I don’t normally buy stuff that the DoD has already issued
to me, but before my last trip to the middle east, I purchased the KifaruWoobie. It’s an upgraded poncho liner
that is supposed to be warmer and tougher than the issued poncho liner. It’s also a little longer, which ensures
maximum coverage, at least for someone of my height (5’ 8”).
If you’ve ever traveled with the military overseas, or CONUS
for that matter, you know you can’t always count on sleeping in a bed at night,
so if you want a decent night’s sleep, you better carry what you need with
you. For me, that means a blanket, and
maybe a pillow if I have room. And it
better be small enough to pack with you wherever you go.
The Kirafu Woobie fit just fine in my Tactical Rush 24,
along with other necessary items.
Depending what you’re carrying, you may not want to pack it in the
integrated stuff sack for packing in a normal sized backpack, but it compresses
pretty well.
The integrated stuff sack is also a nice feature not found
on the issue poncho liner. It doesn’t
compress the woobie super small, but definitely makes it manageable.
Just for total transparency, I didn’t use the woobie in any
situations outside where it was my only source of warmth. I’ve used it in a tent when the temps got in
the upper 40’s, on planes, as a blanket on a bed and sitting around on the
couch. I have enough faith in it that
I’d have no problem taking it out in the woods if the temps weren’t going below
40. It’s a good insulator without
feeling like a thick blanket.
Kifaru uses what they call “RhinoSkin” on the outside and so
far it’s done a great job surviving all the travelling I’ve done with it, as
well as the occasional encounter with the dog (claws not teeth). I haven’t had a chance to test the water
resistance of the woobie, but Kifaru’s website touts it as water
resistant.
The only bad thing is that
the RhinoSkin is very “slippery”. On
several occasions, I’ve woken up several times to find it had slid off the bed
or cot. That’s pretty easy to fix by tucking
in one of the edges into the mattress or underneath your body. It’s probably not an issue if you’re sleeping
on the ground.
Overall I’m very happy with the woobie. It’s an expensive poncho liner ($154 for 3.6
oz liner, $210 for the 6 oz liner), but I found it worth it. There’s not many things worse that a poor
night’s sleep because you’re cold.