Is the Weathershield Worth the Weight?
Hi all. Thanks to everyone who posts. This forum has helped me a lot. I will buy my first hammock this spring after years of thinking about it. I had a lot of questions, and you answered many of them. Also thanks to the Web sites that detail hammocking (Just Jeff I know participates here, and there are others). I'm psyched to hang.
I asked Clark Outdoors some product questions that I want to share with you:
Q: How much weight does the weathershield add to the tropical model?
A: The WeatherShield adds about 5 oz. to the Tropical model. This weight mainly comes from its separate set of zippers.
Q: Is the weathershield on the tropical model detachable so I can leave it at home when the weather is warm and dry?
A: The WeatherShield only unzips to the bottom of the hammock and stores in pockets there, but it does not detach from the hammock. We've thought about making a detachable WeatherShield, but for various reasons it is not practical.
Q: Can models without the weathershield be used as a chair or does the weathershield act like the seat back of a chair?
A: Every hammock can be used like a chair even without weathershield. The netting is strong enough to make a back rest since most of your weight is taken by the base material.
Q: The head end of the tropical can be raised and lowered over netting -- how does it say in place when it's up?
A: The nylon hood on the Tropical stays up with velcro. It's not intended to seal shut, but only keep random blowing drops of rain out in a serious storm.
So you see I'm weighing the usefulness of the weatheshield, which is optional in the Tropical model. I could just buy the NA and not worry about the velcro-attached hood leaking.
My question for the group: Is the weathershield useful and practical? Clark is the only hammock with it and I'm not sure if it's worth the 5 oz and $40.