Having been led astray by Lost_Biker and his bugnet howto and XTrekker's recent suspension & hammock pics I started work on my own DL hammock Thursday night and finally finished it this morning. (Yeah, good think I don't have to pay myself time. Vendors, my utmost respect to you - you earn every penny!) I think it turned out pretty darn good though.
Specs:
- 10ft 9in (Started out with 140in raw)
- ~109in ridgeline (UCR ala XTrekker)
- Bugnet can be zipped of to foot end and stowed (once I make it's pouch anyway)
- Double layer 1.1oz Coyote Brown ripstop from Magna Fabrics. ~66in wide after hemming.
- #3 coil zipper & noseeum from BackwoodsDayDreamer.com
- 24.2oz with whoopies & tie-out shockcord (32.3 w/tree straps & biners too) - perhaps not ultralite but about 1lb and 50% the bulk of my old 1.9oz DL + Fronkey Bugnet combo.
Notes:
Hemming - Make yourself one of PrisonerOfGravity's little rolled hem guides THEY WORK FANTASTIC! I had nearly 70ft of hems to do between the two layers and they came out perfect.
Lost_Biker's bugnet method worked like a charm. Admittedly I spend a couple hours fiddling with fine adjustments but looking back I don't know that it really made things all that much better other than feeding my OCD and next time I'd probably try to make my self just go with it.
I did the zippers a bit different that I recall seeing elsewhere - there are actually 4 zipper pulls - one set opening in the normal 2-way fashion for "everyday" use and then an extra one that zips open from each foot end side to allow easy access to the foot end pad slot or to quickly give access for UQ adjustments without needing to potentially move the main zippers all the way over up and over the head and back down to the far side.
Comfortable - oh yeah! The extra length over my previous DIY made a big difference and there is almost no calf pressure.
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