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Blew $15 on a 5 liter water bladder for my hike and it leaked all over my pack in Zion
Back in 2015 when I was doing trips on like $20 a day, I grabbed this no name bladder from a discount bin in St. George because bottles were getting heavy. First morning on the West Rim Trail it split at the seam and soaked my sleeping bag and my only dry socks. I ended up tying my bottles to the outside of my pack with paracord like some kind of clown. Next trip I paid $40 for a name brand one and it lasted four years, so I guess the cheap one cost me way more than $15. What gear did you try to save money on and then end up buying twice anyway?
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river_hall441mo ago
Read a backpacking forum post a while back where this guy tracked every cheap gear fail in a notebook and added up what the replacements cost him over two seasons. His total was almost triple what he would've paid for decent stuff up front, which stuck with me. My own worst one was a $30 "waterproof" stuff sack that turned out to just be water resistant, learned that the hard way during a storm in the Winds when my down bag got soaked. Ran to the nearest outfitter the next day and dropped real money on a proper dry bag, which has kept everything bone dry for years now. There's something about getting burned once that makes the price tag hurt less the second time around. The cheap stuff always seems to find the worst possible moment to quit on you.
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