Do you sleep with a bag or quilts?

**sportsguy** · 03-05-2014, 22:07

Just occurred to me to ask..

Do you sleep in your hammock in a sleeping bag, or with quilts?

Pluses? Minuses?

**Mountnman** · 03-05-2014, 22:12

Have done both. I have quilts now but bags worked great until I could afford to get the quilts. Quilts are much easier to manage in the hammock. Also, watch the zippers in on a bag if you use one, they can catch on the fabric and cause you to hit the ground

**polymath2718** · 03-05-2014, 22:24

I personally use a topquilt and underquilt. Like Mountnman said, a TQ is easier to manage and has less risk of catastrophic hammock failure. TQs are also lighter and pack smaller than sleeping bags - a big plus if you are backpacking rather than car camping.

Not that a sleeping bag can't work, of course. You'll still need either an UQ or a pad, though.

Like most topics, Shug has a video about using a sleeping bag in a hammock:

**2ply** · 03-05-2014, 22:29

I use my sleeping bags as top quilts. My 20* down bag has another season or two then it will be replaced with a TQ.

**Life Scout** · 03-05-2014, 22:40

I converted a Wal-Mart duck down sleeping bag into a TQ. It will still function as a bag but it's great as a TQ. The only problem I had with it as a zippered mummy bag is the hood was in the wrong place for a TQ. The bag lost 8oz. After the mods. My UQ is just over 15oz. Not to bad for a 30° system.

**sargevining** · 03-05-2014, 23:31

Same here. Used a bag until I could buy a TQ, and converted a bag as a UQ until I could afford one of those. Now I make my own. Bags work but they are a distant second-best to quilts.

**Floridahanger** · 03-05-2014, 23:41

Another for use of both.

I've used a SB as a peapod with a pad inside, then open as a pad/TQ style above 40*F until I made my UQ/TQ. The quilts are just easier to stuff into my pack and less fabric under me to worry about. All are synthetic for comparison.

**wcdaniels** · 03-06-2014, 07:43

I use sleeping bags, and just open them up and use them as quilts in the hammock. They have nylon zippers so no worries about injuring the hammock.

Part of it for me is that I have two really good sleeping bags, and they both have years left in them. Plus, I still go to ground semi-regularly, so I need the bag aspect. I tried a quilt on the ground, and it just did not work for me.