Kammok Firebelly 30 Down Trail Quilt Review

Are you looking at buying a down trail quilt that is ultralight, water repellent, super comfortable, and can replace your sleeping bag? Look no further than this review of the Kammok Firebelly 30.

Review of the new Kammok Firebelly 30

What I really love about Kammok is that they’re constantly evolving and improving their product line.

Not settling for the status quo, they introduced a refreshed family of down trail quilts including the Kammok Firebelly 30. This was first introduced in late 2020 to replace the previous Firebelly.

Let’s dive into my review of the Kammok Firebelly down trail quilt.

Why do you need a down trail quilt

Perhaps it makes sense to start off with the basics. A common question that I hear all the time is: “Why do I need to spend so much money on a blanket?”

Okay first of all, a down trail quilt is so much more than a blanket. Second, it’s worth it and here’s why.

What it comes down to is versatility and what a trail quilt can do.

• Blanket – Yes, this is true. This makes a comfy, soft, and warm down-filled blanket.
• Built for the outdoors – With water repellent down and DWR coating on its shell, this is weatherproof and suitable for all adventures.
• Great indoors – Whether at home, on the road in your RV, or at a cottage, you can use this anywhere inside.
• Lightweight and packs small – It’s incredible light and packs down to a small footprint in its stuff sack. This is huge for those travelling ultra-light.
• Designed with the hammock in mind – You can use this as an under-quilt or over-quilt thanks to its built-in snaps.
• Hands-free – Wear this as a poncho to stay warm and allow you to move around without worry of the quilt slipping off.
• Turns into a sleeping bag – This is the perfect segue to my next main point which is that trail quilts can easily replace a sleeping bag.

Quilt vs Sleeping Bag

The magic of trail quilts is that they can be converted into a sleeping bag mode.

It’s really simple with the Kammok Firebelly 30. There are button snaps spaced all along the long side of the quilt. If you snap opposite ends together, the quilt wraps around your body and stays connected.

Of course, this isn’t a fully closed loop because it’s just the snaps holding it in place. There are two more things you need to do:

• Rotate the quilt so the snaps face the ground – Eliminating drafts is quite easy. With the open part of the trail quilt on your back, you close off any chance of cold air coming in.
• Create a toe box – Since both ends of the trail quilt have elastic cinches. You close off the one end at your feet and fold it down towards the ground, creating a sealed pocket for your feet.

For side sleepers, you’ll find that quilts will suit you better than the standard mummy sleeping bags. Trail quilts simply have more flexibility and fabric to form it into a shape that best suits you.

How does it work with a sleeping pad?

Well, they’ve thought of that too.

The Kammok Firebelly 30 comes with 2 elastic cords as part of the accessories kit. These wrap around the top and bottom part of a sleeping pad like the Thermarest Neoair X-Lite.

The elastics have two loops built in and this is where the trail quilt snaps into which makes sure it stays secure to the sleeping pad so you never have that common issue of slipping off in the middle of the night.

Disadvantage of trail quilts

Of course, the trail quilt isn’t perfect and so there are a couple of things you need to consider:

• No hood – They lack a hood so you will need a way to protect your head on cold nights.
• Not a fully closed system – Yes, the snaps can loop the quilt together but you won’t be able to close it off like in a sleeping bag so there may be heat loss.

Technical Specs

Here are the specification for the Kammok Firebelly 30F.

Performance

So how does the Kammok Firebelly perform in the real-world?

When purchasing a trail quilt, here are the key areas that you want to focus in on.

Warmth

When it comes to the most important feature of a quilt, is its ability to keep you warm. That’s the

The Kammok Firebelly is rated for 30ºF or -1ºC and based on my experiences in Canadian climates in the winter, it is pretty accurate.

It can be near freezing during the day outdoors and you’ll feel the cold but once you’re bundled by the trail quilt, you’ll immediately start to feel the insulation retain your own body warmth while deflecting wind and chill.

The duck down and Atmos X outer shell, combined with the DownLock baffle technology helps distribute and reflect heat.

If you’re looking for something even warmer, check out our review of the Kammok Arctos which is rated for 20ºF or -6ºC.

Down Distribution

While a trail quilt sounds like it’s just a basic blanket, when you delve into the construction, you realize that there’s a lot more that goes into it.

