DD Camping Hamock Mods

[Comptona]

Bought myself a DD camping Hamock and found it the most comfortable nights sleep ever. One problem though, when sleeping inside the shell i found the top kept resting on my face and waking me up. Does anybody have any mods that will not damage the hamock?

[Ashley Cawley]

Ah right, so you've not got the Travel Hammock with the mozi-net you've got the camping hammock. Just so everyone knows the Travel Hammock with the mozi net has numerous loops attached to the mozi net, with bungie cord so you can string it up and lift the net off your face, however the camping hammock dosen't have those loops, so you could either attach your own (but I wouldn't want to risk damaging the material too much) or some other simple, ingenious way to keep the material off your face, there's got to be some stupidly simple solution... ah might have one..

Thinking back to tarps, when you don't have an eyelet or a loop, so lets say a loop as snapped on your tarp but you still need to tie rope to that corner, you can always take a small pebble or other smooth object, cup the material around it and then tie the cord around the pebble & material, this lets you get purchase on the material where before there was nothing to grab. Needs a diagram really as I'm explaining it badly! I'll see if I can find one.

But I'm thinking you could use something round/smooth and a loose bungie, tied to your Tarp's ridge-line above you to hold the material off your face, quite like the travel-hammock setup. The only thing you want to watch for is that you don't set the bungie to tight so that when you sit in the hammock it puts too much strain on the hammock material and causes something to rip.

[MikeWilkinson]

Ashley probably has the simplest solution, otherwise you are going to need to do some sewing. if you don't have your tarp up or don't have a ridgeline to tie to, simply putting the stone in the material at either end of the hammock will shortern the top layer in relation to the bottom and will raise it off your face as well, however make it too tight and you risk tearing the top as you climb in.

Personally I rarley sleep between the two layers, but rather slip my mat inbetween to stop it flipping out, also big beastie mosquitos and other biting bugs can actually get at you through the single layer. With a tarp and a good blanket/sleeping bag there really shouldn't be a need to go inside the layers.

[Comptona]

Cheers Guys, The good thing is that the camping hamock is cheap enough to take the odd risk with. I will try your idea Ashley. I have not tried sleeping on the outside yet but intend to in the new year. I took the scouts to a new site we had been offered free, woodland!!! wahay, not many opportunities to get that sort of camping, and bought the hamock after seeing a review here, It was late september and very wet and windy and my tarp was was smaller than it looked when i layed it out in the living room. I will learn...

[Matt]

I too have a camping hammock and put my sleep mat inside and sleep on top, I find being inside myself too claustrophobic and also enjoy waking up with a woodland view.

Regards, Matt.

[Scott]

I agree with matt i sleep on top of my hammock with my roll mat inside

[shovel reccy]

i have one of these minus the mozzie net little accident after a few to many ales,got in ziped up moved roll fall through the net, i stick my roll mat in between the two layers and does me fine.

[comanighttrain]

I have to get a hammock....

[Ben Casey]

I tried mine out last night and it was really comfy and would recomend a mat inside my back was a bit cold to say the least :)

[Tony1948]

Good night out then ben enjoyed ?

[Ben Casey]

Loved it mate apart from a bit of a chill around the feet and butt. I think Mark is going to do a thread on here about it I will send him the pics I took so he can post them or I can do one see what he thinks about it :)

[Martin]

To anyone who has or is contemplating buying a hammock and hasn't slept in one before, you must put a layer of insulation either in or around the hammock. Your sleeping bag compresses when you lie on it and it loses its insulating properties.

The simplest way is to use a closed cell foam roll mat either inside the hammock or between the layers. Other options are the under blanket (my preferred option) or the cocoon, which is Ashley's choice. Others have suggested a car windscreen heat reflector which is supposed to be effective. I can also imagine that radiator heat reflective insulation could be good (it's like silver foil coated bubble wrap).

Anyway, the bottom line is, if you don't insulate underneath yourself in a hammock you will have a cold miserable night's sleep, won't you Ben? :D

Martin

[Ben Casey]

To anyone who has or is contemplating buying a hammock and hasn't slept in one before, you must put a layer of insulation either in or around the hammock. Your sleeping bag compresses when you lie on it and it loses its insulating properties.

