Backpack Mangle

Sure, it's easy enough to roll up the sleeping bag and the air mattress at home into nice, neat, tight bundles on a wide flat floor, but out in the bush, forget it: no matter what you do, the air mattress refuses to give up a good cubic foot of air and, even with four hands the sleeping bag looks like the dog packed it.

Now, remember those old washing machines ? the ones with the dual rollers on top which squeezed the water out of clothes passed through it. The Backpack Mangle attachment embodies that principle: two rollers, hand-cranked, wide enough to take an air mattress or sleeping bag. The distance between rollers is adjustable as is the tension, and the top roller is removeable.

Simply feed your air mattress into one end; attach it to the top roller as it's coming out, and keep cranking, all the while squeezing every bit of air out, until it's completely wound around the top roller. Now either remove the mattress from the roller and strap it to your backpack or keep it in place while you roll up your sleeping bag onto the second roller.

It also doubles as a clothes-washing accessory: mount it on a stand (sold separately) and dewater your clothes after you've washed them in the stream (or been hiking in the rain for a few hours).