minimum underquilt width?

[arkwater]

I am planning on making an underquilt for a speer type hammock. What is the minimum width you have successfuly used in this type of setup? I was thinking about 40" for the top and bottom quilts?!?

[Just Jeff]

How big are you?

I've used 40" and 42" for insulated sections of insulated hammocks. It works, if a bit confining...can give a side sleeper cold knees/butt if I'm not positioned right. Not sure I'd want to go that narrow with an underquilt, though - the wrap and fit would effectively take another inch or three from the insulated width, I think.

The JRB is 48", and that's plenty wide for moving around in the hammock. IMO, you could safely trim a bit of width, but consider how much weight that saves. Let's say you cut 8" of width off of a 78" long underquilt to make a 78x40 quilt. That's 576 sq in...or about half a square yard. With 1.1 oz material, you're saving about an ounce (two layers). Add another fraction of an ounce for the down...you're still under two ounces total.

If you really want to save that weight, I wouldn't go as low as 40" for my size (5'10" ~190 lbs). YMMV based on your body size and sleeping style.

Re: top quilts - the Speer is the narrowest I've seen at 42" (don't have one myself). I haven't heard any hammockers complain about it in the hammock but I don't think anyone has spoken about using them on the ground. Might want to consider that, god forbid, someday you'll have to use it that way. 48" is adequate for ground sleeping for my size, and very comfortable in the hammock...again, just for safety I don't think I'd cut too much more off of that.

But if you go with 40" on both top and bottom, you can save about 3 oz from the total system if it works for you. Be sure to post pics and results!

[arkwater]

My thinking here is to make two quilts the same size that can be attached with velcro or zipper. That way I could useas over/under with my Hennessy or as a pod type in my home made hammock. two 40" quilts would give me 80" circumfrence in the pod setup. I tried a 70" wide sleeping bag around my hammock and it worked well so 80" should be plenty. I would have a draw string at the end of each quilt. Its all still in the thought process for now. Would like to have a Mt Rogers someday. Just not in the buget right now. i will probably use climashield for insulation and 1.1 ripstop for shell & liner.

[Farr Away]

My thinking here is to make two quilts the same size that can be attached with velcro or zipper...
I'd recommend against the velcro. If you decide to go with velcro, be careful where the hook side goes and/or fix things so you can cover it when you're not using it.

I made a sleeping bag with a velcro closure for my hammock. My original design had a cover for the velcro sewn into the seam, but I was rushing and forgot to put it in. The trial run was a warm night, so I didn't have the velcro fastened. Even though the hook part was designed to be against the hammock not me, I spent most of the night peeling it off my sleep shirt. Bleh! I also found that it really didn't hold that well when I did want to use it. Needless to say, the velcro came off the bag.

RE: the width. I'm 5'4", so I made my bag shorter - ~70", but I pretty much kept the width at the top. I don't like feeling confined.

[Just Jeff]

Sounds like an interesting system.

Even with a PeaPod, I need a top quilt below ~50F or so b/c it doesn't drape along the body. Probably the same issue with the setup you're talking about - if you wrap it around like a pod, you may need something else to lay on top of you inside the pod. Or maybe not, depending on how it turns out. Just something to keep in mind.

Only one way to find out!

[peter_pan]

Couple comments....JJ is correct on the need for a top quilt as well inside a pea pod type of set up....BTW, pea pod is approx72 at the widest...your proposal would be 79-80 depending on overlap connections...exaccerbates the issue further.

Your proposed length is probably way short for an effective "one wrapper"....issues are your height and the type of hammock...even if covering the sleeper a one wrapper this short would have draft hole issues at both the foot and head end in all likelyhood because of the spread of the hammock material this far in towards the middle....


FWIW, I've done a lot of prototyping and 40 inches width is too narrow for a hassle free comfortable UQ... you can make it work, but it will not be without knee , hip shoulder issues and you will not get the best side insulation in the overlap coverage of the two quilts.... and you will need extra length tabs or shock cords to keep it correctly centered....And remember shock cord is much heavier than 1.1 and high pf down on a relative basis... recommend a full tradeoff analysis on design specs before you start.

But what the heck...you never know....post pictures if you do the project.

Pan