Prelim Blackbird impressions

[BillyBob58]

OK, I got my courage up and took the beautiful MWUQ back out over the mud pit and tried to hook 'er up on the new BB. I thought it was going to be a lot more complicated than with the BMBH, but it turned out to be very simple and pretty quick, straightforward. It was foggy rather than raining.

I got in and it was great. But, no cold temps yet. There was a nice snug fit and much warmth quickly radiating onto my back. Below the butt, there was a bit of a gap to the left and underneath, with me on the diagonal. Still, I felt plenty of warmth under my legs, but it was not cold temps. Also, I have just read in another thread that I should have left 12" or so between edges on the ends, or it will actually cause the quilt to pull away from the hammock in the leg area. I had it cinched up a lot tighter than that on both ends. So, that means I'll have to try it again later and see if I can do it right. There are a couple of extra steps compared with the custom fit with the BMBH.

However, it was very luxurious using this quilt with the BB. I had full insulation all the way back behind my head, and any position I put my body or legs in was fully insulated as far as I could tell, despite the fact that I had it adjusted wrong on the ends. Lot's of loft under my back and shoulders. Ther was nothing to readjust when I moved and changed position.

[BillyBob58]

One of my all time fav ways to stay warm in a hammock is with the PeaPod, so today I went out and gave it a try. It did not work as good as I hoped, but is still reasonably workable.

This pod works best of all on my Claytor No Net, because the more narrow hammock allows the pod top layer to lay down on top of me, or pretty close to it. With the wider Speer, for which it is designed, the side walls of the hammock hold it up off my body by several inches or more, which is not as warm when used by itself. And it works that way with the BB, sadly. But only on the right side. I had hoped to be able to get the net far enough out of the way where it would not interfere, but I could not. So on the right side, the hammock "wall" and net hold the pod up by quite a few inches, though it contacts my body on the left.

This is still not significantly worse than with the Speer hammock, maybe about the same overall. A little higher on the right, not nearly as high on the left. And this space would be easily filled by my down quilt, which should result in the combo being a lot warmer than either the quilt by itself or the pod by itself.

If the net was more fully removable, it would work close to perfectly. But the "wall" would still be somewhat in the way. As it is, it still works pretty good, definitely usable, though not optimum. And a pleasant surprise was that the pod still could still be rotated on the hammocks axis if I moved to my side, so that I could place a small or large breathing hole in front of my face. With my head, neck and body otherwise fully covered. That was quite comfortable.

[speyguy]

But as I like to lay "head right/feet left" I skipped the footbox (use it as storage) and had a lot less pressure that way. Shug

I like to lay the same way. Does anyone know if the BB is available with the foot box on the left side?

[BillyBob58]

I like to lay the same way. Does anyone know if the BB is available with the foot box on the left side?

I don't think it is, unless you could get WBG to make you a custom job.

[warbonnetguy]

I like to lay the same way. Does anyone know if the BB is available with the foot box on the left side?

i've actually got a couple lefty's, one lady i was trying out made them completely opposite. they may be cosmetic blems though (probably) and they're the dl1.1, mint green seconds fabric, which has no dwr on it.

[speyguy]

i've actually got a couple lefty's, one lady i was trying out made them completely opposite. they may be cosmetic blems though (probably) and they're the dl1.1, mint green seconds fabric, which has no dwr on it.

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