You're Doing Underquilts All Wrong. Get A Clew ;-)

**Caconym** · 07-01-2023, 03:55

Here's an overview of my asym clew suspended UQ that I just finished.

**mattnin** · 10-19-2023, 12:55

This is a great thread and I used it to make my own clewed underquilt. Right away, I ran into some tangle issues especially after stuffing the UQ away in it's sack with the top quilt. I tried making some miniature snakeskins that encompassed the nettles but it didn't help at all. I ended up making a large double ended stuff sack for both my hammock and UQ. I made two small soft shackles out of #36 bank line and attached one to each end to tightly secure the nettles along with the hammock and ridgeline and this seemed to completely solve the problem for me and I haven't had a tangle since. I also used one larger soft shackle for the belly of the hammock which I use to secure it to the ridgeline for storage. Below is a picture of the hammock with the soft shackles attached showing it right after I pulled it out of the stuff sack. I hope it helps someone.

uqpic.png

**Holly J** · 12-02-2023, 08:34

Why didn't the snakeskins work? I am going to try to replace the way-too-tight suspension on my lightest UQ with a clew system (to see what I think of this approach) and I was planning on making snakeskins for each end (probably out old tights) to manage tangles. I would love to know why this didn't work so I can avoid those problems. I don't stuff sack my UQ so the double ended isn't my favorite solution.

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**LowTech** · 12-02-2023, 09:34

I will sometimes skin my Brazilian style hammock using SLD's Catch-All and I haven't had any issues doing that.

"Sent w/o me knowing"

**mattnin** · 12-02-2023, 09:56

Originally Posted by Holly J

Why didn't the snakeskins work? I am going to try to replace the way-too-tight suspension on my lightest UQ with a clew system (to see what I think of this approach) and I was planning on making snakeskins for each end (probably out old tights) to manage tangles. I would love to know why this didn't work so I can avoid those problems. I don't stuff sack my UQ so the double ended isn't my favorite solution.

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My UQ suspensions shock cords would come out of the snakeskins in my pack and it would get tangled. My snakeskins were fairly slippery being made out of 1.1 ripstop leftover material I had. I made those shackles out of bankline while camping and I still have yet to change it out because it just worked in my case. I really should try fixing the snakeskins though, I hope I didn't throw them away.

I had a couple issues which probably contributed to the problem of the shock cords coming out of the skins which I should probably be able to easily solve now that I think about it more. My grosgrain loops that came out of the end of the UQ were too long, they were probably 2". If I shorted that down to maybe 1/2" it would be better. And same for the skins, I had grosgrain loops installed at each end to secure it to the UQ and to the carabiner, and those were too long as well, probably 2" each side. The shock cord would come out on the end where I attached the skins to the UQ and get tangled. So I believe if I shorten the area by making the loops smaller, they may not come out at all. I also didn't use shock cord to tighten the each end of the skins, I was relying on the grosgrain loops and it's attachment points to the UQ and the carabiner. I really didn't want to put shock cord there and have yet more cord locks but I'll bet that would weigh close to the same as my grosgrain loops and a couple bankline soft shackles.

I think I'm going to go look for those skins today, I hope I didn't throw them. That'll be a good project to see if I can modify them.