# Any body have plans for heater bodysuit?



## zippyz7 (Aug 5, 2010)

Has anybody here made a body suit? I can't afford $300.00 . Thanks to all who reply.


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## Cajun83 (Sep 30, 2009)

Its a sleeping bag with legs...


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## happyfish (Aug 19, 2008)

use a sleeping bag, I had a mummy type I used a few times I just had to remember to take my boots off so it stayed dry inside.


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## 82ndArcher07 (Aug 29, 2009)

Cajun83 said:


> Its a sleeping bag with sleeves...


My explaination exactly. Go get a camo sleeping bag and put it on and turn the zipper toward the front. Its basically the same thing


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## Ab_bow_hunter (May 16, 2008)

82ndArcher07 said:


> My explaination exactly. Go get a camo sleeping bag and put it on and turn the zipper toward the front. Its basically the same thing


I've cosidered doing this but sew an old coat to the top of any sleeping bag and have the wife sew me a camo slipover that would make the whole thing camo...


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## jqcargle (Jul 28, 2010)

A buddy of mine took a one piece union suit (longjohns) and sewed pockets all over it and placed hand warmers in the pockets. He said it keep him warm all day in Canada, but you have to be careful you don't start sweating.


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## woodchipper (Aug 3, 2010)

if you can rig a heating blanket to run off dcell batteries... it can be done btw. you can effectively take the heating coils from it and sew it into an old coverall or perhaps into a set of thermal underwear.


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## plotman (Feb 27, 2008)

There was athread here where a fellow built his own. He and I both found out that once you buy all the high quality materials to duplicate the suit, you arent going to be saving much, if anything. I am a hardcore DIY guy but, I bit the bullet and bought one for both me and my growing son (11)a few years ago. We bought a medium for him and sewed some straps inside the legs to take up the slack for what he lacked in height. That suit has already paid for itself as I dont need to buy him cold weather hunting clothes every year, he just wears lightweight stuff inside the suit. My wife keeps it in the trunk of the car for her to use at chilly baseball and football games. You cannot imagine the amount of questions we get about the suit and where do they get them! Regardless if you build it or buy it, they are wonderfull when its cold!


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## Barry Portugal (Dec 23, 2007)

zippyz7 said:


> Has anybody here made a body suit? I can't afford $300.00 . Thanks to all who reply.


Have a look at the Selk Bag you can find it in the USA on Google it's about half that price!:darkbeer:


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## Don Schultz (Jul 5, 2002)

Some typical responses above, like "It's just a sleeping bag". Wrong conclusion. No research. Study the Heater Body Suit website. Below is my essay about building 2 such suits. They are extremely effective, and cost about $100 each. Read the whole essay before concluding you want to build your own.

Well, kinda. Below is an outline of how I, an avid experienced bow hunter who hates being cold, helped my perfectionistic and highly skilled wife put these things together for me and my son in law. I did some grunt work hand stitching, and cutting. She did everything important. I will include very few dimensions but a lot of guidelines as to how to determine the right dimensions for your suit. Please don't ask me a ton of questions as to how to do the details. If you or your "tailor" can't figure it out, you shouldn't be doing the project. When we set out to build a knock-off of the TSS Heater Body Suit, the goal was simply get the same capability as the TSS suit using my wife's skills in sewing rather than paying TSS those $$s. I have Barb and didn't have the $$s because I was out of work at the time. By the time we were done, we felt good about saving the money, but we don't consider the TSS offering overpriced. These things are a lot of work by skilled people with good equipment. If you aren't sure you have the skill and equipment to get it done right, save the $100+ you'll spend on the materials, and put it toward the TSS. You'll be much happier in the end.

While you are deciding to try the project, do lots of research. I spent much time looking at the pictures and reading the descriptions on the TSS website, including the multiframe "Heater Suit in action" video. I printed everything and reviewed the material with Barb. Bringing her sewing experience into the earliest phase of the project was critical to its success.

It was my job to carefully define the function of the completed suit. Like many of you she asked the "stupid questions" like, how I expected to walk in the thing without wearing out the feet, and how I could draw my bow. We looked very hard at modifying sleeping bags. We determined that a sleeping bag based suit would be bulkier, and about as much work as a Thinsulate based suit. New sleeping bags cost to much anyway.

Here is a list of design goals:

1. Must be very resistant to wind

2. Must be quiet, including the zipper

3. Must NOT make me look like a 500+ lb Brown Bear hanging in a tree

4. Must be exceedingly well insulated (duhhh)

5. Easy to don and doff while on stand.

6. Must NEVER bind or catch me short while standing up or sitting down.

7. Must fit around my largest boots.

8. Must fit my bulkiest warm clothing if worn in truly Arctic conditions

9. Must fall easily from the shoulders

There are a number of things the suit DOES NOT need to do: A. Have a high degree of finish quality beyond being sturdy

B. Have carefully matched pattern repeats (matching pattern repeats greatly increases material usage)

C. Have a waterproof layer (noisy, costly, and if it's warm enough to rain I may not need the suit). Treat it with Camp Dri like it's a tent.

