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  1. #1
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    Turning a sleeping bag into a UQ. BUt still being a sleeping bag.

    Ok,

    So I was wondering if anyone has an plans for turning a rectangular bag into an under quilt, but designing it so I can still use it as a sleeping bag should I need to sleep on the ground?

    Thanks in advance

    Arizonared

  2. #2
    Senior Member fred1diver's Avatar
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    You could add shock cord channels or loops for the shock cord to pass then add the s cords for suspending it...

  3. #3
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    Would I add the loops along the side?

    Sorry, I am just new to making stuff like this and this is probably a simple question.

  4. #4
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    What i tried was to use shock cord to tie up each of the corners of the sleeping bag. the shock cord then goes to 4 places, 2 loops go up to the ridgeline for hanging, and 2 to the ends of the hammock for extra tension.



    the picture above shows my system. the red and green lines are shock cord, effectively the harness for the UQ. the blue is the sleeping bag.

    the shock cord is tied around the sleeping bag corners. once tied they are tight and you get a little bundle of sleeping bag material where the corner used to be. the left side of the diagram shows approximately what it looks like when tight, it effectively cinches up the bag so that it fits the hammock better

    i've found that if you get the lengths even everywhere, the sleeping bag will stay in place under the hammock.

    so now i just take two 'harnesses' of shock cord with me. when i want to use my extra sleeping bag as an underquilt, I just stick the corners of the material into loops in the shock cord and tighten them. then i hang it all up and there you have an instant UQ. the loops in the shock cord could be anything - you could use a small alpine butterfly loop for example. or you could just tie a clove hitch.

    i've field tested it with a 0*C synthetic sleeping bag and it seems pretty good. it was a very windy and rainy night and the UQ kept me acceptably warm and didnt blow off. the temperature was around 5 to 10 degrees and the wind was probably about between 30 and 60km/h so it was still cold, but imagine if i didnt have a UQ at all!

    the advantage of this system is that you only need the harness and then you'll be able to use any sleeping bag you want without modifying it. i dont know whether it will damage your sleeping bag in the long run... but i didnt see any damage the first few times i've used the system.

    if you try it too let me know how it goes. if it catches on, it might be my first contribution to the hammocking community! i havent seen this done before and it seems that people havent been able to create satisfactory UQs from an unmodified SB before.
    Last edited by chees; 10-21-2010 at 01:00. Reason: my ASCII art didnt come out right so i made a picture

  5. #5
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    i had so much fun making that picture, here is another one showing what it looks like in action...



    when i get home i'll send you a photo of the actual rig if you're interested.

  6. #6
    Member split's Avatar
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    Very nice. I'm gonna try the same type of thing using these.


    Thanks for simplifying it for us.
    "Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
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  7. #7
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    Thanks for the suggestions. Another idea I had though of trying is hanging another hammock directly under the one I am sleeping in and putting the hammock in between. I am going to test these ideas. Once I have one that works satisfactorily, I will let you know.

  8. #8
    Senior Member Redoleary's Avatar
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    Here's what I did. http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=23208
    Basically I sewed on some grosgrain loops that wouldnt interfere with the zipper and hung it with bungee
    Good luck,
    RED

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  9. #9
    Senior Member slackmacker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by arizonared View Post
    Thanks for the suggestions. Another idea I had though of trying is hanging another hammock directly under the one I am sleeping in and putting the hammock in between. I am going to test these ideas. Once I have one that works satisfactorily, I will let you know.
    I assume you mean, put the SB between the hammocks? I think I will try the shock cord idea my self but I don't like the 2nd hammock idea because the bag could slide around in the bottom hammock, flatten the bag thus taking away the RF value, or gap causing cold air to leak in. It would make a good safety net in the event you 1st one broke!

  10. #10
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    i tried something like hanging the hammock as well... basically i made a double layer hammock and pulled the inner layer a little tighter than the outer one, so there was a bit of space (which allows the sleeping bag to loft up while the inner layer is tight when you sleep in it).

    the only problem as slackmacker said is that the sleeping bag tends to slide down to the bottom of that hammock and doesnt give you good coverage. you could sew loops onto your hammock and SB though so that you can keep it in position, that might help. i was too lazy to do that so i dont know whether it works or not

    for me the benefit was limited because i only used a standard width piece of material (60" i think) for my hammock which means that it doesnt give me the best 'wall'. putting the sleeping bag on the outside, it actually goes up over the edge of the hammock, snug against the bugnet as well. that gives a little bit of extra warmth.

    anyway, experimentation is the key to all this so i hope you find a way that suits you and share it with us!
    Last edited by chees; 10-21-2010 at 09:07. Reason: left something out

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