So, a follow up to my earlier post. A little bedtime reading for you... (Translation: it's longer than a Tweet.)
As I had mentioned, I bought a SS during the February sale. I took it out for the first time last Friday on an overnight backpacking trip to test out a few items. Since this thread was started in reference to the sale, below are my initial observations relating back to making the purchase. Was it worth it?
Along the way, I'll mention some things for future reference that I'll save for separate threads another day.
--WEIGHT: When I had gotten it in my hands, it's reasonably light at just over 17 oz. (I'm primarily backpacking). If it works consistently into the 30s then it's comparable to a 30 UQ. The Under Cover weighs 9.6, the foam pad about 8 oz. The separate weights are noteworthy because the SS may yield some interesting mix & match options.
--UNDER COVER: The UC went on very easily and I think will be the most interesting part of the system. (And I recommend using Derek Hansen's attachment tips; see previous post in this thread). First, as Billy Bob noted previously, it's about the only wind/water-proof system out of the box I can think of. UQ users often purchase covers separately. But the UC doesn't just cover the bottom. I'll have to take a closer look at the angles under the tarp next time, but the way it wraps up and over the ends of the hammock should add some wind & rain protection to either end. We'll see. Definitely an added bonus beyond insulation, especially at this price point. Second, and maybe most important, is the UC allows you to utilize just about any kind of insulation you can think of. It makes your hammock insulation more like clothing layers. The UC is just a wind/rain shell. What you put inside it is up to you. While there will be limits as far as weight and bulk, I'm looking forward to trying out various layers (I already had a teaser; more below). Last, I think Hennessy's suggestion to leave the UC on is good. It doesn't get in the way, adds wind & rain protection even in milder conditions, and adds another layer of bug protection for models with thinner fabric, and is easily pushed aside if needed. Leaving the UC on I had no trouble getting it back into the snake skins, or into the hammock's original stuff sack. (Though my hex tarp is separate.)
--FOAM PAD: Yup, it's delicate just as they said. I have a bottom entry (soon to be 2QZD'd though) and put my fingers through the edge of the pad while getting in and trying to shift it, not realizing my weight was on it. But it doesn't affect anything; the foam just closes back on itself, plus it's not in a problematic spot. More importantly is that it does what I'd expect a cheap (but much thinner than expected) foam pad to do: it kept me comfortable without the space blanket in the 50s (30*-40* down top quilt, light base layer). I woke up around 3am in the 40s and was cold. So knowing that UC+FP is good to the 50s is satisfactory for me. Milder temps in the 60s may be okay with just the UC. I hope so, leaving the foam pad behind would be nice. Though I woke up cold, I can't comment on the space blanket because I didn't want to mess with it at that moment. Plus, another item I brought out for the first time was the Snugpak Jungle Blanket. Being the hour that it was, I didn't want to fiddle with it in the UC and just spread it out underneath me in the hammock. Boom! Instant warmth, even laying right on top of it. It was diagonal so there was plenty of length head to toe, but more importantly the other corners wrapped up around the sides preventing any cold spots by my elbows. I was out like a light and slept straight through till morning, still in the 40s when I woke perfectly comfortable. One of the interesting properties of the FP is that it is somewhat grippy with synthetic materials such as sleeping bags or the Jungle Blanket. This makes it much easier to add such items without them sliding down or bunching up. Next time when I expect those temps, I'll be very anxious to put the JB on top of the pad in the UC and see how it does. Since it performed well directly under me, it should do better when not so compressed. But that's one of those future topics... These kinds of mix & match options are what makes the SS most appealing to me.
--PACKING & STORAGE: Saved this for last since it's kinda fussy. The narrow, double-sided stuff sack is an odd choice. While it's possible to get everything back inside, it's unnecessarily tedious. Manufacturers of any product know by now customers don't like it when something is difficult to repack. Plus, there's no reason to do so with the SS. Hennessy recommends either leaving the whole thing on the hammock or at least leaving just the Under Cover on. As for the foam pad, it's well-known how delicate it is so it's not a great choice to provide such a narrow stuff sack that forces people to wrestle with it. If using the provided stuff sack and leaving the UC on the hammock, it's not too bad to just fold the wider part of the pad to the width of the foot and roll it up snugly but without unnecessary effort or anything you need to practice. Rolled like that, the FP will fit into the sack by itself, it's not terrible but you'll still have to work at it a little and is still tedious in the field. Also, Hennessy recommends not storing the pad compressed anyway, so not only is the stuff sack not very practical in the field, even back home it's not where you want to keep it. In both cases I used another stuff sack. In the field, I just used a sack that was slightly larger than the FP rolled as described above; pop it in with no fuss. A couple of spare compression straps squeezed it nicely into a manageable pack size. Back home, I just transferred the rolled FP into a larger stuff sack, jostled it around a bit to let it unroll naturally in the sack so it's not at all compressed:
Reaching in, I can feel the convolutions are not compressed. One final thought on not storing it compressed: when I unpacked it for the first time (in the field) it took a looong time for the convolutions to emerge. Even after an hour or more the pad was flat as a pancake, to the point I wondered if they had changed the pad they were using. Who knows how long it had been stored before I got it. By morning everything was there. Storing it as above should help it rebound more quickly next time out. Meanwhile, I've got my hex tarp in the double-sided SS sack.
CONCLUSION: So, I bought the SS for $70 US. Was it worth it? Yes. At that price it's worth it as an inexpensive insulation option that lets you use other items, especially things you may already have without much trouble. There is still an UQ in my future--the performance and practicality can't be beat--but until then this will get me comfortably into the kind of temps I most often encounter and enable me to just get out there! I'll admit to not being blown away. It functions, but only at a bare minimum. While it provides me some workable options and maybe some fun experiments, it does raise one of my frustrations with Hennessy: the lack of long-term innovation. Let's be candid: the foam pad is seriously cheap material and comes across as more of a hack than a serious solution. By contrast, a company such as Warbonnet comes along a decade after Hennessy yet continues to put forward interesting and serious products; their Wooki UQ, for example, a custom, pre-fit asym UQ for their hammocks. It does make me scratch my head and wonder why Hennessy hasn't pushed the envelope with more innovative products. Why is this cheap foam pad or the reflective bubble pad their only game? I bought my UL Backpacker before the hammock 'explosion' and it's frustrating that there aren't more interesting options for HH owners to grow along with the company. Just take the SS as an easy example. If I'm already thinking about shoving my Jungle Blanket in there, or wondering how my light down sleeping bag will do--and many other people, too--why hasn't HH been doing the same? If it were me, I'd be coming out various insulation items custom fit for the SS system. HH owners could have a simple, effective, mix and match system. There really isn't anything out there like that that I know of. Hmmm... maybe the next cottage industry. But again, for the price I paid, we hammockers are often DIYers anyway.
And finally... Is it worth full price of $140? Depends. If you can't afford an UQ any time in the near future, then yes. It works within its stated range yet gives you a ton of easy flexibility to try other insulation layers. That's a win. On the other hand, $140 is halfway to most UQs. If you can save your pennies for a little while more, I'd say do it. I've never heard an UQ owner say they wanted to go back.
Well, I said this was some bedtime reading. Nighty night.
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