D. Have a closely tailored fit anywhere

Items 1-5 are dependent on construction material choices and somewhat on construction techniques. My suit ended up being 5 layers. In order outer to inner they are: brushed twill camouflage, tightly woven ripstop nylon windbreaker, 200 gram Thinsulate, 200 gram Thinsulate, polyester? lining.

I orginally wanted Predator Grey camouflage for this project. While shopping for Predator, I found the Skyline you see in the picuture for a very low close out price. I made the decision to buy the Skyline because I anticipated using the suit almost exclusively in my treestand, logically in the late season. I believe this is the right camo for those conditions. Predator Deception or Grey would be more versatile. The brushed twill fabric is quiet and easy to work with. You really need to use a good breaking pattern like Predator Grey/Deception, Skyline like mine or maybe ASAT, maybe Sticks and Limbs. Chose a quiet outer layer. If your flush, even fleece.

I looked for a windbreaking layer, and didn't find a fabric specified for the purpose. In considered buying microfiber, but that was stupidly expensive. While going through the bargain table at a big Hancock fabric store, I found a very tightly woven ripstop nylon. It happened to be in woodland camo, but it wouldn't have mattered if it was hot pink since it would be under the Skyline twill. Ripstop is very noisy by itself, but in this case, there is NO noise added by the ripstop because it is an inside layer. Good and Cheap!! Yeah!

I chose 3M's Thinsulate because I'm NOT an expert in insulating fabrics. I found that Thinsulate seemed to be the most expensive stuff available. But since it is consistently the insulation of choice in quality outdoor clothing, I decided the suit was to much work and investment to screw up by cheaping out on the insulation. See the list of links at the end of this document. There are other sources and someone today may have a better price. Use Google, and shop hard! Because I live in Northern Illinois and we regularly get sub-zero temperatures, and I am diabetic and subject to hypothermia, I decided to go with 2 layers of 200 gram Thinsulate, 33% more than TSS's 300 grams. If you live in Tennesee and don't hunt in Minnesota, you might want to do your suit in 150 gram or 200 gram Thinsulate, or perhaps another insulation. Heck, we even considered using surplus wool blankets. This will be YOUR CHOICE. Make your choice and please don't ask me to approve what you get. My only opinion is stated above.

You must have a slippery lining material in order to easily get the suit on and off. My lining material is whatever was on sale at the Hancock Fabrics store the day I bought the ripstop nylon windbreak fabric. It was called lining material and it works well. I think I ended up with 2 different colors. Doesn't matter.

I bought the biggest toothed zipper I could find in stock at the fabric store. Mine is 36", and zips both down and up. I would get an even bigger toothed zipper if I was doing it again, even if I had to special order. It MUST be plastic, and the biggest toothed zipper you can find in order for it to be as quiet as possible. Consider special ordering if it will get you a bigger toothed zipper. NO METAL ZIPPERS.

Points 6-9 above all are related to the FIT of the suit. You may be able to make a suit to big, but it won't be easy. Do NOT scrimp on any dimensions and risk a suit that binds. Your wife is going to be pissed at how much work this thing was, and you DON'T want to ask her to fix it.

We measured my oversize sleeping bag that fits my entire body well dressed to sleep, but didn't fit nearly as well when I got in it with my heaviest hunting clothes on. So we unzipped the bag, measured how far it pulled the zipper open, and added 150% of that value to the HBS circumference dimension. For me that number was 72"

We determined that although the suit would would go from floor to my neck, we would make it tall enough to fit almost over my head, so it could not bind while sitting or standing.

For my suit we started by making a big rectangle of all 5 layers and zigzag stiching the edges. My starting rectangle was 75" wide and 78" tall. My son in law's rectangle was 60" wide, by about 74" tall. Remember to allow for folding and seaming the material at the top of the shoulder.

We laid the rectangle on the floor with the lining up, and then brought the left and right edges together where the zipper would join them. Barb folded the top edge to provide some taper to the shoulders and sewed them shut. You can see the pointy angle that resulted. Your "tailor" may wish to work at rounding the shoulders more, but it is just a style thing, not affecting the function, unless there is some bulky part that may hang up on your shoulder as a result. Some one has said it looks like a Pop-Tart. That's true. I don't care. It proved not necessary to cut away for the neck hole, but Barb did make a very nice stand up collar (kinda like a Nehru) that forms a nice seal around my neck. It is stiffened with scraps of Thinsulate. AT THIS POINT TRIAL FIT IT AND MAKE SURE IT IS PLENTY LONG. IF IT ISN'T ADD MORE LENGTH TO THE BOTTOM.

