Neo, having said all of that in favor of pads, and about all of the threads with folks confused when they were not near as warm as expected with their uQs, I must say I have personally never had such problems unless something was obviously out of adjustment and I could always fix it.
I also put my Claytor No Net near the top of the heap, but I have never used a pad in it. But:
1:I have been warm at temps from 40F down to 10F ( with addition of space blanket ) using this Claytor with a PeaPod. I have never for one moment come close to a cold back using this 20F rated Claytor/pod combo.
I have also never seen a thread where someone complained of a cold back in a PeaPod at or above rated temps. Some things just always work!
I can't quite reach the 20F rating on top due to the way all hammocks raise the top layer of the pod off my body. But once I add the clothes I have with me any way to fill the gaps, I can come real close, and if I add even the lightest summer TQ, I can easily exceed 20F on top, especially in the narrow Claytor. So many of the little variables that can make a quilt cold just don't seem to be a problem with a Speer PeaPod.
2: Never had problem down to 10F or heard of a problem from anyone having a cold back using a JRB MWUQ and a JRB BMBH. There are so few adjustment variables with that combo that it is hard to get it wrong. In fact, I'm not certain any of these threads I've seen that are complaining of cold are ever about a JRB MWUQ no matter which hammock is used, bridge or gathered. I had a taost 18F very windy night with an MWUQ on a WBBB. Just curious: any one here been cold with an MWUQ on any hammock? I suspect it is a suspension thing, but who knows. But I can tell you that not once have I felt a hint of cold with a JRB bridge/MW combo.
3: Once I learned to get my suspension tight enough, I have never been cold ( nor has my step-son) with my Climashield Warbonnet Yeti. Now it has to be tight enough, and must be positioned perfectly at my neck/shoulder intersection, and this can get out of whack when I move in my sleep plus it has a tendency to slip off my left shoulder if I breath ( all solved with a quick adjustment), but as long as it is positioned correctly and tight enough, I am toasty. I have been warm using it on a WBBB in the 40s using one 2.5 oz layer of CS in it (~ 10 oz total quilt weight ) and wearing no other layers, and my step-son was toasty his 1st night using it on his Claytor No Net, with 3 layers of CS installed, in the 20s. He was always warm for one full week of cold temps in Wyoming at 10,000 feet, plus on other trips in the 30s with 2 layers. Any one here ever seen complaints of being cold in a WB Climashield UQ? Oh, OK, it's true: there are only a handful of them out there, sadly. Still, I don't think any one has ever reported a problem. And Cannibal has used one extensively.
So what I'm getting at is: maybe it is not so much UQs that is the problem, but certain UQs used on certain hammocks. Maybe it is all a matter of correct adjustment. And it would seem that some combos are just much easier to get right every time, and hard to get wrong.
Maybe what it is is: If you have adequate loft, snugged up nicely against your back with zero gaps and zero drafts along the edges or sides, AND no bunching up of the hammock fabric creating little ridges/tunnels for cold air to travel through like this:
then maybe if all of the above you are just as certain to be warm as with a pad, while being even more comfy and saving some bulk. But the devil can be in the details! Also notice that re: those little ridges/tunnels in the above pic, a BMBH has no such "funnels", and a PeaPod cinches tight around the hammock on the ends, covering the entire potential path of cold air travel.
Bookmarks