Wondering what modifications people have done to their gear that made vast improvements. Started thinking about this while looking for the picture someone posted on a mod they made on a blue barrel to keep the key attached to the barrel.

Putting a Sawyer Mini filter inline in the straw of my camelback water bottle.

Got the idea on here it worked great on my trip a couple weeks ago. Just filled up on the go and always had water ready to drink. Worked slick.

Too many to list here. I like to personalize and modify gear.

butthead

I should add that when I first clicked on this thread I assumed it was going to be about some sort of human body modifications to make portaging easier.

Like Robocop

I don't do a lot of that, but the main two:

Setting up Sawyer mini/squeeze filters as gravity systems.

Pre-rigging CCS tarp and Lean with ridgeline and tie-outs in ridgeline stuff sack.

Otherwise most improvements have come from changes in gear such as smaller, lighter tent, stove, pad, bag, etc.

quote boonie: "I don't do a lot of that, but the main two:


Setting up Sawyer mini/squeeze filters as gravity systems.


Pre-rigging CCS tarp and Lean with ridgeline and tie-outs in ridgeline stuff sack.


Otherwise most improvements have come from changes in gear such as smaller, lighter tent, stove, pad, bag, etc."

+1 to all of the the above

Boy, there are tons of things to modify and rig a canoe for one. I've seen a lot of home made portage yokes. Bear rope modifications. Painter line attachments such as tugeyes. Ways to keep cameras and such powered for longer trips. Chairs and little diy ways to make them more user friendly. Ways to modify stoves to make them more efficient and quiet. Cooking equipment and modifying to make things work for me better. Food is really fun to personalize. Coming up with recipes is pretty fun.

So, the coming season is a great time to go over equipment and food and see what you might do to make your system better.

Food, now that nctry mentions it, while not a gear modification, has certainly simplified the kitchen gear I carry. I don't cook; I just eat add water dehydrated foods right out the bag. Since I just boil water and eat out of the bag, there's nothing to clean up. The cold breakfast cereal doesn't even require fuel. Since I don't cook, I don't need to carry extra utensils and cleaning supplies. There are a number of variations on the theme.

Another change along with that was the switch to a bear canister, then to Ursacks, which is much simpler than hanging a pack.

The best gear is the homemade/ personally modified gear that performs exactly how you need it. Come on over to the DIY gear forum

quote boonie:
Pre-rigging CCS tarp and Lean with ridgeline and tie-outs in ridgeline stuff sack.
"

I have a CCS tarp and was considering adding wall netting....not familiar with ridgeline and ties outs in ridgeline stuff sack. Can you clue in my ignorance?

Home made a 7x7x7 sail. Wedged in a fitting pair of 1x4 cut to fit boards for bow which was then wedged in and tightened up with a wing nut on each end with a bolt long enough to go through each board. A hole for mast and a cord to raise and lower it by the bow man. A string from one end of sail going back to stern man to pull/release which gives some decent directional control.

It is quite surprising how fast Q Agnes can be traversed with a nice south wind pushing you along. I Wish I had timed the trip, but suffice it to say, it was a lot faster than paddling.

Just take it off and replace on canoe for each portage. With wind expected in the wrong direction, we rolled it up and put all in bottom of canoe for those lakes we did not use it.

Not recommended for top heavy loads.

This video will give you the basic idea. You can also search tarp threads on bwca.com and find out more.

quote boonie: " This video will give you the basic idea. You can also search tarp threads on bwca.com and find out more. "

VERY slick. Thanks for sharing!

I'm relatively new to it, but can tell you that it's especially useful if you're solo and it's windy ;). BTW, I discovered this year that the Siberian Hitch works well for anchoring the first end.

quote yellowhorse: "

quote boonie: " This video will give you the basic idea. You can also search tarp threads on bwca.com and find out more. "

VERY slick. Thanks for sharing!"

+1

quote boonie: " This video will give you the basic idea. You can also search tarp threads on bwca.com and find out more. "
Steve, You beat me to this one. I love that tarp set up. It was a life saver this June with all the rain and moving daily. To me, the two compartment stuff sack is a must have.

I don't know why all of that showed up in quotes. Weird

I had my fisherman neighbor permanently attach my painters, both bow and stern, to my canoe with that dealie-o where you feed rope into rope and I also have Black Diamond carabiners on the ropes to quickly secure my canoe to trees. I like two ropes for redundancy, like NASA.

modified or built ; Made a gravity water filter from an off brand water bag that strapped to a tree and a large Sawyer filter that was 15 bucks on clearance ar REI. Some tubing and hose clamps and WALLA! Thought I had invented something new and unique. Ten years ago and still working (although switched to a bigger 2 gallon bag). probably the most useful piece of gear I have modified or made. oth

Well I have done a couple of modifications:

I used that silver metal foil tape and covered my Blue barrel lids with it to reflect the sunlight so they don't get so hot.
I added prussik loops on the ends of the tarp on the ridgeline to slide it and keep it taught on the ridgeline.
I modified a cordura bag that Christmas lights get stored in to use as a barrel bag in my blue barrels.

Some closed cell foam pieces that fit over the aluminum gunwales ( where the side of my knee hits) on my Northstar Northwind Solo. I velcro them on so they stay during portaging. I love my Northwind solo but I think the gunwale shape by the and how it digs in knees needs to be address by Northwind.

Killing the quote.

Not sure if I've done any real mods on my gear... I cut the stems on my Spirit II last year when rerailing it to fit the decks, does that count? I've done some MYOG but don't think the time I deconstructed a barrel harness to accommodate a different size barrel necessarily counts, as I swapped out almost every component of the harness except for the shoulder pads.

quote MrBadExample: "I should add that when I first clicked on this thread I assumed it was going to be about some sort of human body modifications to make portaging easier.


Like Robocop


"

I need one of those... ;)

quote Blatz: "Some closed cell foam pieces that fit over the aluminum gunwales ( where the side of my knee hits) on my Northstar Northwind Solo. I velcro them on so they stay during portaging. I love my Northwind solo but I think the gunwale shape by the and how it digs in knees needs to be address by Northwind."

I added these to mine. Harmony Knee Pad Kit for Pungo and Aspire, $15 from Austin Kayak. I tried the pipe insulation, which worked fine except wouldn't stay on.

Simple mod for my Granite Gear Stow Away under seat pack. I add 2 rectangle plastic storage containers with lids inside of the pack. It makes getting your stuff out so much easier. I frankly am surprised it doesn't come with them. I don't like thwart bags. You either have to remove them during portaging, or put up with the constant flopping around. You don't even know the Stow Away is there during portaging.