She next installed the zipper, with the pulls INSIDE (duhhh). Again, let me stress the bigger the teeth the quieter. This the one thing I might change on my suit if I can find an even bigger toothed zipper.

We used that front seam meeting point to cut the inseam for the legs. The inseam is cut up only 24". DO NOT make the crotch high!! You only need to shuffle around on your stand, not walk any distance, and I don't climb ladders in my suit. WAY TO RISKY TO SLIP ON A LADDER. It is possible to do a sit&stand climber like my API GSSM in the suit, if you can keep your feet in the lower section stirrups.

For both suits, we had to make another panel, about 8" X 25" on my suit, to add to the circumferance of the legs. We also made insulated bottoms for the legs in big ovals traced with liberal (2"+ all sides) borders around my biggest hunting boots. Big Big Big. The inseams of the legs were sewn and the bottoms of the feet added. The legs are simple and straight like an elephant's.

At this point it was time to close up the crotch. Barb made 2 big diamond shaped gussets, one of the 5 layers, and one of the ripstop nylon and the lining. These were sewn into crotch to close it and make it strong. The 5 layer is on the outside, and the 2 layer on the inside. This was very difficult to do because of all the fabric. Perhaps your "tailor" can anticipate the problems and improve on our design.

Because this was all done with a home grade sewing machine, Barb was often sewing 10 layers of fabric. She broke several NEW sewing machine needles. The heaviest sewing was the crotch gussetts which had to be done by hand. If you have access to a heavy duty machine you should use it. We had to hand sew sections the machine couldn't do.

At this point the suit was done. I took some long sections of nylon webbing and made the shoulder straps. They are extra long so the suit can fall away far enough. I sewed them just 1" below the collar in back, and then experimented with positioning the other ends by using big safety pins to temporarily locate them. They ended up near my waist. I practiced till the suit easily shucked from my shoulders easily.

I found the soles of my boots tended to grab the lining when getting the suit on. Barb took some of the ripstop material and made simple bag booties with elastic tops. I put them on the boots just as I don the suit. Works great, and keeps the inside of the suit cleaner.

I really like a hood for the cold weather. Barb made me a matching stand alone hood to wear over a baseball cap. It is the 5 layer construction, and copied from the hood of a camo jacket like most of us have. I'm about deaf anyway, so the hearing loss from the hood doesn't matter for me. It fits inside the suit's collar, and turns with my head.

So that's it. No patterns, no sketches, study the website, build your confidence. If you decide to do it, don't let your wife obsess about perfection. And offer her appropriate honor and thanks for her labor on your behalf. It is ultimately simple work but heavy, hard work. Be there to do the hand stitching. Soon you'll be a Camo Gumby, and warm.


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## JeffreySlayR (Mar 1, 2006)

Hey Don- I have to believe you've taken pictures!!! We folks here on AT are _visual_ creatures.


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## yoda4x4 (May 11, 2004)

Don - great post but I have 2 questions for you: 1) I don't see any pictures of this suit. Can you post them? 2) You mentioned a list of internet list that I didn't see in your post. Can you post them as well? Thanks and great job!

David


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## Don Schultz (Jul 5, 2002)

I've not been "around here" much lately and wasn't aware of the need to photobucket.com or other sites to store pics. Got it set up now. We did the project in late 2003, so I don't consider the old list of vendors worthwhile. I remember using a variety of search terms on Google including: cheap, fabric, camo, camouflage. It took some doing to find a site that had Thinsulate available. One nice shop I bought from is named Lura's Fabric. She is in Idaho (?) and had the Skyline I used for a great price.

The suit continues to perform extremely well in extreme cold. It is bulkier than the factory HBS because of the extra insulation. Note the elephant legs. These are no problem at all on stand. I can shuffle round just fine on stand. If I build a 2nd suit, it will be the same design but lightweight with little insulation for the early season. I think the HBS design makes the hunter harder to spot because it hides incidental motion of arms and legs. 

The hood is a separate piece. I've never worn it in the field because I wear a hooded jacket in Predator Gray.


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## JeffreySlayR (Mar 1, 2006)

Wow that was quick with the photos Don! Thank you! I really like the camo pattern you chose. Great looking workmanship also, with a high five to your wife and all her labor.


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## yoda4x4 (May 11, 2004)

Looks great. Your wife did a great job!

David


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## Nytro69 (Nov 24, 2004)

I want one like this...

http://www.infernotek.com


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## bowhntng4evr (Dec 18, 2009)

Sweet looking insulated body suit.


