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  1. #31
    Senior Member Just Jeff's Avatar
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    We'll work on it at Mt Rogers.
    “Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.” ~Judge Joseph Story

    - My site: http://www.tothewoods.net/
    - Designer, Jeff's Gear Hammock / Pack Cover by JRB

    IMPOSSIBLE JUST TAKES LONGER

  2. #32
    Senior Member Mustardman's Avatar
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    So today I played around with the warbonnet some more. Contrary to that cold night, I was able to get a nice flat hang with little effort. One thing I found helped my comfort level was to move my head farther up in the hammock, so my feet weren't all the way at the end of the foot box. This seemed to encourage a much flatter lay.

    I think a lot of my discomfort that cold night had to do with the stiff blue walmart foam pad I was using. Today I picked up an Exped Synmat (like the downmat, but synthetic and therefore cheaper) and used it in the Blackbird roughly half-inflated, as Brandon suggested.

    BIG DIFFERENCE. The Synmat was worlds more comfortable than the thermarest, CCF pad, or any combination thereof. It also has a much higher R-value and so should be a lot warmer. I'll have to wait until my next overnight hang to confirm that.

    So my two tips for a comfortable, flat lay in the warbonnet: try moving more towards the head end, and don't use a stiff pad.

    This thing is ridiculously spacious, and that, for me, is the number one selling point. It's maybe not quite as flat as I had imagined it from some of the reviews here, but as it's my first hammock, I have little to compare it to. I'd still like to try out a bridge, maybe get one for my girlfriend, but I'm definitely sold on the Blackbird for my own use.

  3. #33
    Senior Member FanaticFringer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mustardman View Post
    So today I played around with the warbonnet some more. Contrary to that cold night, I was able to get a nice flat hang with little effort. One thing I found helped my comfort level was to move my head farther up in the hammock, so my feet weren't all the way at the end of the foot box. This seemed to encourage a much flatter lay.

    I think a lot of my discomfort that cold night had to do with the stiff blue walmart foam pad I was using. Today I picked up an Exped Synmat (like the downmat, but synthetic and therefore cheaper) and used it in the Blackbird roughly half-inflated, as Brandon suggested.

    BIG DIFFERENCE. The Synmat was worlds more comfortable than the thermarest, CCF pad, or any combination thereof. It also has a much higher R-value and so should be a lot warmer. I'll have to wait until my next overnight hang to confirm that.

    So my two tips for a comfortable, flat lay in the warbonnet: try moving more towards the head end, and don't use a stiff pad.

    This thing is ridiculously spacious, and that, for me, is the number one selling point. It's maybe not quite as flat as I had imagined it from some of the reviews here, but as it's my first hammock, I have little to compare it to. I'd still like to try out a bridge, maybe get one for my girlfriend, but I'm definitely sold on the Blackbird for my own use.

    You can check my JRB bridge out if you'd like. Would give me a chance to check out the Blackbird.
    "Every day above ground is a good day"

  4. #34
    Senior Member Mustardman's Avatar
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    I decided to give another whack at trying to keep the pad in place in my warbonnet, so I borrowed my lovely girlfriend's REI Polarpod sleeping bag. The handy thing about these bags is: they have a couple of small loops on the outside, to which you can attach some elastic straps which are wrapped around your sleeping pad.

    I found this to be a lot more convenient than putting the pad inside the pad slot. It was a lot easier to shift the pad around for the best comfort, and once I got it positioned, the straps did a good job of keeping the pad in place.

    If you're having trouble keeping a pad in place in your blackbird, I recommend taking it OUT of the pad slot and just laying it inside the hammock, potentially with some sort of straps to keep the sucker underneath you.

    I'm anxious to get a real night hanging outside to try this out for real.

    A brand spankin new pair of Downmat 7's will be here on Monday (thanks hypnotoad!) and all I'm waiting for is the second Blackbird so we can head out into the woods and do some more hangin' Camping trips seem far less likely until the second Blackbird arrives - the girlfriend now refuses to sleep on the ground since trying my hammock

  5. #35
    Senior Member
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    Mustardman, is the pad slot on the Blackbird so large that a standard length 20" wide has too much room to shift around?
    Noel V.

  6. #36
    Senior Member Just Jeff's Avatar
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    Especially a 3" thick one?
    “Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.” ~Judge Joseph Story

    - My site: http://www.tothewoods.net/
    - Designer, Jeff's Gear Hammock / Pack Cover by JRB

    IMPOSSIBLE JUST TAKES LONGER

  7. #37
    Senior Member Mustardman's Avatar
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    Actually, my pad is a 26" wide Synmat 7 DLX, and it STILL has tons of room to shift around.

    In general, the pad usually stays put, but I tend to thrash in my sleep, and if I have a restless night, the pad tends to get pushed up to the right, out from underneath me.

    The first night I set the hammock up, I actually used two 20" pads - one blue foam and one thermarest, barely overlapping side by side, so there would theoretically be room for a pad 40"+ wide to fit inside the pad slot.

    In other words, the warbonnet is huge inside, and the pad slot is the size of the entire hammock so it's similarly huge.

    I've had days where the pad stays perfectly still, and others where, during an hour-long nap, the pad manages to work its way all the way up the side of the hammock to the seam for the gear shelf, leaving my back and shoulders almost completely unprotected.

    I don't think it would be terribly difficult to figure out a way to keep the pad in place, and I'm going to try a couple of things to see which works best for me. Certainly the pad straps seemed to work pretty well, and I'm also going to try a Big Agnes sleeping bag with the pad slot.

    I think the easiest way to keep the pad in place would actually be to just wrap a big elastic strap around it, and then clip that strap to the opening for the pad slot, to keep the pad from pulling up to the other side. That's on my list of things to try.

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