What do you fellers wear to keep warm? im having a hard time keeping my torso warm at work. im really thinking about carharts, but my main problem is im a mechanic and i have to be able to work outside, the wind is doing the most damage to my ability to keep warm.

basically i need something to keep the wind off me, keep me warm while i stand or crouch and work. could be 5 mins in that position or a few hours.
durability is high priority as well, since i work at a sugar factory, the fruit acids are rough on material.

Right now my under armor, cotton underwear/long johns and long sleeve shirt under my coveralls and cheap *** coat aint doin it.

 

windbreaker. academy should have some good ones that are pretty durable. if not academy then something like a gander mountain or another sporting goods store. carharts are also pretty good. but i found that when you start sweating in them they get reallly cold.

 

im not sure im on the right mindset here, i was kind of thinking better under wear, a thicker poly that will keep me warm some and mostly keep sweat away as best as possible, with a thick cotton thermal to trap heat, long sleeve shirt, my cotton coveralls. on top of all of that for my torso i was thinking a wind breaker, but im not sure i have enough layers for a near 0 or below 0 day / night with winds that commonly hit 15mph on the complex.

im just afraid a plain wind breaker wont be enough.

 

i personally love my carhart bibs and jacket. for how warm they keep me they cant be beat IMO and they last. Mine may look like crap after a year or so of heavy wear but they still work just fine. i wore them all last winter outside roofin, hanging siding, and inside houses with no heat or insulation doing some plumbing and now im wearing them outside workin for the railroad and i stay night and warm for the most part. once you add the jacket to the mix it gets a little bulky which i didnt like last winter when i was doin the construction work, not such a big deal now, but i would always just layer up with the underarmor and a couple few sweatshirts and they usually kept me very warm and still flexible. so thats what i recomend, Carhart bibs and a jacket.

 

my carhart is great. one of the warmest jackets i have ever had

 

Just came back from northern alberta where it was 44 ( including wind ) below.


I was wearing good micro long johns with insulated jeans, A t-shirt, long sleeved winter fleece ( find one with nylon patchs on the elbows, makes the movement easyier) with an insulated coat like the carhart. Over the head a microfiber balaclava and a bandana to stop the draft down my neck.

I was warm but would regulate the body heat by zipping the coat open, This is where the bandana works to keep the neck warm when the coat is open.
My boots were rated for around zero and I had minus 30 rated socks.


When working at a stationary position the body generates less heat and the blood flow is less. Every now and then swing your arms back and forth across your front of the body , level to the ground, like you are going to hug some one. this helps the blood circulate and will keep the hands warmer as well as the upper body.

Some of the other guys had insulated farmer john bibs and a matching overcoat. All they had on underneeth was micro fiber longjohns and jacketwith a long sleeve t-shirt. They were the rebar workers.



Hope this helps.

Some interisting notes about cold weather construction. The construction master caculator quite working at 20- 25 below as do cell phones act strange.
The leveling laser ( spector physics) will not self level at around 18 below.
So we had to use an optical instriment. do not breath on the eye peice it fogs and freezes. at 35 below the hardhat freezes to the balaclava. The other guys would have their upper lip hair frfeeze to the under lip hair. If you closed your eyes when they were watering from the wind they would stick together, so blink fast.



Why am I doing this? Money, every 10 days is worth a month in town wages.

 

Helly Hansen. Hands down the best winter wear out there. If you can find a store that sells the one piece thermal underwear get those. Only downside with them is if you wear them to work outside and then have to come into a warm shop and work for a couple hours you'll probably roast.

 

I have some thermal that I bought from a military surplus, and it's gray, doesn't look like normal thermal but it is awesome. Also, I have a Carheart jacket, and that thing keeps the wind off of me like nothing else, it's been pretty gusty around here the last few days, and I was just noticing yesterday how much that jacket keeps the wind off of me.

 

really cant beat carhartt for work wear. or any wear for that matter.

however one of the best insulators out there is goose down.

 

I do most of what SilverSVT already stated.

Two other things I've done with success is to wear my bicycling pants under my insulated jeans to stay warm and flexible instead of cotton underwear. I also have a cross county skiing bibs which are very comfortable to wear under Cabelas hunting bibs.

I was out today at -8 and stayed very warm in a high wind, but almost frost bit my right pinkie finger. I usually can keep my fingers warm in a simple farmers cloth yellow glove, but the wind was too much for me today.

I was wearing a Nike Fitdry shirt under a turtle neck, microfiber long johns under Cabelas bibs and a Dry-Duck hooded coat (similar to Carhartt). and a pair of gortex boots. A hat with a face mask that covers down over the turtle neck and pull the hood up over my head. Then I complete it all with some cheap cloth gloves, but today the gloves were a mistake.

 

+1 for Carhartt

 

Eat some more double cheeseburgers.

 

Carthart Bibs Rock! Buy them Big so they'll go over your jeans and other layer's.

All that "Micro" crap is good for hiking and stuff, but for standing around outside working on something, you need something more substantial...

 

I love Carharrts. Tough and warm.

 

Tuff Duck or Carharrt jacket and insulated coveralls. 1200 thinsulite boots and make sure they are gore tex.