UQ first attempt! Karo Step?

[LOMAX]

Hello one and all,

I'm about to drop some mula on materials to make a cuben fiber Karo step UQ - Inspired by Professor Hammock's YouTube video. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbFBdT8GjYo)

I just wanted to check my dimensions with the veteran DIY'ers here before splashing the cash.

I'm 5'10" tall, 48" round the widest part of my shoulders. I'm in a 10' gathered end hammock.

I hung a cord under me whilst I was in the hammock to mark off what seems like a reasonable height above my shoulders for the internal fabric width. It came out as 28" which, comparing to all the other projects I've seen, looks rather narrow.

Deferring to Prof. Hammock's wisdom, I'm thinking of bumping up the internal width to 36" and following his measurements closely.

Do any of you see any reason I should think about increasing/decreasing this width?

Thanks!

LOMAX

[MAD777]

I make my underquilts 40" wide and that's just enough, without any extra, for me at 6'-1", 190# with a 36" waist.

I find that most people go wider, but I'm a gram weenie, and I wouldn't use the extra width.

[LOMAX]

Hey Mike - Is that a 40" width for the piece of fabric closest to the hammock?

[WV]

I agree with MAD777 on the width.

You'll save some money and collect less water between the UQ and your hammock if you use a breathable fabric with DWM instead of cuben. I made an insulated cuben hammock that, like your hammock, was basically a gathered end design. It had an interesting, if semi-tragic history. The pressure of my heels created a rip when I was at Linville Gorge, but I was able to patch it easily with some DIY cuben tape, and almost no down was lost. The lines where the baffles attached (in a manner similar to Grizz's taping demonstration) were stronger than the part that tore, so they acted like ripstop threads to limit the damage, and I continued to use the hammock - carefully. When I got home I removed the adjustable end cords and turned it into a cuben underquilt. This worked mostly because it was already the right shape (contoured differential cut in two dimensions [not easy]) to fit a gathered end hammock. Note that Grizz's UQ is for a bridge hammock, an easier shape to fit. Another difference is that a gathered end wraps around the sleeper more, so there is a greater risk of condensation because the moisture can't escape as easily. That's what I found when I used mine as an underquilt. Hawkeye correctly warned me that this might happen, and it did. Note also that Grizz says he intends his cuben UQ for the shoulder seasons, Spring and Fall. Summer = too hot early in the night, then pools of water underneath as it cools before dawn. All this is not to say that your plan won't work and you shouldn't do it, just that there are some things you'll be dealing with that are different from what Grizz showed in his video.

@Grizz: I expect you used your quilt in a way that it was suited for. Any subsequent reports? Crank up the way-back machine.

Oh, yeah. I later cut up the Little Gray Cloud and used the down for a summer top quilt. That one was a keeper.

[GrizzlyAdams]

I agree with MAD777 on the width.

@Grizz: I expect you used your quilt in a way that it was suited for. Any subsequent reports? Crank up the way-back machine.

yep, you got it pegged pretty well. if it is too warm to have an overquilt on when you first crawl in, it is too warm to have something that doesn't breath beneath you. But in the shoulder seasons my lightweight cuben backed quilt is my go-to quilt, and when temps drop below freezing I break out fully cuben thick quilt illustrated in the video. Below 10 F and it gets some help from another quilt that goes over the top <grin>