I am planning my first 3 week tour and was hoping for some thoughts on dry bag size. I have Sea to Summit 13L for my sleeping bag, 8L for pillow and sheet, Garbage bag for sleeping pad. 13L maybe for tent or not. What about clothes? Any size recommendations?
thanks

I roll my clothes and put them in 1 gallon freezer bags. This way you can see the item you want rather than having to fish around in stuff sacks. Freezer bags are lighter than stuff sacks and rolling eliminates wrinkles.

a set of rear panniers on a rack are roughly 1/2M wide..

you talk volume in Liters and I use physical width

so you convert if you want.

Dry bag for the tent? Not sure that is warranted. If it is raining when you take it down, you might want a plastic bag to keep the wet tent from getting everything else wet, but otherwise I do not see any reason for a waterproof bag over the tent. I do not even bring the sack that came with my tent, I just roll it up and put a strap around it so it does not unroll.

Think about what size drybags will fit in your panniers. Too big of a drybag and things won't pack well. The diameter should not exceed the thickness of a pannier. I have two small compression stuff sacks that are extremely useful, but not dry bags. The compression sacks have a diameter that is about the same as the thickness of my rear Ortlieb Classic Backrollers. When I have the compression sack fully compressed, the bags fit perfectly oriented horizontally on top of everything else in the rear panniers, one compression sack in each rear pannier. They are the last thing to go in each pannier. I put a sleeping bag and some clothes in one, clothes in the other. The compression sacks are one of the most useful things I have for packing.

I also have a Ortlieb duffel that I put on top of the rear panniers, medium size, I think 31 liters. Length of duffel is about the width of the outside of the rear panniers.

If I did not use Ortliebs, I might use a dry bag for my sleeping bag, and maybe one for some clothes. I use a very small dry bag for first aid kit, meds, things like that. Another very small dry bag for electronics. But other than that, just about everything I have could get wet without ruining a trip. I still would use plastic bags for a lot of things, but I would not put a lot of stuff in drybags.

+1

Why not put all of those things in one larger bag?

Blue bag-tent/rainfly, small graybag--pillow, yellow bag--sleeping bag, other small gray bag--sil nylon ground cloth/tarp, orange bag--Thermarest pad. Sometimes the tent poles also go in bag.


It is held to the rear rack with a couple of GOOD bungee cords.

I think dry bags are overkill if you will be putting them in panniers. A trash compactor bag or gallon ziplocs suffice just fine. I use dry bags when foregoing panniers though.

A tent in my opinion belongs on the top of the rack and requires no dry bag. I just roll it with the waterproof floor on the outside and it stays just as dry (or wet) as it was when I rolled it. Your sleeping bag or pillow must be huge to require 13 liter and 8 lither dry bags unless you aren't packing them tightly at all.

As far as sizes I really can't say because that is dependent on your gear. Personally I find that very surprisingly gear is required and it can be compressed to pack quite small. These days my gear all would probably fit in the two bags you use for just the sleeping bag and pillow. I'd advise getting your gear together and then buying whatever bags it requires. In the days when I packed more I found that panniers and ziplocs were the way to go and when I got below 20 pounds of gear I found that the dry bags without panniers worked very well and below that the lighter and more minimal the gear the more it made sense. I have found that it can be comfortable to camp and cook with 15, 10 or even less pounds of gear if you think out the gear very carefully. I now much prefer that approach.

If the notion of packing lighter appeals to you check out my article on the subject. Also if you follow the link in my sig line you can find a lot of info on my tours including the early ones where I packed heavier, I tried to include useful details in all of the,

Either way have a great time touring.

I agree a dry bag for the tent is over kill. I thought of using it more as a stuff sack. Freezer bags for clothes is the way to go. I have tried Mummy down and can't sleep so confined so I am sacrificing wt and size with a more comfortable bag. I will be stopping at family 300 miles into the ride so any adjustments add/subtract can be done. I did GOBA last year self contained but I am still unsure. It will be my first long solo tour. I am a bit apprehensive but excited. Attached is a pic from GOBA which is my basic setup.

Ditto on the compactor bag. I pack two panniers, one with a compactor bag liner where I keep stuff (clothing, sleeping bag, maps) that has to stay dry, and one where the wet stuff (tent, tools, food (in ziplocks)) goes. Unless you need extra storage outside the panniers, a dry bag seems excessive.

Have a great trip and don't hesitate to make adjustments as you go. It helps if you have someone at home who can receive or send stuff if you find you need or don't need it. Also remember you can buy stuff along the way. So missing something is usually not that huge of a deal as long as you have the means to stay warm enough and fed. With that in mind I recommend going as minimal as you think you can manage. OTOH, if you take a ton of stuff you can always mail it home.

Just a side note - I did an organized group ride with 15 other people a couple years ago. One guy had a trike like yours (but no windshield), he also had a trailer behind for gear. That would make packing up your stuff easier.

I use the MSR packshower since I can use it for many things.

Thanks for the info. Probably thinking too much. I am going with the mindset nothing is permanent and it's all part of the Adventure.. Staying warm and fed is a priority. Today's ride left me with my 4th flat in 2 weeks. Getting lot's of practice!

Put all your gear into a cardboard box. Measure the volume used and get panniers of that size.