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Be gentle with me -- I have almost no hammock experience. I know you hanging types prefer wider pads - the reasons I've heard mentioned are stability and need for more insulation on the sides.
Would it be posible to use a 20" x 72" pad and insulate the area about 8" on either side of the pad with down or synthetic insulation? I ask because we dinos have a pair of Ridgerest left over from the days before the female dino got mangled.
Depends on how you use it. If you have a down jacket you can wad up and stuff it in there, it'll work fine. If you just have one layer of insulation, it'll compress just like the bottom of a sleeping bag.
Make a SPE.
my 1st attempt at a synthetic underquilt turned out to be to narrow, so i attached the two sides together in the middle w/ a section of thin nylon (un- insulated in the middle). this worked fine for milder temps because i was using a pad.
and it was pretty light weight too.
FD - are you putting the insulation inside or outside the hammock?
I was thinking of making a somewhat loose covering for the insulation and attaching it to the outside - it would be somewhat like an underquilt but would have the hammock bottom as one wall.
A second way would be to have this as a separate piece - 8" of insulated quilt - 20" of nylon (maybe with some lighter insulation?) and 8" of insulation - as an under quilt. This sort of thing used alone would likely be great for warm weather and good with a pad in colder weather.
If the insulation is on the outside so it doesn't compress, it could work. If it's on the inside, I don't think it would be useful.
But if you're sewing stuff to the hammock body, why not just make an insulation hammock and lose the pad?
Jeff, I want to be able to adjust the amount of insulation so the hammock is good for both warm and cold weather.
Make an insulated hammock with one short end made of velcro, or even elastic. Then just quilt extra layers of insulation inside the pocket for colder weather.
Just an idea...not knocking your idea. Be sure to take pics if it you make it!
I am definitly an outlayer on this one, but for what its worth. I just use the standard 20" wide ccp from walmart. I cut the bottom off for a sit pad. I add the sit pad either under my butt or under my feet when I need to use the full pad. The pad is used with the JRB nest underquilt. The pad only comes in when temps drop into the low 20-30 deg range. With this I have not had any problems with cold shoulders. I also just throw the pad in the bottom of the hammock.
But I think I am different from most people here on this. I am also a warm sleeper.