Superfly or Mamajamba?

[Meriadoc]

Thanks for all the replies! You folks are great!

i've got all three and love all of them. you're not going to get much more coverage between the deluxe and mama, you'll get 2" on the ridge line and a little more on the bottom due to the 104" vs 120" but between the two the mamajamba has little more.

the superfly,...wow,..it's so roomy. i used it this past friday. if you're using the side pull outs you could comfortably put 2 people and packs all hanging. the olive brown is a great color too.

Thanks for the direct comparison. That helps a lot. I'd like to have a longer ridge line to be able to hang my pack up and have it completely covered by the tarp. But with it being only 2" longer, is the difference simply that the doors at the end create room and you're hanging it in the covered doorway?

Most thru hikers are pretty weight conscious.
Have you considered a 2QZQ door for your existing tarp?

I am only fairly weight conscious. I can comfortably hike 20 miles in a day with a 35 lb pack. For better (read: more) shelter I'm leaning towards the superfly.
That could change on the trail I guess; I'm doing my best to balance all the knowledge here with still hiking my own hike. I think I'm willing to compromise on weight for this.

My current tarp comes in at 14 oz. The Superfly is 19. Which is a bit heavier but marginally so (or, 35.7% heavier if you want to be technical). Unfortunately, my budget tells me that cuben is not an option.

[warbonnetguy]

both the superfly and the MJ have a 132" RL, which is 32" longer than the RL of the blackbird, so you'd have plenty of room at the end to hang a pack or whatever and have it covered by the tarp. that works out to the tarp sticking out 16" past the end of the hammock at each end.

both the mj and the superfly are 120" wide w/132"RL, only difference is the doors, and the mj with added door kit equals the same coverage as the superfly, and superfly with doors folded under/out of the way would be the same coverage as the mj without doors.

[Meriadoc]

Thanks warbonnetguy!

[lvnv1212]

I have a super fly and love it, can't go wrong. But, in the name of ounces, I ordered a cuben tarp from zpacks. http://zpacks.com/shelter/hammock_tarps.shtml I added some width as a mod so it is the same size as the super fly. Will be selling my SF when my new purchase arrives!

[mercop]

I did a stealth hang for the first time with my BB and SF, I went in at night and did not use a light so as not to be detected. I purposefully did not take the SF out before hand because I wanted to test myself by having to use it, cut and place tie outs, and do all my knot work by hand. It was like pulling rabbits out of a hat, the tarp just kept on coming, I could not believe a tarp that big fit in a stuff sack that small. The SF is the shiznit- George

[Bat]

I used to have a Spinn Big Mambajamba with detachable doors. The doors added as much weight as the tarp weighed. I would get a Cuben tarp with attached doors from hammock gear.com.

[fallkniven]

Forget weight, get the superfly. The attached doors are far superior to detachable doors. Add on doors leave a lot of air gaps. The sf will keep you warm and dry.

[OneThing]

Most thru hikers are pretty weight conscious.
Have you considered a 2QZQ door for your existing tarp?

Trust me, if you're planning on hiking the AT, you're going to want to go lighter. I used a stock HH tarp in 2004 & survived. In 2005, I went with the MacCat and it was night and day from the HH tarp. For the most part, you could get by with just the MacCat with no problem. I would either add on either one end of removable doors, or have 2QZQ sew on either doors on one end or both.

I plan on doing the AT again in 2013 using the MacCat with doors, and using the HH tarp in summer.

If a big enough storm hits on the AT, most people hit the shelters or head to town. I hated both, but you do what you have to do to stay dry and keep hiking.

[WalksInDark]

I switched to a superfly before I went out on 4 or 5 5 day section hikes on the A.T. this summer. Happy to say, I remained dry even when many other hammock hangers did not.

Oh yeah, I use snake skins on my superfly so that I can leave it furled closed on the nights that are both really hot...and look unlikely to rain. In a worst case scenario, if it starts to rain in the middle of the night, I can simply unfurl the superfly and stake it at all four corners.

[JKRay]

I have both, I prefer the super fly.
So much so that I just ordered another super fly.