Hey all, Dave here, aka Pkupmn98.
New to hanging, long time camper. Looking to hammocking as an option for lighter weight and comfort for backpacking. Back in January, my wonderful wife gave me a Grand Trunk ultralight for my birthday. I tested it out one afternoon at a friends place, laid in it, rested, JUST shy of napping in it. Felt pretty comfortable. Around the first of april, two friends and I headed out for an overnighter, about 4 miles hiked in, to a designated campsite. My one friend, also his first hammock experience, with the same hammock, the other friend, a walking talking REI commercial for ground campers. All brand new gear, top of the line. I had my blue ccf pad from wally world, and my 20* Koppen (sp) mummy bag. Temps got down to the TEENS! (only expected mid 30s) I was actually warm most of the night, my issues being the pad sliding all over, and trying to wiggle in and out of my bag. I am 6'1", around 250# I have come to the conclusion that the GT UL is probably to small for me, also, pretty sure I had it strung too tight, not enough sag, not enough angle. I did not sleep much with all the shifting, wiggling and adjusting. So, I will be testing out a friends Hennessy exped asym with a thermarest this weekend overnight in my moms backyard, But I think I'm set on the idea of DIY for my gear.
(paragraph break, that was getting messy)
My thoughts/plans, so far.Ideas, thoughts, critiques welcome and appreciated.
Buying 8 -9 yards of 1.9oz ripstop (probably ripstopbytheroll, unless you have a better idea) making a double layer, gathered end hammock ending up somewhere in the 11' range. leaving gap in one side to slide some sort of pad(extra material for stuff sacks etc.)
buying aprox 50' of amsteel from dutch, making whoopie slings for the suspension and making an adjustable, structural ridgeline whoopie? attaching to the tree with some 8 or 10' tree straps and marlin spike hitch (making my own or just buying them already made from dutch) ((the amsteel will be strong enough for me, won't it?))
Buying 8-10 yards of 1.1oz silnylon (also from ripstopbytheroll, unless otherwise suggested) doing a flat felled seam down the middle, and ending up with a 12ish x 10'ish rectangle for tarp. (POSSIBLY attempting to cat cut the middle of the sides, but leaving the corners for doors, does that make sense?) using extra silnylon for that pack cover/gear hammock thingy i saw somewhere on here.
I have a roll of braided masons twine.... is this decent for tarp guy lines? probably gonna buy 50'ish of 1/8ish" shock cord to make them self adjusting, and shock cord for knotty mods.
for UQ/TQ for now i plan to stick a pad between layers of hammock, and using my mummy bag, but instead of trying to wiggle in it, just gonna unzip it, (the bottom does not unzip all the way) and using it as a quilt.
I will likely also buy some no see um and make a bugnet that is shockcorded on the bottom, i forget whose method that was, also seen on here.
I hope to do the set-up/design/prep, but momma is the sewing machine master, or so I seem to think. :P
also, she knows nothing of this DIY plan yet, lol.
What else am I missing/forgetting, theres gotta be something...
Oh, my other friend, who DID NOT listen to me about the ccf pad to keep warm, he bought some SOL bivvy/emergency shelter, that he wore over his skimpy sleeping bag, was cold as heck, and didnt sleep much, like maybe 20-30 minutes.
I am from St. Louis, MO (St. Peters actually) I am 34 years old, married to a wonderful woman, with a 5 year old daughter, and a soon to be 2 year old son.
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