DIY UQ out of fleece and/or wool

[DavyRay]

Go for it.

I suggest bringing the fleece up and over the ends of your hammock, to help hold it up and keep the wind from getting under it. There was a thread on Triangle Thingies recently. That is similar.

You will probably need some sort of wind barrier on the outside of your fleece UQ. Tyvek or any tight weave fabric will help with this.

Or, you could use netting on the outside, and pack dead leaves under it to keep out the wind. (You did say bushcraft.)

Your UQ will be hanging, so I would suggest tying the layers together using comforter tacks. Heck, you could even tie the layers together at different points to avoid completely sewn-through seams.

We are usually obsessed with weight and bulk for DIY projects, so this is different.

[DemostiX]

so, count on loops or hooks to attach a heavy UQ to the sides.Maybe some loops to the hammock sides, too.

Shock cord? With substantial weight, think of one serious bungee cord, and a good one, because the performance of rubber as an elastomer deteriorates with declining temps.

Zing-it & other hi-zoot, high-perf cord? Why waste the money, as too many of us do, when the maximum load with several suspension points might be <20lb? Polyester kite cord is fine.

Or,you might try, considering your geography, multiple short elastic cords with an UQ sized and tuned to your hammock and your body weight.

[friartuck]

Weight and excess sag was somethIng I hadn't considered. The wool will probably make that sag too much but the fleece shouldn't be too bad. I'll try it and give my report later then every one can benefit from my success or failure.

[JohnSawyer]

I had a really heavy Sleeping bag to UQ conversion. I used paracord at the head end and paracord/bungee cord at the foot end.

Suspension worked fine, but yes, you really had to pull it tight...

I don't think you need to sew boxes to keep it together. If anything, I would make the fleece layers 1/2"-1" wider per layer. This will keep the lower layers from pulling too tight against the top layer and compressing the fleece.

Best of luck!

John

[Rug]

This is what I would do:

Sew grosgrain loops every 8" or so. With cordage going over the ridgeline attaching to the opposite loop.
While laying in the hammock snug-up each cord untill you can feel the wool tight against you.

This will allow you to eliminate most air-gaps, allow you to customize the fit-and-feel of the setup. Wool+Fleece is too heavy to be able to setup out-side the hammock (how often do us 'experts' still fuss with athe down once we are in?).

Another idea/addition to this concept would be to treat it like a shower curtain. Use biners or rings on your ridgeline and attach the cordage through them. When you want to get in/out of the hammock, the entire thing can slide (likely towards the foot-end) like a shower-curtain.

And as others have said, a nylon wind barrier on the outside will give your insulation much more mileage.

[Rosaleen]

Hey, Friar Tuck-

I've been using fleece under my hammock for at least 5 years and keep tuning things. Now I have a 100 wt one for summer and a 200 wt fleece for cooler temps. No, I haven't determined how low I can go with this set up. I split an approximate 5' length of fleece down the center and added casings at each end for shock cord, a neck zipper in the center on the long axis and off-set pieces of cord to match my Asym Hennessy side pull-outs. I also made a sleeve-set up from the left over piece. It is basically a tapered tube that is open in the center body for my torso and with a slit opposite for my head and the long edges open for my hands to fit through. This fleece works as a tunic to wear on the trail or in camp, as a top blanket, or under-hammock insulation. I can use the sleeves or not, depending on conditions, or even wear the sleeves without the tunic, like a "shrug" sweater. Having the sleeves separate also gives me the flexibility of more arm warmth inside my hammock and a draft collar when I use a top quilt. I have used this sleeve as a head wrap, too. Depending on conditions, I can use the tunic slung under the hammock with a space blanket that I nearly always keep under my Hennessy and layer either of those with my extra-wide Gossamer Gear Thinlight pad which also is my Mariposa's backpad. The fleece is a bit bulky and might be heavier than a filled item, but it has multiple uses and won't be destroyed if I wear it under my backpack as I hike. This year, I added 4 glove hooks on elastic to the sides of the tunic to mate with 4 pieces of elastic that I sewed onto the outer seam binding of my hammock and an extra piece of elastic to help tighten the lower part. The bottom-entry required some fiddling to get that last part tightened up after I climbed in, and these extra elastic parts seem to have helped quite a bit. Before I only had shock cord run through the ends and up to the end of the hammock, so there was some fiddling to get it tight. Fleece has some natural stretch, so it conforms to the hammock well. The Thinlight pad can float on top of the fleece, and the space blanket serves as a windbreak, rain-splash deflector, and does reflect some heat. If I ever have to "go to ground" (HORRORS!), the system can still be an effective insulator and the space blanket is a good water barrier. This system was pretty inexpensive and has worked for me for many years.

Regards,

[Paprika bohlmann]

Rosaleen- coud you post a pictures of your UQ's?

[guinesskid]

Why not make a wool hammock? Or integrate
It into the hammock itself. Weight isn't an issue right?

[Red Wing]

Why not make a wool hammock? Or integrate
It into the hammock itself. Weight isn't an issue right?

may even be able to sew a double layer on in case you need to stuff with debris for insulation and it can double and an extra blanket if you have to go to ground, or you can still stuff it and you it as a makeshift bushcraft mattress.

[friartuck]

All these suggestions make me think that I'm over thinking this. I'm going to start with the KISS principle and add some.

I have one small pad sized bit of a wool blanket that I'm thinking I'll use inside the hammock. My second layer of defense will be a fleece UQ, basically a blanket doubled over and stitched along the side to accommodate 550 cords with some heavy bungee material at the end for some stretch. Finally I have a bit of tent scrap that was sacrificed for my first tent tarp DIY project, that's going to serve as my wind barrier.

This will be done tomorrow and I'll likely camp out in my garage first. Expect a full report next week. If it doesn't work so well, I'll add some and if that doesn't work I have a goodwill purchased 0* mummy bag that may get sacrificed for the UQ but it's not light or very compressible either. I just really like making stuff.