Backpack Bed for Homeless

Great for lots scenarios sleeping in an urban outdoor environment – Being a homeless woman, my backpack swag gives me a chance to have an okay sleep even when it's raining, don't get bitten by mossies as much, and can keep my important things like a journal in the interior. Massive thankyou. It's designed for getting out of a potentially bad situation quickly without packing up camp or loosing the few possessions you own. Show reply

Great thing – I do a bit of charity work and have spoken to rough sleepers who use these swags and they swear by them. I've even handed some out. The design and build is for rough sleepers not campers. I've given them out to rough sleepers who all they had was a piece of cardboard and a thin blanket. They love these things which was the catalyst for the design. A big well done to the designers and manufacturers.  Show reply

Simply clever – I was looking for a swag I could carry around as I love hiking and reach good spots. This one is impressivly light! When you compare it to those massiv heavy canvas swags you can only set next to your car. Not my cup of tea. The backpack is not the most confortable as it isn't reinforced. Anyway you can adjust it and it's good. I never plan… Read more ·  1

to sleep inside for very long so I never had to worry about condensation. also you've got a window with a net where you feet are. If you open it that would help. You just need to know what you want and what you need. I personnaly couldn't find any better for 220 dollars (I get the basic version).

I wanted a swag or anything I could carry around and use as a rain protection. And YES the backpack bed makes a good tarp. Not a proper one, as it isn't that flat and one sheet and bag would be flapping on a side. It's easy to imagine by looking at the photos.

But it is all I needed: a waterproof fabric with enough eyelet or whatever to tie it. Makes a good shade and rain protection area over my hammock or the roof rack of my 4wd (I use it as a double bed).

So light and compact! Also regarding to the reason why it's been created, I admire that product and I am more than happy to give them my money rather than big business company which provides expensiv product but never try to inovate something different.. A light bed easy to carry.

I also use it as climbing backpack as I can fit all my gears inside (60m rope, helmet, harness, shoes, ...).

The lockable pocket, carabiner clip and two more straps to hook gears on the outside make a nice plus too.

Simply clever.

Adequate – I just spent a week sleeping in mine. We bush camped and spent a couple of nights on a verandah. The biggest problem is the condensation between the swag and the sleeping bag in the morning. Luckily, I could leave it open to dry out. I also added a small self inflating mattress and was very comfortable & warm. I only used the strings to… Read more

suspend it twice but didn’t really lift the swag that much, which is why I didn’t bother after that. The inner flyscreen meant I could leave the cover open and sleep without worrying about what was crawling over me while I slept. The bed width is fairly small, OK for a woman but may not be enough for a larger sized man. The bag was very handy for overnight storage of shoes, torch & clothes etc but didn’t hold a great deal when bed inside. We had a 20 minute downpour of rain one night and I was perfectly dry in the morning (other than condensation) I don’t know how it would have coped with a night of rain. Light & easy to store. Condensation could become a problem

Not what I hoped for – Having recently bought one of these swags for my own use I must say that I was somewhat disappointed by the overall construction of the backpack bed. The bag itself is not really useful as anything except for carrying the bed and perhaps a few other items. I have no idea how one would be able to carry the rest of ones kit, and its design means… Read more

that it takes the central role of the backpack. A single, heavily rubberized handle is sewn directly to the fabric rather than to any supporting straps, would also lead me to believe that lugging it around via this method would not only be impractical but would more than likely result in wear and tear damage to the unit. A lack of fittings at the ends of the bag mean that it cannot be easily fitted with a strap to allow it to be slung in a sideways location. It would have been better if it could have been designed so that it could be easily strapped on to another backpack, or perhaps worn on the front in order to balance out the overall load a person may be carrying. Other issues I have are the flimsy caribiner's, questionable quality of fittings, the overall dimensions of the unit, and the lack of any alternative method of raising the "canopy" apart from tying it to "convenient" located trees, sign posts, etc. A couple of flexible tubes could possibly have solved this issue, and made the unit feel less like a tarp blanket.

I had hoped this would be something that would have lead to more convenience, but I could not recommend it above using a simple tent (for a third of the price) or even using the old tarp and blanket method (even cheaper and in the end probably more versatile). The fabric material appears to be of quite good quality. Arrived promptly upon payment. $320 for a poorly designed unit that does not really take into account the other gear that a person may be carrying.