The simplest way is to use a closed cell foam roll mat either inside the hammock or between the layers. Other options are the under blanket (my preferred option) or the cocoon, which is Ashley's choice. Others have suggested a car windscreen heat reflector which is supposed to be effective. I can also imagine that radiator heat reflective insulation could be good (it's like silver foil coated bubble wrap).

Anyway, the bottom line is, if you don't insulate underneath yourself in a hammock you will have a cold miserable night's sleep, won't you Ben? :D

Martin

Hi Mate I think I slept ok as I looked and the fire still had some decent embers next time I looked there where none :) But yip any advice is happily accepted here it took ages for my toes to finally get feeling again:) It brought back memeories of having to stand on cocnrete when doing gaurd duty :)

[Paul Webster]

I presume with the travel hammock you can't use the snugpak cocoon? Unless you turn the hammock over and don't use the mosi net?

[Martin]

I presume with the travel hammock you can't use the snugpak cocoon? Unless you turn the hammock over and don't use the mosi net?

That would be correct Paul. However, you could think of the cocoon as a very large mosi net without the net bit. ;)

Martin

[Paul Webster]

Ah yea, I like that idea!

[kesom]

i brought my 2010 DD travel hammock out last week when i got it,had a 6mm insulation mat in between the layers and a light 2 season sleeping bag,the hammock itself is great. T^


i slept in it suspended for about 4 hours and my kneck started to hurt so i dropped it down to the bivi set up(at 4am):sad: only took 20 mins to move it all,

the only negatives i noticed for myself were that if i had a small blow up pillow my neck would have been fine i think and when i dropped it into bivi set up i rolled off the insulation mat and woke up freezin :eek:
the mats only 500mm wide and the bivi set up is 1400mm wide so a wider insulation mat or better insulation prep with leaves or such under where the bivi will be set up would be a good idea :wink:
the zips on both sides of the mozi net on this model are really handy for centering yourself on the insulation mat when suspended in the hammock,it must have been a nightmare when they only had a zip on one side and i did notice that only 2 of the 3 velcro strips inbetween the layers lined up when the hammock was up,this may be down to more stretch on one side but didnt get to camp till late that evenin so didnt have time to mess about with the hammock to see if it would catch but will on my next outing over the next week :)

they could also do with putting something on the corners of the bivi set up to anchor the corners off for when your pinnin it down,its no problem staking the cord that comes with it its that when you stake down the cord the ends of the bivi bag can still slide and when you tighten up the mozi net with the bungi cord supplied off a ridge line the corners of the bivi move in towards the middle,as i said this was done at 4am after waking up with a serious neck pain so on my next outing i'll see if i can get all 4 corners to stay in place:camping:

2 hollow climbing carabiners,a 10mm 4 season roll mat(wide as possible) or an under blanket(if cash allows) and a 3x3m tarp will be my next upgrades before the start of October
any of you used the travel hammock in the bivi set up ?

peace ken :)

[Paul Webster]

Hi ken, I had a similar problem first time I slept in a hammock. Did you have the hammock strung taut or was there some slack? That seemed to be the key for me, once I loosened it off so there was some sag, I could sleep with my head higher than my body. Was very comfortabe then. Have a look at the setup picture from whoopieslings.com

[kesom]

Hi ken, I had a similar problem first time I slept in a hammock. Did you have the hammock strung taut or was there some slack? That seemed to be the key for me, once I loosened it off so there was some sag, I could sleep with my head higher than my body. Was very comfortabe then. Have a look at the setup picture from whoopieslings.com

ya i had it pretty taught paul,i slept on my side that time too,i got a blow up camping pillow today so i'll give that a go on my next outing and i'll see what slackening the hammock feels like for me
thanks for the heads up and the link,ken :)

[Aaron Rushton]

Eureka! get length of wire, flexible enough to bend with your hands, but stiff enough to hold. push a cork aonto each end of the wire. shape it into an arc and when you get into the hammock, put either end of the wire with the cork at either side of the hammock, holding up the cocoon bit. that's probably a lot easier to write than do actually....ok scrap that idea. why not sew some webbing loops onto the outside and do the same as you would with the mozzy net on the travel and frontline hammocks.

