Old fashioned PU-coated rain pants

I am looking around to see if I can find a source for basic rain pants made with non-breathable, polyurethane coated ripstop nylon, or a similar fabric with a similar coating that is designed to be very waterproof, but not especially breathable.

Here in the Pacific Northwest rain pants are not really optional for hiking much of the year. I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to my legs, there just isn't much necessity for breathability, but waterproofness is paramount when I am wading through wet ferns or bushes overhanging the trail. Good breathable fabrics are very expensive. Cheap breathable fabrics start letting water in before too long. I don't care for either of those options.

By the same token, I don't need full length zippers, or reflective piping / patches, pretty colors or a lot of styling, or fancy articulations -- just a pair of stove-pipe-legged rain pants, with maybe a front pocket or two that can be zipped shut. The lighter weight, the better.

Anyone else out there have some recommendations along these lines? Even CampMor seems to have moved on from their house brand of PU-coated rainwear and are just trying to get rid of their remaining stock of Small or XXL sizes at reduced prices.

Thanks in advance!

If you sew, they are really easy to make. You can get PU coated rip stop from The Rain Shed in Corvallis together with seam sealer. You can get a pattern for wind/rain pants from Green Pepper in Eugene IIRC. The actual sewing is super easy.

I think walmart has nylon rain suits.

Check commercial fishing gear suppliers--they have all sorts of bombproof raingear and you're in the right part of the country for that stuff.

Cheers,

Thanks for the suggestions! I will look into fishing supply outlets first and if that fails me I'll check out Voldemort, uh, WalMart.

If I were a spiff hand at the sewing machine this obviously would be a great project for me, but hand sewing is as far as I've ever progressed in that skill set, so my sewing projects stay very small and very poorly executed.

Aimless, I came to the same conclusion years ago. I got my last combination of rain gear at Costco.

I have a pair of silnylon rain pants that work just fine after seam sealing. They are a lot lighter than the PU coated variety. Unfortunately, nobody seems to make them any more (I have one of the last pair made by Brawny Gear). I've used them for winter yard work, like hedge trimming, as well as for 3-season hiking and they are amazingly sturdy. With a couple yards of Thru-Hiker's silnylon, you can sew your own.

Thanks, OM. I looked into silnylon rain pants and discovered a new cottage manufacturer called Luke's Ultralites (to be found at lukesultralites.com, naturally) who just started up quite recently and offers a silnylon rain pants that look quite reasonable. I'm considering going that way now.

LL Bean has Trail Model Rain Pants that only claim to be waterproof, not WB. Sierra Designs and Columbia used to make PU pants, too; don't know if they still do.

I just popped over to the LL Bean website, but the extended description for the Trail Model rain pants very clearly identified the fabric as breathable.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

The Outdoor Research Rampart pants might work if you can find them. The Rampart/Palisade line does not claim to be breathable. I have the jacket but not the pants.