop on the quilt. My solution was to girth hitch the loop directly to the quilt, but larger toggles are probably in order all around. These are available commercially from vendors like Ripstop by the Roll, or could be made from sections of 1/4″ vinyl tubing.

My initial test run of the quilt indicates that the straps are a success. I can shift and roll under the quilt and everything stays in place. The straps will be a big help when pushing the temperature of the quilt into colder weather.

Materials
550 Parachute Cord
2mm Accessory Cord
4 Plastic Toggles
Grosgrain Ribbon
1 KAM Snap

Knots
Triple Fisherman’s Bend
[Add a turn to these instructions for more tension. Do not pull the two halves of the knot together]
Prusik Knot

If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to Kitchi-Gami.com by using one of the links in the menu on the right side of the screen. On your mobile device you’ll find the links if you scroll to the bottom of the page. Thanks!