Amazon Jungle Equipment Reviews

Amazon Jungle Equipment Reviews by Clive Maguire

1. The British DPM poncho by Web-Tex  3rd August 2010
http://web-tex.co.uk/boots-and-clothing/web-tex-british-dpm-poncho/prod_1219.html  

I bought two of these 3 years ago, intending to use them in the rainforest and on the river. I paid around GBP35 each for them then, although I see the price is now GBP47.95. That’s a lot of money for a poncho. So how good is it for this sort of money?  

The poncho is advertised as follows:  

Although in light to moderate rain the poncho is indeed waterproof, it fares less well in tropical rain and/or in situations where the rain is driving hard (in very exposed conditions or like the effect you get in an open speedboat on the river when it rains). The problem can be traced to an odd defect, which is the stitching for the attachment points for the internally attachable cord. There are four of these, positioned on the front of the poncho (photo), and they don’t seem to be waterproofed in any way. Unfortunately - no matter how hard anyone may try to convince you otherwise – these will not keep the water out for long. The effect is evident even when standing or walking, but is worsened considerably when you are seated, as water collects around the stitching and after only a minute or so starts to drip inside.  

I have tested the product in various conditions in the jungle and on the river, and – possibly only because of the odd attachment stitching - it is simply is not up to the task of keeping you dry in anything more than light to moderate rain. On the most recent occasion, running at 15km in an open boat for 20-30 minutes, the rain was so heavy it felt like the water was actually ingressing directly through the material, but I’m prepared to accept that this may just have been the effect of both the water seeping in through the stitching and the condensation forming on the inside surface. In the end, I removed the poncho and sat on it, choosing to get totally soaked rather than suffer the discomfort of wet clammy plastic on my body. Although this was a pretty harsh test for any poncho, a feel that nearly 50 quid should allow me the expectation of remaining dry in pretty severe conditions.  

A few other negative points, although minor by comparison, deserve note: the first is that the opening for the head is particularly narrow – if you have a large head, you are going to struggle; the second is that although the supplied cord may indeed be useful (and is a thoughtful touch), you will need to remove it altogether to use the poncho – if not, the eyelet cord will get soaked and slap against your legs and feet, and the internally-attached cord will dangle down so you run the risk of tripping on it or it catching on something; finally, after three years the waterproofing applied to the stitching around the head opening is beginning to peel off. I’m somewhat reluctantly prepared to accept that this is difficult to avoid over time in the harsh conditions I’ve subjected it to. On the positive side, it works satisfactorily as an emergency tarpaulin – but is obviously compromised to some degree by the press-stud joins, the head opening(s) and of course that stitching.    

Overall assessment  

The DPM Waterproof Poncho by Web-Tex is okay for occasional use in moderate conditions, but is not up to the task of keeping you dry in harsher weather – which seems a shame, for the sake of addressing the leaking stitching (or removing it altogether). For me, the most important attribute of a waterproof is its ability to keep me dry, and unfortunately the DPM by Web-Tex fails to come up to the mark. The locals in the Amazon use plastic bin liners (about 10p each), buy simple tarpaulins (around GBP5), or choose to ignore the rain completely, and until I find a product which ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’, I’m afraid I’ll be joining them.   

Summary  

Well made, with nice details, but let down by design flaws. Okay for occasional use in moderate conditions, but unless you specifically need the functionality of the press-stud corners for some reason, you can find cheaper products which will do a better job of keeping you dry. 

2. The Frogman Torch by Zweibruder GmbH  4th December 2010
http://www.zweibrueder.com/ENG/produkte/html_highperformance/html_Dserie/d14.php?id=d14

It is always nice to be able to rave about something unreservedly, and the LED Lenser Frogman torch gives me just the opportunity.
 
If you are looking for a quality torch that won’t let you down in the middle of the rainforest, this is it. Yes, I know it was designed for divers, but in fact its waterproof qualities are often called for when you are mucking about in a rainforest – there’s all that rain, for a start.
 
The body of the torch is an easy-to-hold, slim, yellow high-impact plastic design with a good wrist chord to make sure you don’t drop it. The head of the torch is high-grade stainless steel and the little LED inside gives a relatively powerful bright-white beam that belies the size of the torch. But what really sets it apart (from my point of view) is a dependable double o-ring & gasket seal between head and body and a cunningly designed non-leaking toggle switch which, being magnetic, won’t wear out. Of course since the torch is technically designed for use under water, you won’t get that incredible 200-mile long beam us boys always dream of, but in reality 180m is good enough for all normal use except perhaps if you want it for spotting wildlife in the distant canopy (although it is certainly fine for finding caiman!).
 
All in all, it’s a beautiful piece of kit, and is head and shoulders above any other torch I’ve used in the forest. Over the three years I’ve been using it it has been dropped from height onto concrete (wasn’t using the wrist chord - oops), stomped on, crushed between two boats, and found its way overboard from my boat into the river on numerous occasions. I have used it in tropical thunderstorms in the middle of the night when the only things still functioning were me, my GPS and the Frogman, and it may have saved my life on one occasion when both boat batteries died on me at 02:00 in the morning in the middle of the Amazon river (your big, flash, high-powered, run-it-from-your-boat battery monsters won’t do you much good in these circumstances, and my head-torch had long since packed up). I should also mention that in three years, I’ve only used two sets of AA batteries. I’m very sparing with my use of light in the jungle, but even so, two sets of batteries in three years (actually less than two – the second set still seems fine) is amazing.

So there you are  - perfect form and function in a neat, bright-yellow package. You may pay a little more for the Frogman, but in my opinion it is money extremely well spent.

Official specs: LED  High End Power LED   Length  160 mm   Weight  220 g   Luminous flux  150 lm*   Batteries  4 x AA   Energy tank**  16,8 Wh   Burning life  20 h*   Beam range  180 m*  Item nos. 7456-M-neon;  7457-M-black  

Price (UK): GBP35 – 45. Official distributor  (UK): LEDCO     Price (USA): US$60. Official distributor (USA): COAST