[kesom]

i was thinking some sort of clasp to pinch the cormers to the pegged webbing !!!!!!!!!!! like the ones you use on tarps

The webbing loops sewn onto the corners of the hammock would be better tho,less bits to loose,good thinkin Aaron :)

peace ken :)

[andy202wr]

Trying mine out for the first time this weekend. Will let you know what happens. Being dropped off by the wife, camping out then walking back. Cant wait.

[andy202wr]

Great nights sleep. Only problem I had was the cord that the hammock was made from and the cord I used to fasten it to the tree streatched, so I woke early with only a ew inch between me and the ground so the cold creapt through.

http://i607.photobucket.com/albums/tt153/andy202wr/outdoor%20sport/bushcraft/DSCF2893.jpg

http://i607.photobucket.com/albums/tt153/andy202wr/outdoor%20sport/bushcraft/DSCF2891.jpg

http://i607.photobucket.com/albums/tt153/andy202wr/outdoor%20sport/bushcraft/DSCF2899.jpg

We made a trianguler camp with a tarp for the fire incase it rained.

[LandRoverMatt]

my mate has the camping hammock and he has the same problem that he wakes up because of the fabric in his face

[kesom]

looks like it went well andy,when i tie my hammock up u get in it and move about a bit to stretch the cords then go back and re tighten it and once more before bed and you shouldnt have the same problem again ;)
here's a shot i took from my phone the last time i was out
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6141/6038343449_5e9824e4ef.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66349450@N04/6038343449/) camp (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66349450@N04/6038343449/) by kesom (http://www.flickr.com/people/66349450@N04/), on Flickr
i found gettin a small inflatable pillow helped an awful lot with comfort and when its deflated it fits in the pockets in the hammock and can be put away with it

peace ken :)

[Ehecatl]

I have a DD camping hammock and prefer that the upper is not in my face all night. Originally I tried a short bit of para cord from the hammock upper up to the ridge line but it didn't create enough space. So I went to my local B&Q and bought a 5mm diameter fibre glass pole (and then cut it in half) and some aluminium tube that has an internal diameter of about 5mm. I then cut 5 of the belt loops off of an old pair of British Army Light Weight green trousers - the guy wearing then was livid! (just kidding!) I then stitched these 40cm in from the end of the hammock onto the outside of the hammock upper, the the button holes furthest from the hammock.

Armed with some epoxy resin glue, I stuck about 5cm of tube to the ends of the fibre glass pole and a longer section onto one of the other ends, but left half of it for the other pole to go into (once everything had dried). I then screwed an eyelet into the end of the poles - these fit in the button hole of the belt loops and stop the poles from sliding.

I've still got some adjusting to do and I need to put an additional joint in the longer of the two poles so it will fit into my pack, but initial tests have gone well. It creates enough space so you can see what you're doing but is still nice and cosy when the temperature is the wrong side of zero!

Cheers,

M@

601660176018

[andy202wr]

Looks like a hooped bivi. Any more photos please?

[Ehecatl]

Looks like a hooped bivi. Any more photos please?

Andy, are you after anything specific with regard to more photos? More than happy to oblige - just want to make sure I get the requirement right. :cool:

[jus_young]

I used my existing ridgeline to keep the bugnet up out of the way by having it internal to the bug net. It meant threading the line through the mesh at each end but a couple of stitches in place just to reinforce it means that its nice and strong. Used it a few times like this and it works great.

[Silverback]

the DD camping hammock doesn't have a bugnet Jus have you got the frontline ? The guy I bought my frontline off had made some alu spreader poles for the bugnet which work really well. they thread through then are bungeed to a ridge / gear line

[jus_young]

Yep, its the travel/frontline type. Don't use the spreader bars as they always seem to lean to one side unless they are tied up but thats just more cord getting in the way.

Have not tried going between the layers of a camping hammock so not sure just how much space you actually get, just wondered whether a ridge line would create an open cocoon by keeping the layers seperated off.

Didn't explain myself too well there, long week and even longer weekend with all these callouts. Need some time in the woods again me thinks...

[Silverback]

Didn't explain myself too well there, long week and even longer weekend with all these callouts. Need some time in the woods again me thinks...


Aye know what you mean....