No more pad slipping

**sidmarx** · 06-17-2009, 11:12

This January I went hanging in Europe as i couldn't afford hotels. The weather was barely freezing with mucho exits from the warm and cuddly to go out and pee. But the in and out got easy with the following: I cut two 6 foot sleep pads in half at the waist, making four pads of 3' by the original width. Then, space the four pads in the hammock overlapping a few inches at the lowest point (hammock belly). The long (3') side of each pad runs at a right angle to the hammock's length, giving you wide coverage to lay off-center in the hammock.

Critical step--now remove cotton/poly field jacket (a down coat is too light) and spread it over the arranged pads. Not only does it anchor the pads in place, but also absorbs sweat if any. Now i could climb out, in, and out again without resetting the pads and no shifting occurred. The setup looks like the jointed segments of a cockroaches belly. (the simile is only approximate--more like one that's been squashed)

It seems kinda obvious but i haven't seen it described and had to discover it by T&E. If so, don't all thank me at once and spare the torrent of rotten veggies.

**amac** · 06-17-2009, 17:57

Thanks for sharing this. I always enjoy finding a good reason to setup a hammock to try something new. I'll give this a shot with my Byer, sometime this Summer.

**MedicineMan** · 06-17-2009, 20:34

What about getting the little squeeze tube of silicone (caulk size would be way too much wasted) and doing squigglies on the pad; let it cure of course, then when in the hammock the cured silicone helps prevent slippage.

**vitamaltz** · 06-17-2009, 20:54

I've done what medicineman suggests on several Ridgerests. It works quite well, although eventually the silicone will fall off.

The coat idea is cool as long as it doesn't have any metal hardware (zipper pulls, big buttons, etc) that could damage the hammock fabric. Many times I've slipped a pad inside a silk liner and slept pretty comfortably on top of it; same idea.

**sidmarx** · 06-18-2009, 09:53

No, Vitalmaltz, not a problem....the coat is sandwiched between you and the pads wh. are against the hammock. Or, putting it another way, the pads are sandwiched between the hammock below and the coat on top ( zippers touching pads) Kapeesh?

I like the idea of silicone beads, but they'd be redundant as i'd still need the coat for absorbency.