Bailed !

[Gra_factor]

When you flipped the hammock the RL may have been looped around the gather ends. This would in effect shorten the RL. Probably not a good thing.

I have a Byer Moskito, which doesn't really have gathered ends, just a bunch of strings that come together to make a loop at the end in typical Brazilian fashion. I think I have the opposite problem, ridge line too long. I measured it at 123" and tried measuring along the hammock (not easy when you can't lie it flat because of ridge line) and I am getting 133", which is a ratio of 92%, waaay too much. I want to re-check this though.

If I was working thru these issues.
I think I'd remove the tarp and quilts and just work on getting the hammock adjusted for the most comfortable lay. IMO it is the #1 most important thing.

Then add the TQ and find a way to keep it in the hammock. I see nothing wrong with using the net to do this like rip suggests.

Then set the TQ a side and go to the UQ and get it fitted to the hammock so there is no air gaps in the butt/back area.
While laying in the hammock it is easy to slip your hand between the hammock and UQ to feel for air gaps. Adjust the shock cord if required.
You want it just tight enough to hold the quilt against your back but not too tight.

Then finely add the tarp and adjust for best coverage based on the expected weather.

hth

This is very good advice, thank you. I will take down my ridge line and make a whoopie sling version so I can adjust its length. It's hanging in my basement now and although the angle of the suspension lines are much less than 30 degrees, the ridge is nowhere taut, so it's obviously way too long.

I did some fiddling outside this afternoon and made some improvements already, before I realized my ridge line problem. I was using the triangle thingies that come with the UQ, and connecting them up to the end points of my hammock with mini biners, but I have found it works much better with a Byer Moskito when I connect the shock cord sides directly to the outermost strings on each corner of the hammock. That greatly increases the UQ's tendency to spread out under the hammock. Also I had the ends cinched down way to much, if you overdo it it wants to pull the sides of the UQ together. The path of least resistance is to go underneath the hammock rather than up the sides. So I loosened the ends and tightened the sides and it's way better already.

Also, as SilvrSurfr has discovered, the Moskito just doesn't work as well when it's upside down, I don't know why. I flipped it back up and things were much easier with the mosquito netting above me.

[olddog]

Practice makes perfect! I've been sleeping in one or the other of my 2 DIY hammocks for a year now and I'm still practicing. Fiddling and tweeking are like DIY, there's no end to it. It's still better than a bed.

[sr1355]

I did some fiddling outside this afternoon and made some improvements already....

Thats what it's all about... fiddle factor, took me a while to dial systems in and once you get them dialed in you'll be sleeping like a baby....

[Gra_factor]

Well, I'm all set up in the backyard for another night out. Better luck this time! It always seems to be windy when I set it up....

[MAD777]

Backyard practice is priceless!
On my last trip, I slept in a homemade hammock without a net. It was my 1st experience with that concept. My stuff escaped while I was thrashing about trying to find the sweet spot. Once settle in, things stayed pretty much in place, but it was a 67" wide hammock.

I have decided to put a zippered net on it as well as my other DIY hammocks. I've figured out that I'm a zippered net person.

[Gra_factor]

Ugh, I bailed again. I was much more comfy with the ridge line shortened, but boy was it windy. My lowest body points (hip and shoulder as I was almost on my side) were a little chilled but nothing too bad. I think if it had not been so windy I would have not felt even that.

I had my tarp pitched almost to the ridge line and some of the tie outs were staked straight to the ground, it was that low. I pitched it as tight as I could but I couldn't stop it flapping about. It was the noise that bothered me the most, that and the occasional slap from the tarp. My house is at the top of a hill and I get quite a lot of wind up here - I hope this is not going to happen every time I try it out.

[sr1355]

Warmer weather should be a comin.... Wind certainly can effect the perfromance of your system in cold weather. I take it your tarp has no doors so the wind can still get in there, sneak around the sides. I was out Sat night down to 14* but with some wind and every now and then I could feel a cold wind a blowin.... BURRRR!!!!!!!! And that was with a OES winter doors closed down.... Better tarp alignment with prevailing winds should help, give that a try...

[Gra_factor]

Hmm, it's going to be hard to align my hang any other way, I only have one way to hang in my backyard.

I tried again last night, it was a still night and I still had everything left hanging outside from the night before. I wasn't going to hang on a worknight but I really wanted to try it. It was lightly snowing and I've never slept outside in the snow before, but it was only a little below freezing, so I thought what the hell, and grabbed my stuff and went out.

I was very comfy and it was very peaceful out there. I dozed off and then later on I felt my tarp slapping. It didn't feel like wind, there seemed to be a certain amount of agency to it, but I thought to myself, "you're imagining things, it's just a bit of wind".

Then it happened again, Slap Slap Slap, from my tarp. Then I heard a little tinkling sound. I looked down over the edge of my hammock and there was my cat! Last I had seen him he was curled up on the back of the couch inside, but he had gone out through the cat door that opens under my front porch, come round the back and joined me under the tarp. Snow was building up around the edges of the tarp (a couple of inches had fallen since I had gone out there), and even though it was about a half moon it was quite bright out. As the snowflakes were hitting my tarp they were silhouetted against the sky. My crazy cat must have thought (speaking of agency again) that they were something to catch and eat, and he was jumping up and darting back and forth under me trying to catch snowflake shadows against my tarp!

He generally hates the snow, so I was watching him thinking how ridiculously cute he was and not a little insane... then I realized he was swotting at my tarp with very sharp claws, so yelled at him and he ran off somewhere else. Crazy cat.

The snowstorm really picked up after that and it started blowing hard again, so I went back inside about 1.00am.

It occurs to me that if I was out in the woods with that setup I would have no choice but to stay all night in the hammock, and as such I would probably sleep fine. I have before, but admittedly not in such high winds.

[Fig]

It occurs to me that if I was out in the woods with that setup I would have no choice but to stay all night in the hammock, and as such I would probably sleep fine. I have before, but admittedly not in such high winds.

This is the reason you really want to get this all sorted out in the back yard. I have been out in the woods and have had times where I just wanted to pack up and sleep in the truck, but didn't want to run the engine to heat it up because it was 2am in a campsite. That wouldn't be very kosher. I have also been camping using my motorcycle, You realize quickly that if its too cold to hang, it is way to cold to ride home.

Also, I had the tarp flapping away like crazy the other night, and thought a set of earplugs would have been nice.

[Bannerstone]

+1 what Outback said, fix one thing at a time, you'll learn more about the effects of your adjustments and to identify problems more quickly.

David