A big part of what allows the Kammok Firebelly to be so warm is in how the duck down feathers are contained and distributed.

Using baffle tubes and their own DownLock technology, there’s plenty of room for the down to loft and expand. The lightweight mesh design with internal mesh gates are also what keeps the down in place and makes sure it’s evenly distributed. This eliminates cold spots.

Packability and Loft

The Firebelly conveniently comes with a nylon stuff sack that brings the size of the trail quilt down to 14.2″ x 7.1″. From experience, it’s pretty easy to cram everything in.

When taking the quilt out of the stuff sack, you’ll find that it’s able to rapidly regain loft. By this, I mean that the down is able to get puff up and build up volume.

At the same time, this isn’t the kind of quilt where it’s overly poofy. The Kammok Firebelly is still quite low-profile when unfurled.

Fit and Comfort

Like every product in the Kammok line, the fabrics they use are exquisite.

The outer shell of the Firebelly is made of Atmos X 20D. This not only gives the fabric strength, heat reflective qualities, and but it’s also incredibly soft and silky cool to touch.

This fabric makes it ridiculously comfortable and something you really look forward to wrapping yourself around.

As someone that’s 5’11”, I have no problems with fit. There’s always an excess of material to work with even if I need to create a toebox in sleeping bag mode.

For those that are taller, the good news is that this updated version of the Kammok Firebelly is actually longer than before despite what the specs say.

Poncho

This iteration of the Kammok Firebelly 30°F has an added zipper opening in the middle which will allow you to poke your head through. This allows you to wear the trail quilt as a poncho.

I won’t lie, you’ll look like a hipster runway model if you strut yourself around town but the practical uses of this is game-changing.

As a poncho, you’ll finally be able to use a quilt in a hands-free mode to allow you to wear it while also doing other things around camp.

On one end, the minimal YKK zipper gives you easy access to open and close the poncho hole while staying quite invisible.

On the other side of the quilt, there’s an extra down-filled draft collar which gives you extra comfort and protection around your neck.

Waterproofing

To be effective in the outdoors, you need to be able to plan for when the weather is bad and that usually means rain, snow, and also sweat.

The Kammok Firebelly has multiple layers of protection built-in:

• Atmos X – This is the outer fabric and this is treated with a water repellent DWR finish.
• DownTek – The down feathers are treated so that they’re water repellent.

Both layers of defense give any owner confidence that it’ll be able to handle any sort of wet environment.

How this new version different from the previous

As an owner of the previous Firebelly, what I was really curious about was just how different the new version compares.

To help with this, I’ve put together this table to demonstrate the differences.

While the specs match up closely, here are the key differences:

• Poncho mode – This brand-new feature is the game-changer.
• Updated baffle design – Behind the scenes, they’re no longer using Insotect technology and instead are using their own in-house DownLock tech. If you look closely, the baffle channel widths are different and they also had to engineer something that would work with the poncho and draft collar.
• 20D nylon ripstop – Compared to 15D, 20D is a heavier fabric that’s ultimately stronger.
• Increased loft – This might be a bit subjective but when I compare the two directly, the new Firebelly does have increased loft and “poofy-ness”. Since the fill power is the same, I think this is attributed to the new baffle design which gives the down more room to expand.

• Larger size – While officially the specs don’t reflect this, the new Firebelly is undoubtedly larger than the previous version. This is clear from when I stack them on top of each other. It is roughly 3″ longer and 2.5″ wider. When measuring the new Firebelly, I am seeing 88″ x 54″.
• Lighter – Despite the additions of the poncho and use of the more durable 20D fabric, this version of the Firebelly 30 is 8 grams lighter.
• Even softer – I thought the previous Firebelly was soft to touch but I’m finding the new one to be even softer if that’s even possible.

Verdict

The Kammok Firebelly 30 is an extremely high quality down trail quilt that will rival anything else in the market.

Built to be extremely versatile, it can be your all-in-one quilt that not only is compatible with your hammocks but can also replace your sleeping bag. In addition, it’s temperature rating allows this to work well for hot summer days and cold winters as well.

It’s lightweight, compact, and oh did I mention that poncho mode?

This is the kind of gear that you invest in and will last you a very long time.

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