View Full Version : Whopper Hammocks
What is wrong with this picture?
http://www.mosquitohammock.com/images/picJungleHammockJeepFlash.JPG
One trip with a hammock and I can't help but look at hammock retail sites the same way I look at a lit up menu at burger king.
The bun is full of air and floats on top of large tomatoes and onions and a piece of fluffy lettuce. A large piece of meat creates the foundation for your chewing pleasure.
Now the real world. Go buy a Whopper. Your purchase provides you with something that resembles the actual product advertised, if you are lucky.
Buy a hammock and you may find yourself even more disappointed than the whopper you bought 3 weeks ago. Problem is a hammock costs about $100-$300 dollars more. . . Than a whopper. .
.
The above picture looks like the hammock is holding about a 3 pound sleeping bag. Add another 140 lb. person and 2 lbs. of gear or cloths and the fly on that hammock becomes utterly useless.
Perhaps the photographer did not anticipate rain, WITH NO WIND. dunno. Maybe the person who set the hammock up was more concerned about a leaf falling on the top mesh and decided it would be safter for a fly to take the weight and disperse it evenly across the length of the line.
I'm not attacking this hammock manufacturer specifically. I'm just getting damned tired or paradise hammock marketing and want to see real world solutions to real world hammocking problems.
How about some pics from hammock manufactures of a hammock set up by one person, who has done all the steps of tightening up the light. fitting the fly for a possible rain with some wind and getting in the hammock. How about some videos? Even hennessy hammocks has some videos on setup but not one person even enters the hammock after setup. A clean setup is drastically different than a fully setup hammock with an actual person in it.
Or they could all just post pics of a paradise ideal in hopes of a purchase and then send the silly crag on his/her merry way.
Sure experimenting is part of the process, But i'm starting to feel like wearing a kings crown and taking my whopper apart, piece by piece in hope of recreating what I have purchased.
I hear that if you take the lettuce off your whopper and run it under cold water and replace, the whopper will regain some of the prestige and and honor it once displayed.
FanaticFringer
03-14-2007, 23:21
Blah, Blah, Blah. You indeed sound like your 3 years old...........
hammock engineer
03-14-2007, 23:25
Nice rant. I mean that in a good way. There are a lot of gear manufactors that I think do that stuff.
What excatly are you looking for?
You can buy a cheap hammock, tarp, throw in a ccp, and your sleeping bag and be good to go spending only $50. I made my setup for around that.
HH have small tarps to save weight. My huge DIY tarp is 12' long by 10' wide and weighs about 1lbs. Should keep me dry though whatever I go through.
Check out www.speerhammocks.com (http://www.speerhammocks.com). Ed Speer is a nice guy with a really useable product.
I have never been drier, slept better, and camped better than with a hammock. What kind of dumb luck did you have?:banana
I have that exact hammock and love it. There are plenty of pictures of people hanging in hammocks both on this site and at www.hammockforums.net (http://www.hammockforums.net) . I do agree...it would be nice to see people hanging in an advertised hammock but it's really no biggy.
peter_pan
03-15-2007, 08:13
And your point is???
Anology of a hammock to a whopper leaves a lot to be desired.... more like a nite at the Hilton Paradise.
You'll never sleep better in the woods than in a good hammock
As to costs.... try thinking of it this way.
A man buys a clunker car... ( ground tent at wally world, 69 campm** bag, blue pad etc) uses it a while gets tired of breakdowns (wet nites, uncomfortable ground , cold hips/shoulders etc).... sells the car for parts and buys a decent car that will get him where he wants to go, safely , in comfort and on time ( becomes a hammocker).
The cost of the new car is not additive.... the cost of the old car was the the poor choice and what is not salvagable is a write off. :-?
Pan
What is wrong with this picture?
http://www.mosquitohammock.com/images/picJungleHammockJeepFlash.JPG
that is Neo's setup
FanaticFringer
03-15-2007, 16:40
that is Neo's setup
Nope. The bottom two hammock's are Neo's.
FanaticFringer
03-15-2007, 16:41
www.mosquitohammock.com/junglehammock.html
Just Jeff
03-18-2007, 08:19
Hey Tacoda - if you want to see pics of hammocks set up by one person and used comfortably, check my trip reports for the SEHHA trips in Hot Springs. Each trip had about 15 people, who set up their own hammock (or had an experienced hammocker help them if they were new). And the Mt Roger's trip report from HammockForums is posted here, too - it was in the teens the second night...some of us used homemade gear, others used off-the-shelf commercial gear.
http://www.tothewoods.net/HikingPictures.html
JacksRBetter uses the standard gear posted on their website just so people can't say, "Well, you use fancier gear than you sell." They walk the walk. (They had prototype tarptents on the Rogers trip, but they're planning on selling them. Other than that, standard quilts, underquilts, tarps, etc...according to Jack, unless they're testing something they use the same gear they sell.)
hey bro,
thanks for the link.
