So it sounds like there won't be a problem with a draft around the shoulders, since it has draw strings on top? That's the only thing I'm worried about with a quilt, warm air leaking around the neck. I have a separate Marmot hood which is about 3" of loft all around my head.(about 5 or 6" total loft). If I can seal around the neck a quilt should work fine.Originally Posted by n2o2diver
Re: my response above regarding the validity of backyard testing. I want to make it clear that I don't disagree with a single thing Peter Pan or the others said. I am in fact in full agreement with all of it. And I want anybody who looks at my results from backyard testing to view them with a rather large grain of salt( as I do) , just in case I haven't made that clear. Because obviously the conditions could not be more optimum.
And it may be that adding 10° to my results is not even enough. Of course, if conditions in the field are severe enough or your luck is bad enough or you make enough errors, there's probably no amount of degrees that can be added to backyard testing results, that would be enough. In other words, if I was toasty at 18° for a few hours or even for eight hours, after leaving a warm house with a belly full of warm food and with zero physical exhaustion, with me being perfectly dry and my bag and hammock perfectly dry--------- well, what are going to be my results after a 10 or 12 mile hike at 10,000 feet elevation, in a blowing rain or snow storm, and everything I've got is at least somewhat damp if not outright wet, and I entered the hammock (or tent) already cold or maybe even hypothermic? I'm not sure that 10° would be at all adequate to account for that. I'm not sure that adding 40° would quite do the job. But of course, every sleeping bag or piece of clothing that might have a temperature rating, and those temperature ratings are based on ideal conditions. I don't think any manufacturer gives a sleeping bag a 20° rating with the idea that you can enter that bag exhausted, hungry and even a little hypothermic and then expect to have a comfortable night at 20°. Though some manufacturers are obviously more conservative than others in their ratings. And Pan's words about making it hard on yourself in the back yard are no doubt wise, and this would indeed make excellent training. But I doubt I will have the discipline to do that. Every body I know already thinks I'm insane for volunteering to sleep out when it's 18°!The closest I've come so far to making that closer to field conditions is leaving my sleeping bag out there for several hours before I crawled in it. At least the bag was good and cold before I settled in. But maybe I will develop the discipline to do all that in my backyard. But it's more likely I'll continue to experiment with the Hammocking in the same fashion that I started backpacking in 1983. Which is to say I loaded up all my gear, put it in a pack, and drove with my four-wheel-drive just a few miles from my house, into the woods a little further up the mountains in Flagstaff Arizona, in April. Then I got out and hiked in just a short distance, and set up camp. But if I got in trouble (barring injury), I knew I could get out of it easily since my vehicle was just a short distance away. So I will probably continue to gain experience with hammocks by going on short overnighters close to home. But in places very familiar to me where I can bail out in a hurry if needed!
And regarding testing the Hennessy Hammock Super Shelter, I need to add one more fact. I believe over on white blaze (I need to update the test series over there) I had been making the point to somebody about the potential of the undercover possessed. But this potential had been unattainable for me anyway, because if you place anything in there for insulation, it has a tendency to pull the undercover away from the under pad leaving a cold gap. Unless what you put in there is really light for its size, like a down vest. But I made an inadvertent discovery the other night. When using the Super Shelter, I had fortified the elastics that go from the hammock body, through the loop on the under pad and then out to the loop on the undercover and from there secured to something. But I still always had trouble keeping the under pad far enough to the left side of the hammock for diagonal positioning. While trying to fix this, I took the under pad loop and attached it to the ring on the hammock body with a trash bag twist closure. Then I took the elastics as they came out from the undercover and took them back over the top and back out of the undercover and through the ring on the hammock body. This did the trick as far as keeping the under pad to the left side diagonal, but I also noticed that it now kept the undercover from sagging so bad when I put something like my fairly heavy fleece jacket between the under pad and undercover. After doing this, the fleece jacket weight was not enough to pull the undercover down and it stayed reasonably snug up against the underpad! I guess I need to check with Tom Hennessy to see if this trick might interfere with the ability of the undercover to move down as the hammock moves down with body weight, and therefore causing some compression of the underpad. But I wasn't able to tell that this was happening. And I suspect that this difference may have added a good bit to the warmth potential of the undercover, by allowing more ability to add clothing underneath as insulation.
BB58, I'm thinking of ordering an overcover from Hennesey, how big is the 'air hole' in the SS overcover? plate sized? 6" radius? something like that?
TIA
--cargo
Sorry, Cargo, I don't have the overcover, so I can't say. It doesn't come standard with the SS. Though I have been thinking about geting it, as I become more favorably impressed with the SS's abilities.
Ah sorry, I thought it was a part of the stock super shelter. I guess its an option.
thanks anywho
--cargo
I think you'll actually get more utility out of the overcover than the underpad/cover. JMO.
"Physics is the only true science. All else is stamp collecting." - J. J. Thompson
Billy, its good to see some HH SS reviews added to this site. I think there are only 2 of you using one.
On the subject on backyard tests. Sorry if you took anything I posted the wrong way. I think everyone should test all there gear in their backyard under every condition you can. If you have problems or something goes wrong there, you have the bail option. That's the best/safest way to get a working knowledge about all your gear. More importantly if something does not work there, it won't work in the field.
Doctari has a funny story about having some spray him with a hose to simulate rain. I haven't went that far.
Is that too much to ask? Girls with frikkin' lasers on their heads?
The hanger formly known as "hammock engineer".
I actually thought about using a sprinkler for the same purpose...then I got worried the neighbors might call the cops to take me to the nuthouse
"Physics is the only true science. All else is stamp collecting." - J. J. Thompson
If you do that, you have to post some pics.I actually thought about using a sprinkler for the same purpose...then I got worried the neighbors might call the cops to take me to the nuthouse
My neighbors already think I'm nuts.If you look in some of my pics the trees I use are in sight of about 4 houses. My neighbors on both sides, then my back yard meets 2 houses front yards. Their driveway is about 10 feet from me. I get strange looks when they leave for work in the morning.
Is that too much to ask? Girls with frikkin' lasers on their heads?
The hanger formly known as "hammock engineer".
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