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## Don Schultz (Jul 5, 2002)

The Infernotek suit looks better than some others I've seen. I think a real bowhunting advantage of the HBS design is that your arms are contained in the suit. This containment hides their motion from the game. It also keeps them warmer than Having the arms out in conventional sleeves. When I go to shoot in the coldest weather, I can be wearing a jacket/coat that is to light for long exposure in the cold and thin enough to minimize interference problems.


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## Don Schultz (Jul 5, 2002)

@ yoda4x4. My thanks for the compliment. Sadly, she passed away in 2005 of cancer. She was an excellent wife, and mother besides being an amazing seamstress. The HBS was far from a challenging project for her except for the heavy sewing loads making it difficult getting some things to work.


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## wenken (Dec 15, 2016)

Don Schultz said:


> Some typical responses above, like "It's just a sleeping bag". Wrong conclusion. No research. Study the Heater Body Suit website. Below is my essay about building 2 such suits. They are extremely effective, and cost about $100 each. Read the whole essay before concluding you want to build your own.
> 
> Well, kinda. Below is an outline of how I, an avid experienced bow hunter who hates being cold, helped my perfectionistic and highly skilled wife put these things together for me and my son in law. I did some grunt work hand stitching, and cutting. She did everything important. I will include very few dimensions but a lot of guidelines as to how to determine the right dimensions for your suit. Please don't ask me a ton of questions as to how to do the details. If you or your "tailor" can't figure it out, you shouldn't be doing the project. When we set out to build a knock-off of the TSS Heater Body Suit, the goal was simply get the same capability as the TSS suit using my wife's skills in sewing rather than paying TSS those $$s. I have Barb and didn't have the $$s because I was out of work at the time. By the time we were done, we felt good about saving the money, but we don't consider the TSS offering overpriced. These things are a lot of work by skilled people with good equipment. If you aren't sure you have the skill and equipment to get it done right, save the $100+ you'll spend on the materials, and put it toward the TSS. You'll be much happier in the end.
> 
> ...


Great work, bump!


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## Boone (Jun 13, 2003)

Army navy store or Herb Phillips stores sell the army type for 20 bucks


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## Inn.Outdoorsman (Feb 4, 2016)

My father made his own Heater Body suit but added features from the IWOM bag by way of additional arm zippers that make the suit even better. All the details and photos and construction steps can be found on his blog rather than trying to repost all that content here. There are just way to many pictures to post here.

http://ronkulas.proboards.com/thread/242/diy-warm-suit-hunting


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## Don Schultz (Jul 5, 2002)

Inn.Outdoorsman said:


> My father made his own Heater Body suit but added features from the IWOM bag by way of additional arm zippers that make the suit even better. All the details and photos and construction steps can be found on his blog rather than trying to repost all that content here. There are just way to many pictures to post here.
> http://ronkulas.proboards.com/thread/242/diy-warm-suit-hunting


Excellent! I appreciate the research your Dad did in building his suit. Our approaches to the project were similar. At the time my suit was built by my wife and me (about 2003) the HBS stood alone. I am still very happy with the design. I find the range finder doesn't fog up coming out of the suit, rather going back in. Keeping it in keeps the battery warm. My shoe covers are just a bag of ripstop with some elastic to hold them. They work great.

I dismissed coil zippers because of my perception they are loud but I hadn't considered the openability. Happily my choice has worked well. 

I had not considered the O3 generator before. Now I will.

Say "Hello" to your Dad for me.


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## b0w_bender (Apr 30, 2006)

Great post Don fantastic detail well done. 

If I may add please don't use photo-bucket it destroys older threads because people forget where they used those pictures and move or delete them. So 2 years from now we may come back to this thread and find all the pictures are gone. :-(

Here is a vid on how to use the AT photo attachment feature.


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## Dynex (Jul 25, 2013)

HQ ISSUE Tactical Sleeping Bag with Arms on Amazon for less than $50 is what I ended up with I'm a short person so I could take Half of it and cut it off and make a 2 nd one out of it. cut the bottom out and add a draw string to use as a sinch for walking in it and good to go. I still need to do the Camo on it but I for one am glad to have had it this year.


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## loworange88 (Jul 21, 2011)

Though I like the DIY stuff...if one is going to spend $100 on a makeshift heater body suit, just spend a few extra dollars and go for the Slumberjack Thermal Cloak, it can be had for $150.
I think its even showing up on Camofire.com from time to time for around $120.


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## 2backstraps (Mar 3, 2013)

I've heard these Slumberjack cloaks are very noisy to move around in. Anybody with first hand knowledge confirm this?

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk


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## Don Schultz (Jul 5, 2002)

loworange88 said:


> Though I like the DIY stuff...if one is going to spend $100 on a makeshift heater body suit, ....


I assure all that my DIY HBS, and at least a handful of other related designs Archerytalkers have put together are *NOT* makeshift. Aspects of my suit are superior to the factory products. It has been in service about 14 years.


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