I just discovered the fun of hammocks and finally got my Hennessy Expedition Asym strung up in the garage. I've been doing a bunch of reading in the forums about how cold it gets from underneath so i decided to make a DIY pad extender. I plan on getting an UQ but this will have to do until I get some more money.
I hung my Hennessy Expedition Asym in the garage to test everything out
I found some ripstop nylon at JoAnn's and I had a bunch of old blue pads of varying thicknesses. I never use them since I got my thermarest so I decided to cut them up and make this thing.
After wrangling with the sewing machine, trying to thread the **** thing I gave up until my wife came home. She set everything up for me but I did all the sewing myself.
I put a full sized sheet of 1/4 inch pad in it then layed a 3/4 length 1/2" Ridgerest pad from the shoulders to just below my butt. I cut up a 3/8" blue pad for the "Wings" and sewed it. I needed to leave both ends open just to get the pads in, since it's pretty tight but it works great. I can also take out the Ridgerest and slide in my Thermarest Classic inflatable mattress too for the really cold nights.
I was a little worried that the ripstop would be too slippery and it'd slide around once in the hammock but when I tried it out I was surprised to find out that it stayed right under me once I found the sweet spot.
It was 43 degrees in the garage so I thought I'd test it out. I draped a down throw quilt just to test it out and tucked in around my legs to see if it would work. ****, this thing is cozy. Within minutes I felt the warmth on my back and I drifted off to sleep for a quick nap.
This might actually work. Thanks to all the folks at Hammock Forums for giving me all these great ideas. I haven't slept in it overnight yet but I excited about trying it out.
Maybe my days of sleeping on the ground under a tarp are over. Check out my audio podcast of some of my trips
www.anthonysaudiojournal.com
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