I finally was able to "create" a place to test my gear since I don't have suitable trees on my property for hanging. I have only camped/backpacked in nice weather so far and wanted to test my gear and setup for rain. So with the prediction of heavy rain last night I set up my gear (WBBB XLC and SF) on my test area on the deck. I didn't sleep in my hammock and figured I could determine if I had any problems today in the daylight. Finding the problems was not a problem at all. When I checked this morning I have standing water in my hammock!
I found my first problem quickly and it is my inattention that caused it. I have the SF fully staked out including the pull outs. It was asked in another thread in the last day or so if it matters if your pull outs are sealed on the inside or outside. Answer: [B]YES![B] When I got my SF I immediately sealed the pullouts with permatex but I failed to read or see that it should be done on the inside, NOT THE OUTSIDE. All four pullouts leaked. That should be easily remedied and that really was not the big problem because the pullouts were not over the hammock and the drips seem to have fallen and run harmlessly to the ground. The water got in the hammock by running down the zipper material at the head end of my hammock along the side that has the shelf. At the end of the shelf (the lowest point) the water just trickled in a steady stream into the hammock.
Here is how I am set up,tell me if I missed something else or if this was just a case of too much rain and wind. It did rain extremely hard and there was wind. I had the doors on the SF closed and tied. I have the strap suspension on my WBBB. I made the assumption the buckles would act as a water break. Should I have used a string as a water break? There was no water or leaking from the foot end of the hammock. The only difference between the foot and the head was the storage bag was on the head end. It too was soaked. The bag was hanging loosely on the hammock side of the buckles but it too was soaked so I will assume it got wet and the zipper material wicked the water from there and into the hammock.
So what rookie mistakes other than sealing the pullouts wrong have I made? I have got to work this out because I rarely go out that it does not rain. I seem to attract rain.
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