I still have problems with you one pic that i came across very quickly in your link.
http://www.tothewoods.net/ImagesHikingPictures/050424HotSpringsMoonbeam4.JPG
head first into the wind off a lake? do you have winds you can always expect to come from NSWE each night?
Where i camp, such camp sites would be illegal setting up so close to a water source. That camp site, close to a water source would be a great dissapointment if I was hiking the area.
What was the wind direction that evening? did it change during the night? was your hammock outing for 1-2 nights? I myself would not even attempt such a site with the winds coming off from the lake even if if i was not on the recieving end of the wind that particular night.
Where I camp, You can expect to find winds coming in from nearly all directions depending on luck. Certainly no ' Straight winds from the west ' forecasts. 2 hours of wind is your best of luck.
This outing looks like a days walk to a truck/car.
Would you be more carefull if you had 10 days and a boat?
surfing a little further and seen this pic among many.
http://www.tothewoods.net/ImagesHikingPictures/050424HotSpringsJacks2.JPG
Sorry bro, but my idea of back packing and yours are very different. Probably a family outing or something. Certainly looks like fun and your pictures make me happy to find your family having fun.
Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place, dunno. I'm not looking for a survivalist forum lol. just ideals on how to best use a hammock, but I would very much like to hear from people at least 10 miles away from a parking lot.
I get two major hikes a year, Each 10 days max. no food or filtered water, and I have to be prepared for bad weather on the 1st day in low 30's until the 10 days are up, So I have to be very careful and all the time I want to remind myself; ' what if I was stuck in this area for 20 days. ' When I hike in this area I move camp every day. 4 miles, 6 miles, 4 miles. etc.
Certainly not a whopper mile expert, but that is not important to me at this moment.
Simply trying to find what works best for me year after year. Maybe I'll hike the AT trail with this setup but most probably not, but allow me to dream.
FanaticFringer
03-23-2007, 16:34
surfing a little further and seen this pic among many.
http://www.tothewoods.net/ImagesHikingPictures/050424HotSpringsJacks2.JPG
Sorry bro, but my idea of back packing and yours are very different. Probably a family outing or something. Certainly looks like fun and your pictures make me happy to find your family having fun.
Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place, dunno. I'm not looking for a survivalist forum lol. just ideals on how to best use a hammock, but I would very much like to hear from people at least 10 miles away from a parking lot.
I get two major hikes a year, Each 10 days max. no food or filtered water, and I have to be prepared for bad weather on the 1st day in low 30's until the 10 days are up, So I have to be very careful and all the time I want to remind myself; ' what if I was stuck in this area for 20 days. ' When I hike in this area I move camp every day. 4 miles, 6 miles, 4 miles. etc.
Certainly not a whopper mile expert, but that is not important to me at this moment.
Simply trying to find what works best for me year after year. Maybe I'll hike the AT trail with this setup but most probably not, but allow me to dream.
Just ley me know when your starting so I can make sure I dont run into you. I'd hate for you to piss on my parade.:p
Just Jeff
03-23-2007, 18:47
Heh - the first pic is at an established campground in Hot Springs overlooking the French Broad River...at a campout hosted by Ed Speer from Speer Hammocks.
The second pic is both Jacks from JacksRBetter.
Knock their credentials if you want to - but I doubt you'll find much audience for it here. :D
Just ley me know when your starting so I can make sure I dont run into you. I'd hate for you to piss on my parade.:p
agreed. I don't think i would enjoy your company either.
BillyBob58
04-02-2007, 23:20
[quote=Tacoda;343726]Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place, dunno. I'm not looking for a survivalist forum lol. just ideals on how to best use a hammock, but I would very much like to hear from people at least 10 miles away from a parking lot.
I get two major hikes a year, Each 10 days max. no food or filtered water, and I have to be prepared for bad weather on the 1st day in low 30's until the 10 days are up, So I have to be very careful and all the time I want to remind myself; ' what if I was stuck in this area for 20 days. ' When I hike in this area I move camp every day. 4 miles, 6 miles, 4 miles. etc../quote]
If you will look at the pics over at hammockforums.net in the "Am I nuts" thread, http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=862&page=2 you will see my HH plus another hammock hung in the Wind River Mtns of Wyoming. No closer than 6 miles form the traihead (which was 20 or 30 miles from the nearest paved road), mostly 10 to 15 miles in. And no, I wasn't in the hammock when I took the picture. And yes, I did tighten the fly up after the pic, as a storm was blowing in. But I can assure you we did not set the hammocks up just to take a picture. They supplied some fine sleeping. Lows were lo 20's to hi 30's.
Bill
BillyBob58
04-02-2007, 23:23
see this other page
http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=862&page=3
RockStar
04-02-2007, 23:52
Just ley me know when your starting so I can make sure I dont run into you. I'd hate for you to piss on my parade.:p
Im gonna use that LMAO I hope you wont bill me for royalties. :p