Frogg toggs question

I bought a set of froggtoggs a few days ago. I ended up trying them out today because of an odd situation. A drugged out driver hit our large brick mailbox and tore his car up pretty bad (and destroyed our mailbox in the process). Long story short, we were out talking to the guy, and his mom (who is a friend of ours), and the cops for quite a while, and since it was raining I grabbed the top of the suit. It worked very well except for one small problem, the hood is way too small.

My question is, what should I do about that? One idea I had was taking the material from the storage bag that comes with the suit, and making some type of extension on the hood (I plan on making a silnylon stuffsack for it anyway). The problem with that idea is that it would make it not fit in the little pouch in the collar of the jacket that it currently rolls up into, and I have no idea how to seal any of the seams I would have to sew. I dont think it not fitting in the pouch is that big an issue, because I dont see a situation where I wouldn't want the hood up. I also thought that maybe a wide brimed waterproof hat might work, and just forget the hood. Something like making a silnylon cover for a boonie hat or something like that. Does anyone have any opinions on either of those ideas, or any other suggestions?

I wouldn't bother with trying to extend the hood. The material is fairly fragile. I would suggest supplementing with a hat. Either a baseball style hat under the hood (stiff brim keeps rain off your face), or a real rain hat instead of / on top of the hood my the OR Seattle Sombrero.

--Mark

The driducks material is pretty fragile, but this material seems pretty strong to me. We ended up haveing about a day and a half of off and on rain (more on than off the first day). I never got around to fixing the hood before my trip, but I found out very quickly that in the 60's, the suit is way to warm to wear while active. I ended up starting to sweat quite a bit in the jacket, so I gave up on it. My cousin had picked up a driducks poncho before we left (for around 6 bucks if I remember right), and I decided to grab one too since it was so small, light, and cheap. I ended up using it, when I used anything at all. I've spent most of my life in cotton, so I'm used to dealing with being miserable when wet. I picked up some cheap nylon shirts and shorts in the fishing section at walmart and a pair of underarmour convertable pants for the trip. I found out quickly that even in the rain, the nylon doesn't get uncomfortable and clingy the way cotton does, and it dries even faster than I had realized. I dont think I'll even worry about taking the suit unless its MUCH cooler than it was on this trip. In the upper to mid 60's I just dont think its worth worrying about. I'll sweat under the suit anyway, and being wet isn't nearly as big a deal as I expected if wearing the right clothes. One of many lessons I learned on my first trip out in the rain.

When it's that warm, I also leave off the rain gear and just get wet. I wear a lightweight synthetic base layer top and lightweight supplex hiking pants. While I'm actively moving, my body heat will dry them in about 15-20 minutes. If it keeps pouring, I change into my base layer at bedtime and put the wet shirt and pants into a large plastic ziplock bag inside my sleeping bag. No, they won't dry, but at least they won't be c-o-o-l-d when I put them on in the morning!

It is extremely important, however, to cover up when you stop moving, to prevent evaporative cooling when your internal thermostat slows down. If it's in the 60's and just drizzling, a lightweight wind shirt will do the job. If it's raining hard, I'll use my rain jacket. In the case of something really breathable like Frogg Toggs or DriDucks, you'll find that while you're wearing it over your wet clothing around camp, your body will push the moisture from your wet clothes through the rain gear so that your clothing will dry.

If it gets a little cooler, rain gear is essential. It's especially essential when you need to wear an insulation layer, since you need to keep that insulation dry at all costs. It only takes a few degrees' temperature drop while you're taking a rest stop or sitting around camp for that insulation to be needed. For that reason I would never go out without the rain gear.

It takes considerable experience with thermoregulation (adjusting your clothing to your body temperature) to recognize that very narrow gap between sweating and the beginnings of hypothermia.

I think the experience I do have has been more of a disadvantage to me than a help oddly enough. Most of my time spent out in cooler weather for any length of time has been spent deer hunting. I usually take a fourwheeler to somewhere close to my stand which leaves you cold from the windchill, the short walk to the stand doesn't really overheat me even in all my layers because of the chill from the ride, and the bulk of the time is spent nearly motionless. I've noticed because of that I tend to be way overdressed for being ACTIVE in cold weather. It is rather suprizing how much more clothing it takes to be comfortable sitting still 15-30 feet up a tree where all of any breeze that blows hits you in comparison to being active on the ground.

As far as having the rain gear for camp, I guess I didnt really notice much of a difference because we really didn't spend any time just sitting around camp for the evaporative cooling to be an issue. Basically once we had camp set up (which wound up being later than we planned on) we had supper, hung our food up, and hit the sleeping bags. Sounds like thats something I'll need to reconsider. It doesn't pack up very well at all if using the stuff sack it comes with (the one I planned to sacrifice for the hood extension). That bulk made it a bit difficult to pack well, which is part of the reason I had considered just leaving it out unless dealing with colder weather. I plan to make a sack for it that will allow it to lay more flat though. Once I do that it should pack much easier, and not be a problem to have all the time.

OM is right, at least for me. If I am hiking, as long as I keep my hands and head warm, I can work up a sweat in no time. And that's not good in the winter. So the challenge is taking enough layers to keep myself warm after I stop the exercise.

My wife, who runs cooler in any weather, likes to make sure she never feels even a little cold. Me? If I am not cold when we start, I will be dripping with sweat within fifteen minutes of hitting the trail.

Quick update about the hood extension idea. I got some samples from quest the other day, including some two sided cuben tape and some of the iron on seam sealing tape. I tried the two sided cuben tape, and it didn't stick to the frogg toggs material well at all. The material was too fuzzy so the tape just didn't get a good grip, similar to trying to stick tape to something thats dirty. I haven't tested to see if the material can handle the temps required for setting the iron on seam tape, but I'll get to that soon.

Frogg Toggs is made from polypropolene. It melts at pretty low temps.

Very low temps. I wouldn't try iron-on tape, which requires a temp well above the melting point of polypro.

Duct tape works to patch holes, which happen frequently in all these cheap garments. When the garment is more duct tape than original fabric, time to replace it.

Get a waterproof baseball-type cap to wear under the hood. Or get a waterproof brimmed hat and cut off the hood.