DIY flurry

[fin]

I had a few moments to finish some of the things I was working on, so I finally posted pics. I finished my tree straps (made the first ones out of nylon, the second with 2 inch seatbelt strapping from Strapworks), my tube tent, my DIY speer type hammock using the HH folds, and started on a sandwich UQ.

Hammock is nothing special - 110" long, 58" wide double layered (for pad) Starter Satin nylon. Extremely comfortable to lay in, but a little heavy for packing. Good backyard hammock. I whipped the ends with a zip tie and mule tape. Structural ridgeline. I plan on adding a bug sock at some point, which is necessary in Wisconsin in the summer.

Tube tent. The idea here was to create a hammock sock with some structure. I haven't found the right rigid tubing to create the "tube" yet, but you can get the idea. The tent/sock can be used without the tubes as a regular, albeit oversized, sock. Tube tent was created using 2 - 60 inch wide x 4 yard long strips of white 1.1 oz ripstop nylon sil. After sewing, 10' 6" long and 116" circumference. I used muletape for it's slipperiness as the drawstring on the head end - extremely easy to thread. I use a string to draw the tube to its full length over my head to the end of the hammock while inside. Tieouts on the sides, and ridgeline loops on the top if you want to use an external ridgeline. I couldn't get a good picture of it, but there is an internal vapor shield drop-down segment to keep your breath vapor in the head portion of the tent/sock, which is held in by simple ties. I slept in this the other night - woke up with frost all around outside - temp hit 34 degrees. I was toasty all night with my sandwich UQ and a three layer top quilt made of fleece, mystery walmart polyester and an outer shell of 1.1 untreated ripstop. No condensation inside at all.

[fin]

More Pics:

[Mule]

Hey hey, there are some really good ideas here. What are the weights of the underquilt and weather shield? Also, how compressible is the UQ? You will have to put out instructions on this stuff, especially the UQ. Looks like you didn't have a lot of sewing to do on it or am I wrong? Mule

[GrizzlyAdams]

didn't you say you couldn't sew????

There's something to be said for tree huggers that always attach a known distance from the tree trunk.

Seems remarkable to me that you slept inside a closed off sil tube w/o condensation. I guess perhaps it had significant draft open at the head end? With a tube like this you could weather a lot of wind-blown rain w/o a huge tarp....(thinking out loud now) particularly if your venting was high up where
any tarp would protect, with the sil down around the exposed areas. hmm.

good job.

Grizz

[headchange4u]

Wow. You went all out on the DIY projects. There is some really nice stuff. Congrats

[Youngblood]

didn't you say you couldn't sew????

There's something to be said for tree huggers that always attach a known distance from the tree trunk.

Seems remarkable to me that you slept inside a closed off sil tube w/o condensation. I guess perhaps it had significant draft open at the head end? With a tube like this you could weather a lot of wind-blown rain w/o a huge tarp....(thinking out loud now) particularly if your venting was high up where
any tarp would protect, with the sil down around the exposed areas. hmm.

good job.

Grizz

Grizz,

Condensation issues vary wildly.

In low humidity conditions with a little breeze there isn't anything to handling condensation... moisture evaporates pretty quickly into the air. In high humidity with still air, dew, and moisture rising from the ground, it is a much different situation... nothing evaporates into the air and the air is trying to unload its moisture on to you or anything it comes into contact with. Sometimes you are the giver and sometimes you are the receiver.

I just got back from spending three nights sleeping in a hammock stand in the same location at Trail Days and hit that spread. One night my tarp was soaked on the top side and the bottom side and my sleeping bag was dampish to the touch in the morning. The other nights, no issue what so ever.

I have been out in a tent with condensation trying to dry it in the morning sun with nothing happening over the course of an hour. And then the wind shifted and blew in low humidity air that dried the tent in minutes... it was almost like magic.

[GrizzlyAdams]

Grizz,

Condensation issues vary wildly.

Hi Dave-
don't I know it! I was tenting in single walled silnylon tents before climbing into the trees.

Still, between the extreme where you just won't get condensation because there's no moisture in the air, and the other extreme that simply being there gets you wet no matter what, there are gradations, and I gotta believe in some of those gradations you'll get condensation on the inside of a largely closed up sil tube that you wouldn't if (i) you have vents near moisture bearing bodily orifices, or (ii) have a shell through which vapor will pass given the right temperature, dew point, phase of the moon etc.

I had a sock this winter with DWR in the middle 5' and sil at the end-caps. Even with vents near my head, almost every night I had a lot of frozen condensation around the head part. I ended up doing some ripping and patching to get breathable material over my head, and that helped a lot.

With this idea of s62w23098's (how on earth do you pronounce that???) I was thinking you could get wind protection and side blown rain protection by sticking with the basic design but make the top 1/3 of the tube netting. Might could also put a breathable strip down the center of the bottom, like the JRB weather-shield, make that mesh too and get a chimney effect

Grizz

[NCPatrick]

<snip> moisture bearing bodily orifices</snip>

Ok Grizz, I'm sure you knew someone was going to make some comment about that...

[Youngblood]

You are right Grizz, there is a lot of middle ground where you can do things to effect condensation issues and it is wise to do them appropriately.

I was trying to make a point that I think folks with limited experiences miss. I've seen people say they got condensation so such and such won't work for them, and that they didn't get condensation another time with something else so that works. What they are missing is that they haven't necessarily experienced that equipment over a variety of conditions and understand how the conditions influenced their experiences.

[fin]

I can't sew for beans - the seams aren't very straight, which is why there are no close ups.

The drawstring ends can be left open as wide as you want, and with the vapor barrier built in on the head end to close it off, your breath escapes at the head end only - no condensation because the air vent is up high along the ridge line where the drawstring opens. From the neck/chest down it stays as a totally enclosed space with no air movement. I did sleep in it last night - windy, rainy and stayed totally dry. The tubes/tie outs are just 1 inch channels similar to the pole channels in a tent. I actually thought of using tent poles to make my "tube", but the whole point of a hammock is to eliminate the poles! At least a semi-rigid tube would have multiple uses. On a hammock with a bugnet, the drawstring/opening is higher along the ridgeline due to the bugnet tieouts.

The Tree straps are awesome - very easy to set up and cinch down tight. No slipping at all. I use a prestrung trucker's hitch strap between the hammock and the tree strap for quick adjustments.

The UQ, I will have to get back to you on the weight. I don't have a scale that measures in grams or ounces. It's a sandwich of 1.1 oz untreated, 1.5 oz. sil, polyester batting, mylar, polyester batting, 1.5 oz. sil, 1.1 oz untreated. The polyester batting is actually from wallyworld bedding clearance (5$). It is from two twin 100% polyester mattress pads cut to shape. It is warm as heck, but doesn't breathe very well. The only sewing was along the outer seam, and then I added some quilt loops to keep the insides from bunching up. Quick and dirty.