Snugpak Under Blanket

**Dublinlin** · 11-06-2015, 18:53

I've seen a few posts about making DIY under quilts out of SnugPak Jungle Blankets and had thought about trying that myself, until I looked on line and found that SnugPak actually sells a hammock specific Under Blanket. (Maybe they heard folks were making them out of the Jungle Blanket, so they developed one themselves to market ready-made?) At any rate, the ready made one from SnugPak was pretty economical so I decided to give it a try, even though I'd already ordered the plain Jungle Blanket. I have both now and the Hammock Under Blanket is much loftier than the Jungle Blanket. The Under Blanket fits beautifully on my WBBB XLC.

My underblanket arrived by UPS after dark last night in the midst of a torrential storm. I already had my WBBB XLC and SuperFly up in anticipation of its arrival. I quickly scrounged four small carabiners and ventured out into the night with my newly delivered SnugPak UnderBlanket. In the dark, in a storm, holding my flashlight by my teeth, I put the new underblanket on my hammock in only a few minutes and crawled in for the best night's sleep ever in my WBBB!

Doing mostly cool and cold weather camping, I have always used a closed cell pad because an underquilt won't yet fit into my budget. I have a DL hammock and always considered the pad comfortable...but, you'll never catch me using it ever again! The underblanket is awesome! There were absolutely no chilly spots anywhere in my hammock, unlike my pad experiences! The wind was blowing mercilessly, beating my tarp against my hammock and the temperature dropped from 61 degrees to 43 degrees in just a few hours as a cold front moved in. It remains to be seen how well the blanket insulates at lower temps, but I was way warmer at 43 with this underblanket than I've been at 43 in the past using a closed cell foam pad. I could lay any which way without encountering a cold spot. Once, early in the morning, I did notice my shoulder feeling cool but, unzipping my bug net and reaching outside for a quick feel, I found the underblanket had shifted off center. Without even sitting up, I was able to snag it and easily slide it back into position, instantly eliminating the cold spot. I doubt shifting of the underblanket will be an issue in the future when I can rig the underblanket in daylight and am more familiar with how to rig it properly to begin with!

I'm sure the SnugPak Under Blanket can't hold a candle to the down underquilts in warmth, lightness, or compact-ability...but it is definitely a step up in the right direction over a closed cell pad and at $44.95, ready to hang, it is very affordable!

I had already bought the SnugPak Jungle blanket before realizing SnugPak makes a ready made hammock underblanket, so, I thought I would lay them out together for a photo so you can see how they compare with each other size-wise (in case you'd rather DIY). The ready made underblanket is oval in shape. At its widest point is is the same width as the SnugPak Jungle Blanket and it is ten inches longer than the Jungle Blanket. In addition, it feels about three times thicker. It has a lot more loft. In the photo (which I will attempt to attach here) the black Jungle blanket had been sitting out fluffing for several days whereas I'd compressed the olive UnderBlanket back into it's compression bag earlier today and pulled it out moments before this photo was taken. The Underblanket comes with shock cord at four points. Down each of the long sides, shock cord runs through a continuous channel with a cinch attachment mid-length on each of the long sides.

photo.jpg image.jpg

**Army_Smurf** · 11-06-2015, 21:23

Thank you for this post, Dublinlin. Been thinking of getting one of these for my inside setup. Nice to know they work well.

**Speedogomer** · 11-06-2015, 22:34

Very nice write up, kind of funny since I did the same thing as you recently. Decided to but the Snugpak underblanket for myself a few days ago, just arrived yesterday. I tried it out in my yard and got the fit where I want to. It's unseasonably warm today, so temps were around 65, with strong gusting winds. I was very well insulated though. I will be testing it out near freezing tomorrow and will post a write up myself, and probably a youtube vid.

**Scott_Adkins** · 11-06-2015, 22:54

Thanks for the write up. Been thinking about this as a summer weight underquilt but it sounds like you took it much cooler. Any chance you could take more pics of how you were able to hook it up to your hammock. I have a XLC as well and wondered how it would fit. Also how small does it pack down to?

**bananachunks** · 11-06-2015, 23:20

Does anyone know how this compares to the DD Underblanket in regards to suspension, side attachment points (to string shock cord over the ridgeline), and temperature rating?

TIA

**Dublinlin** · 11-07-2015, 12:56

Originally Posted by Speedogomer

Very nice write up, kind of funny since I did the same thing as you recently. Decided to but the Snugpak underblanket for myself a few days ago, just arrived yesterday. I tried it out in my yard and got the fit where I want to. It's unseasonably warm today, so temps were around 65, with strong gusting winds. I was very well insulated though. I will be testing it out near freezing tomorrow and will post a write up myself, and probably a youtube vid.

