In my humble opinion, Klymit makes pretty nice outdoor gear in general and very nice sleeping pads in particular. Typically, Klymit offers camping enthusiasts a good balance with high-quality materials and construction and a desirable feature set at reasonable pricepoint for premium gear.
To date I've had the most personal experience with the Klymit Insulated Static V sleeping pad, a high R-value rectangular pad designed primarily for ground use. My household has a couple of these insulated pads in current use, and they have been great to have so far, so when Klymit introduced a specially shaped wide hammock pad, my interest was piqued, but the low R-value of their original hammock pad was a dealbreaker for me. Later, when they came out with this insulated model, my interest was rekindled, although the $170 suggested retail price seemed staggeringly high even for a fairly unique product, given that you can get some pretty nice synthetic (and now even down) underquilts for around the same pricepoint. Finally, the Klymit Insulated Hammock V pad became available at a substantial discount on a recent Massdrop group buy, so I took a gamble...
ILOVE
My Klymit Insulated Hammock V pad measures out to 78" x 47" as claimed, and it is slightly porlty at 36.4 ounces (1032 grams) in its stuff sack compared to a claimed weight of 32.7 ounces (927 grams). It is indeed 2.5" thick when fully inflated. It takes approximately 20 good breaths to fully inflate the pad, which was not a troublesome task.
So, the Insulated Hammock V is not rocket science. It's a blow-up sleeping pad -- but it is a well engineered blow-up sleeping pad made from high-quality materials. The fabric is tough but has a nice hand and plenty of suppleness, and its flexibility is not impeded by the synthetic insulation inside that gives it its 4.4 R-value. The uniquely labyrinthine "V" baffle pattern distributes inflation air efficiently along the length of the pad and to the four "wings" that give it its hammock-specific shape. Of particular note are the sturdy, well designed dedicated inflation and deflation valves, both of which seal smartly. Airflow through the Klymit is a one-way street; you use your mouth to blow into the comfortable recessed inflation valve in one corner of the head end, which prevents air leakage between breaths, and seal it when you achieve the desired firmness. To empty the pad, just pop open the deflation valve, also recessed, in the other corner of the head end to dump air in a hurry with minimal resistance as you flatten the pad and roll it up. Ease of use seems to take top priority in the way the Hammock V has been designed, and both deployment and stowage are surprisingly simple.
As previously mentioned, the Klymit Insulated Hammock V sleeping pad has a very unique shape. Even when blown-up very firm, the lateral wings at knee and shoulder on each side are shaped and seamed to conform well to the shape of a gathered-end hammock body, spreading it open gently and creating a shallow, boatlike envelope of insulation and comfort. I found after a little practical use, some observations, and some familiarization, that I could modify the shape of the symmetrical pad to reflect my asymmetrical lay in the hammock. I like to lay head right/feet left in my hammock, so after positioning the Hammock V pad down the hammock centerline, I folded the wings I wasn't using -- the one at my left shoulder and my right knee -- back underneath the pad. The Hammock V remained straight and centered in the hammock, but the pad now allowed the hammock fabric to conform even better around it and around me, without the pad punching out the typical "high zones" of a gathered end-hammock.
I tested the Hammock V sleeping pad over two nights in standard-width 11-foot gathered-end hammocks with both single- and double-layer bodies. To my surprise on the first night of testing, the pad worked just fine for me in a single-layer hammock, even at something approaching full firmness. It never fell out or slid down into either gathered end, and it stayed straight along the hammock's centerline, while I lay at a slight diagonal across the pad. I'm 6'2", and I found if I rested my head near the top of the pad just inboard of the air valve, I had plenty of room for a gently oblique lay across the Hammock V with my heels resting in the crease between the foot end of the pad and the lower wing on the opposite side. I got virtually full coverage from the pad, and a pillow was absolutely optional. (No knee bolster was required either!)
The Hammock V pad has large rectangular areas of a clear, almost tacky traction compound on both sides. These grip zones work very well, arresting nearly all of the typical shifting, slipping, and sliding that give sleeping pads in hammocks a bad name. While keeping the pad in place the way you would want them to, if you unweight the pad over the high-traction areas you can still make minor adjustments to its position (even between two hammock body layers) while remaining inside the hammock. So, again, Klymit accomplishes ease of use in an important area.
On the second night of testing, to get the fully-inflated Hammock V into the pad pocket between the layers of my double-layer hammock through a 26" wide opening, I folded all four wings underneath the pad and then bowed the pad down its centerline. The Hammock V, by virtue of the location of its inflation valve and the position of my pad pocket opening down by my left foot, had to be pre-inflated before insertion into the hammock body by this method. Once it was between the layers and centered, I could reach through the fabric to deploy the wings, and again, as I did on the first night of the rest hang, I deployed two wings and left two wings folded. It took only a bit of wrangling to accomplish this. Even on a 58" wide standard hammock, the Hammock V tends to find its way to both long edges of the hammock with the inner layer fabric conforming loosely to the many hills and valleys of its multiple "V" baffles.
I was happy with the actual performance of the Insulated Hammock V pad on all counts. It was quite comfortable to lay on all night long, even at more or less full inflation with no significant loss of firmness over two nights. I used it for both back sleeping and pseudo-side sleeping (about a 45-degree roll in each direction). On the second night, the colder and rainier of the two, I recorded a 38F ambient low temperature with moderate humidity, sporadic light rain, and a single-digit wind blowing, and the Hammock V pad kept me comfortably warm all night without much help from my other gear. (I used a 30-degree (CS 5.0) synthetic top quilt, light full-coverage micofiber base layers, no UQP, and my narrow 11-foot Cuben Fiber hex tarp, pitched wide to keep me dry but without much wind blocking. The Hammock V pad didn't provide the same snug, rump-roasting warmth as a properly adjusted full-length underquilt, but it warded off any and all cold spots, blocked the wind, and gave me ample freedom to change positions without worry. While the pad does indeed conform nicely around your body, I would still recommend a wide top quilt to go with it, with ample area for tucking on the sides, as one might need to when camping on the ground. I found the Hammock V pad to be worry-free and more than adequate to the moderate weather conditions of the test. I suffered no perspiration or condensation issues at all. With a little supplementation, like an extra top layer, a UQP, or a sock, I could certainly see taking this pad down near the freezing mark as an average sleeper.
To remove the inflated Hammock V pad from the DL pad pocket the nxt morning took a little more wrestling than putting it in, especially as a light rain was falling and I was trying to keep the large pad under my tarp and off the ground simultaneously, but I managed to do so even under adverse conditions. By adopting the factory protocol for folding and rolling, it can be stored fairly easily in its original stuff sack (packed to approximately 6" in diameter by 9" long) after each use -- even when you have to roll it up in your hammock instead of on the ground.
For me, the Klymit Insulated Hammock V pad attempts to offer a solution for hammock bottom insulation that can be stored packed in a small volume indefinitely, which means I can now consider putting a hammock and this Klymit in a vehicle emergency bag or other kit stored long term, a big plus in my opinion. Other than a couple of ounces of extra weight, the only real con with the Klymit Insulated Hammock V pad is the manufacturer's suggested retail price of $170; even knowing how well it works and that it offers some unique advantages and features, I think it is simply overpriced. Unless you absolutely need its robust long-term storage feature, I can't say I'd recommend this pad at full price. However, it is fortunate that, through Massdrop and other channels, the Insulated Hammock V is periodically available at a substantial discount, and discounted (around $100) I think it can offer many hammock campers enough utility in niched applications to have some real merit.
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How To Roll Up Your Klymit Hammock V Pad
Originally Posted by johnspenn
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