Newbie ?

[tnoisaw]

I researched this here with no answer so I go. The underquilts or Peapods look great! Is there ever a problem of them getting exposed to rain being open like they are? I under stand that a tarp should stop most but if it's raining cat's and dogs and bouncing up wouldn't that soak 'em?

Thanks

[cavediver2]

Thats a good question I myself have not used any of them so I will be reading this to find out what people have to say about it.

[warbonnetguy]

fog and drizzle that gets horizontally blown in under the tarps edges is the worst. if the tarp is large, you can pull the sides down to within a few inches of the ground, and this should keep the bottom of the hammock dry. a moderate sized tarp should have a big enough footprint to protect from splashing, the problem is, especially for wind blown drizzle/mist, only a really big tarp will protect the very bottom of the hammock from it.

people have substituted other options to either reduce the necessary size of the tarp or to increase protection. with an uq, you could use a undercover/weathershield type thing. since you are using a uq, the material would have to hang loose so not to compress your loft, and would have to be breathable, unless it was large enough to provide a large dead air space for the quilt to "breathe" into, in which case, you could probably use sil (if the bottom cover hung a couple inches under your uq for instance). for less fabric, you could also make a sil jacket for your uq. unlike the bottom cover, it would have to be sil on both sides of the uq (sil on the outside, but also between you and the uq) otherwise vapor could go into the quilt, but not be able to escape, and collect in your loft. for either option, you could also go with something water resistant rather than waterproof like sil.

[Just Jeff]

As warbonnetguy says, water splashing generally isn't a problem. Windblown rain, or dense fog/mist, can be at times. It's kinda creepy waking up in dense fog like that...definitely a cool memory, though!

So - bigger tarp, a weathershield, hammock sock, travelpod, etc - cover it up if you're worried about it.

[FanaticFringer]

One of the new JRB or Speer cat tarp would be a good solution.