wich oversuit

[paull]

this has probley been done to death in the past be here goes anyway

having made the big mistake of taking the wife on a caving trip she has said that she would like to start doing more  :-\

i now have a choice of which caving suit to buy her i was thinking of a warmbac or the AV holloch ? any one give me a clue which one to get her and any pro's and cons with them please

cheers
paul

 

[graham]

What colour does she want?

grabs tin helmet and runs for cover ....

 

[paull]

she isnt bothered what colour which is strange for a woman 

 

[paul]

http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=11919.0

http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=12042.0

 

[simonsays]

When I started out buying my own kit i just bought the same gear that I had been hiring...
Standard beaver cordura oversuit and the adult sized fleece babygrow.  They seem to have resisted my attempts to destroy them so far!  Good abrasion resistance and easy to care for.  The inner goes in the washing machine and the oversuit gets hosed down in the garden.  Under 100 quid to buy both.

Simon

 

[cap n chris]

i now have a choice of which caving suit to buy her i was thinking of a warmbac or the AV holloch ? any one give me a clue which one to get her and any pro's and cons with them please

It will be a very good plan indeed to get a Warmbac for the following reasons:-

they're considerably cheaper...
and abrasion-resistant...
and they can tailor a suit if you provide relevant measurements...
and they're made in England!
- check out their website at:

www.warmbac.com

 

[paull]

myself i have a meander and a beaver oversuit so just after more info on the other makes out there?
meanders are hard to come by and the beaver is ok for a first time suit but mine has been repaired loads of times.
its will be nice to see what people think as i will also be after getting a new oversuit myself next year 

 

[cap n chris]

I wonder whether anyone out there in caver-land has owned pretty nearly every different type of caving suit and which ones they rate, and why.

For myself I've only ever owned a Dragon suit, Warmbacs and a Petzl yellow suit.

 

[Les W]

I have owned quite a few suits in my time including Warmbac, Av, Dragon, Meander and Beaver.

The best suit was definately the Dragon Cordura, unfortunately no longer in production.
The Warmback was a good hard worker but I found the material got quite stiff after a bit. Ideal as a digging suit and very hard wearing.
The AV is very nice and almost a tailored fit but less hard wearing. Very comfortable though and is my current cordura suit.
The Beaver was fine but didn't last as long as the Dragon or Warmbac, but then again it was cheaper so you pay your money and get what you paid for...
I have had a couple of Beavers as they were cheap. One had a neoprene section in the crotch to allow for stretch, this failed quite quickly and I don't think Beaver have continued with these.

My Meander is quite new but I am impressed with it. I am being careful with it's use though as it is difficult to get another. I have used it in some quite wet caves and find it superior over a "worn" cordura suit for draught proofing and spray, but then again, that is what it was designed for. I guess if you are rich then a selection of suits for the right environment would be the best choice. I don't think there is one suit for all types of cave, so it will always be a compromise, unless you have more than one suit (Like I have at the moment  )

 

[cap n chris]

The Warmback was a good hard worker but I found the material got quite stiff after a bit. Ideal as a digging suit and very hard wearing.

You know (but maybe others don't) that Warmbac make various thicknesses of cordura suit from the uberheavyweight through to liteweight and then superlightweight (for hot climates).

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Bought a great TSA French PVC suit on Ebay last week. Great for digging as totally water proof and so easy to clean. However, as I found out in Radford Cave today,  they are very slippery and I fell headfirst down a climb and now have a knackered shoulder.

 

[Amy]

If you have some sewing abilities might be worth the bother to make your own especially depending how curvy she is. I don't fit into anything and finally designed one myself. Fits perfect then, as built to fit me! You can buy cordura on ebay for about $7/yrd (about 5 quid), takes about 3 yrds (buy 4 to be safe) to make one. Heavy duty poly over poly thread doublestitched...if you have access to a surger can do that as well. Bonus is colour and 100% custom.

Here 'tis mine, built in kneepads and all There is also extra layer on bum and elbows in the green as well. Really warm, keeps me mostly dry even in water (cordura but has the waterproof coating on it) and did I mention realllllly warm? At least for our stuff here. There I could just throw a poly layer underneath. Here I wear it in just bra/undies or its too hot.