Looking forward to your review and video!

**Dublinlin** · 11-07-2015, 13:49

Originally Posted by Army_Smurf

Thank you for this post, Dublinlin. Been thinking of getting one of these for my inside setup. Nice to know they work well.

I definitely would recommend it as an economical alternative to a closed cell pad!

**Dublinlin** · 11-07-2015, 14:25

Originally Posted by Scott_Adkins

Thanks for the write up. Been thinking about this as a summer weight underquilt but it sounds like you took it much cooler. Any chance you could take more pics of how you were able to hook it up to your hammock. I have a XLC as well and wondered how it would fit. Also how small does it pack down to?

Scott, my suspicion is that this under blanket will work at temps as low as a closed cell pad works. Last winter I used a closed cell pad down to 30 degrees comfortably with a zero degree rated mummy bag. On my singular night test with the underblanket, I was warmer all around with it than I have been at the same temp at other times with the pad. The biggest difference I notice between the blanket and the pad is that the blanket insulates the entire hammock, not just the surface the pad covers...so, I could sleep any which way in the hammock without encountering cold spots. Also, the hammock itself was more comfortable since I had the stretch of the hammock fabric unencumbered by the stiffness of a pad.

As to how I hooked it up to my WBBB XLC, I didn't take any close up pics of the attachment points before tearing it back down the next morning because the way I set it up was far from ideal. I was setting it up in the dark in the middle of a storm ten minutes after receiving it off the UPS truck. There are YouTube videos out there showing how to attach it (though not specifically to a WBBB, still they are helpful and I had watched them in anticipation of setting mine up). I just took each cord and lengthened it out, tying one end so each was a single cord instead of a two tailed double cord. Then I fastened each single end to my carabiners...the two long sides on one end to a single carabiner and the two inside end cords on each end to shared carabiners (four in all for the eight cords). In the videos, they attached the carabiner on each end that had the long side cords to the ridgeline above the hammock, drawing the side of the blanket up high around the hammock. Then attached the inside end cords to the nub of the gathered end of the hammock. That's what I'd planned doing, but when I raced through the rain to my hammock, realized that I had set my SuperFly up UNDER my ridgeline instead of over my ridgeline, so, that messed up my plan! Since it was raining and dark, I wasn't going to fool with pulling up my stakes and re-setting my tarp, so, I just hung the underblanket any which way on my hammock. I draped the inside, shorter ends over the nub of the gathered end of my hammock, using the toggle that reinforces the bugnet zipper to keep my cords from slipping forward towards the center of the hammock. Then I ran the longer cords up my hammock suspension and (foolishly, in hind sight!) attached them to my whoopie slings loop. I'm surprised my hammock didn't not sag in the night, looking the next morning at what I had done the night before in the dark! But, my hammock stayed up and the underblanket, though it had a bit of gapping at each end, none-the-less insulated well! I'll try to post pics here for you, but, like I said, this is NOT a set-up I would recommend or plan to use next time, myself! It worked, but I'm surprised it did. Better, I think, would be to bring the two long sides up to a ridgeline like I saw demonstrated in the YouTube videos. Or, if I have to run them along my whoopie slings, in the future, I will add enough cordage so that they will reach to my tree straps rather than throwing that carabiner into the cinch point of my whoopie like I did the first time. I'm sure that was not good on my whoopie slings and, like I said, I'm really surprised I didn't wind up on the ground part way through the night, from the whoopies loosening!

As to SIZE... the blanket comes in a compression sack that is the size of a really small sleeping bag. In the photo I'll try to attach, I'd stuffed the blanket back into its bag, but had not compressed it down with the straps. Though it is bigger and bulkier than down underquilts, it is smaller to pack in than a closed cell pad.

photo 1.jpg photo 2 (1).jpg (ok. I'm trying to attach photos here, but am really having trouble with my computer and with the Hammock Forum format....after numerous failed attempts at attaching four photos, it looks like SOMETHING finally did attach, but I'm not sure what! I apologize in advance for the poor photo posting! Guess after I hit "Post", I will find out what did or didn't attach here!)

photo 1 (1)b.jpg

**Deltair** · 11-07-2015, 16:12

Thanks for your review. I was actually looking at the Snugpak Underblanket as a cheaper under insulation option. The Eno Ember 2 was also on my list, but the Snugpak was cheaper, so i wanted to see what people thought of it. With this, I'm definitely going to look into it more.