U.S. Military M65 Trouser Liner

Thanks for the tip on these, JtothaK.

Nice! As I asked in your other review, where do I find these?

The jacket liners, aka smoking jackets, are also warm and lightweight. They don't compact very well for their size, though.

I've got a pair of these that are almost 40 years old now. Mine were issued. And if you don't mind the weight of some of this gear, you'd be hard pressed to find warmer clothing. I've got a pair of the arctic mittens, the bunny boots, and muk-luks. Anyone who's ever worn a filed jacket with the liner can testify just how warm they can be when you're properly layered underneath. Love these pants for sittin' around the fire or just hangin' around camp. But JtothaK is right about needing sub-0 temps to be active wearing these.

Goose - purchased unused (NOS) from ebay. To Phil's point, I have an ultralight hooded Mont Bell synthetic mid layer (and a Montane) that packs much smaller than the m65 jacket liner (smoking jacket). Of course, the Mont Bell jacket was around $150. And this is the point of my reviews, there are some really good deals out there from the mil surplus side that actually perform quite well when compared to commercial offerings. We all know that the, for example, Patagonia Micropuff is great and we all know that Western Mountaineering bags are incredible (love my Summerlite) but there don't seem to be many reviews around the mil spec side within the context of outdoor, non-military, use.

Have some military Thermolite Micro insulated synthetic liner pants and love them but the M65 pants ae a LOT less money. Thanks for the idea. I'll post it on WINTER TREKKING. Eric B.

They really work best as a liner as that is what they were designed to be. They button into the M51 field pants which are now made of ripstop synthetic. I use the liner and new M51 field pants every winter.

@Bill - The application of using the liner as an overpant is more in-line with the modern PCU/ECWCS level 7 design of wearing a really warm insulated pant OVER the other layers. The benefits are not overheating when under exertion, drying the other layers via body heat and the ability to quickly don and doff.

Phil, synthetic fiber quilted jacket liners compress (stuff) far better than the same size and shape fleece liners. Only down liners would compress better. That's why I have a light down jacket and liner pants and a +30 F. and -20 F. down sleeping bags. Oh yeah,and down is lighter than synthetic too, R value being equal.

If you can find a set of the older style camouflage overwhites in nylon they also button into those. Putting a wind resistant layer over these really does increase the insulation but naturally at the expense of some added weight. The big advantage of the nylon overwhite is a long knee length side zipper so you don't need to take of your boots to put them on. You can dye the overpants any bright colour you like too. As already noted the only real downside to these is the weight.

Thanks for the further recommendation of these, Mike.

I got the best results by wearing these under my BDU or Gore-Tex pants, over the polypro longjohns. Of course, I was an artilleryman, not an infantryman, but the glow plug for the cab heater in my track always seemed to break when it got cold and it is COLD inside a metal box in the German winter. I tended to wear the field pants over the top of everything because they were tougher than the Gore-Tex pants.

Thanks for the additional review, Mike.