 

[Stu83]

I have always used a beaver suit and found them to be great - I ahve added extra space around the back as the seam split on mine - think I am bit tall for the size.

Amy the suit seems to be good design - big knee pads must help in crawls - must be warm there for a limited amount underneath!

 

[ogof addict]

does your wife intend on doing much hard caving? my ladies fit AV is very comfy, but only lasted a few months before starting to fall apart - but i do tend to use it quite often and like caves that are not particularly nice to oversuits. another issue she may have with the ladies AV is if she is normal size. mine is a large, although i am borderline midget (everyone laughs at my kiddy size wellies and helmet).

i wish there was something as comfy as the AV but tough enough for digging 

 

[Amy]

Amy the suit seems to be good design - big knee pads must help in crawls - must be warm there for a limited amount underneath!

Thanks. The thing I would change is there is extra fabric in the legs so I can do the splits easily (I wanted no limit to my wide range of motion in my suit) but instead I should have put an elongated diamond shape gusset in the crotch-area to cut down on some bulk but keep the motion range. The other thing I would change to it is the cordura picks up mud and gets heavy sometimes, and pulls the suit down. I am going to insert an internal belt (just a drawstring, use some cording, put in a few beltloops) to keep it held up. 'Twas easy to do, just took the pattern for a halloween costume that was a jumpsuit style lion or tiger or bear (oh my!) and used the main bit of it. Pinned it in to my body shape and size before stitching.

 

[estelle]

does your wife intend on doing much hard caving? my ladies fit AV is very comfy, but only lasted a few months before starting to fall apart - but i do tend to use it quite often and like caves that are not particularly nice to oversuits.

i drift into trying different oversuits, but for digging and caves that aren't nice to oversuits i always seem to drift back to a trusty warmbac as they definitely stand up the best to mendip type caves. My most recent drift was to try the cordura meander and found the material has worn really badly and also absorbs water making it heavy and cold to cave in wet caves. It's a shame the waterproof meander criou suit material became elusive as they are probably the best suits for big wet caves but for Cordura suits, i don't think you can beat the warmbac suits for value or wear.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Here is Pete's photo of me in Radford Cave yesterday. I must admit the yellow suits are good for photography. Shame the wearer lets it down.

 

[paull]

does your wife intend on doing much hard caving?

not with me she isn't 

to be honest she wants to get into the srt stuff , we have both been climbing together for over 20 years and caving was allways my Hobie , after my accident back in April it was only last month that i could bear to wear my helmet on my head again and was itching for a trip underground as i could not get hold of anybody for a trip i stupidly asked the wife if she would like to come with me, to my supprise she said yes so i took her into valley and down into the kmc, she looked a bit shocked when i started rigging the pitch but a quick lesson in srt and how it all works she was off. anyway to cut a long story short and half a dozen trips up and down the pitch she is hooked

so now the bank account is being emptied to the delight of Bernies cafe and Inglesport , all she need now is her own oversuit as my spare suit is way to big for her ,
ive got 3 months to get her sorted so i can chuck her down titan 

 

[Fulk]

My AV suit is the best-fitting and most comfortable oversuit I've ever had (apart from  a  very lightweight Daleswear suit that was hardly thicker than a conventional boiler suit ? superb to wear, but not quite so good for protection, so only of use in really easy caves) and seems to be wearing reasonably well (maybe I'm not doiing the 'gnarly' caves that seem to wreck others' AV suits ). I can certainly recommend it.

 

[pwhole]

I too recently bought the Meander cordura suit, and am not happy, frankly. The suit has a great fit, but the stitching used to hold on the elbow and knee-patches seems to have been done with be bog-standard poly or nylon thread, and I'd abraded much of it off after only two trips. After ten trips, the elbow-patches were hanging off the suit. I'm looking to get the suit repaired soon, and will be supplying the repairer with some Kevlar thread to see if it makes any difference.

But to be honest, I doubt the black patches are even Cordura - it has a distinctly 'soft' feel compared to the red fabric, and the knees have completely worn through on the black layer already. I usually wear my pads under my suit, and some may argue that's the problem, but I was doing that with the Warmbac, and it was coping fine...and surely if a suit has 'reinforced' double-layering it would imply that the suit is capable of some protection in that area...