Will using a tarp with doors be as warm in the winter as a tarp without doors and an underquilt protector or tarp without doors and a hammock cover sock?
I am considering different alternatives and just wondering which set up works best for keeping the heat in with everything else being equal. I'm in the southeast and probably wont be out in sub 20 F overnight weather. Occasionally I might be out in the mid teens but it wouldn't be a planned event.
I seem to have an unusual ability to post questions nobody is interested in. I asked the question because it seems unlikely to me that adding doors to a tarp would compete warmth wise with the other options I mentioned. But, maybe someone has tried the different styles and would care to give their opinion.....I'd appreciate your thoughts.
I think there is a slight varience in all you mention. Doors block that wind coming in the end real well. And blowing rain. The UQ protector adds some warmth and will help keep some of that stored warmth in a uq from wind blowing under your tarp...from the side mainly for me.
Never felt that a tarp holds in any heat rather it blocks elements such as wind that add windchill and blow over the face and such.
Doors are handy to have.
Shug
Whooooo Buddy)))) All Secure in Sector Seven
I like my HG Winter Palace with doors. It keeps me and my quilts dry and safe from the wind. I know UQPs have become quite popular in the last couple of years, but I just can't get on the bandwagon. Personally, I think UQPs are for people with skimpy tarps and inadequate insulation. Let's say you have a skimpy tarp with no doors and it weighs a mere 11 or 12 ounces. You're getting wet, and losing heat to the wind. So you go out and get a UQP in ripstop nylon that weighs 6.5 ounces? Even Argon is gonna weigh about 5.5 ounces. May as well get a tarp with doors. As for UQPs as a way to augment your insulation, I would think a couple more ounces of down (in combination with a tarp with doors) is more sensible and provides more actual insulation.
As for socks, I wouldn't consider them in anything but the deep of winter.
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson
An UQ will definitely help in keeping you warm. Like Shug said the tarp doors will help keep the wind off of you. I like the Warbonnet Superfly and if its warm I just fold the doors back.
I understand perfectly how a UQP keeps the wind from robbing your warmth. When I ski, I wear a double nylon shell over just an UnderArmor shirt, a merino wool sweater, and a fleece pullover. On the bottom, I have matching double nylon pants over wool or poly long johns. The nylon definitely keeps the wind from robbing my warmth. However, when hammocking, a tarp with doors adequately keeps the wind off of me.
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson
In terms of one or the other, it does depend on conditions and direction of the wind. If you're not able to tie up in a direction perpendicular to the wind, then doors are going to help more than the UQP, which blocks wind less than it helps slow down the rate of heat escaping. Keep in mind that wind direction can change and if there is sufficient wind, it will find its way through the open ends of the tarp. Wind coming through like that really can make things cooler than you would otherwise expect. I've been cooled in the 50s with 20 degree quilts.
In general, my vote would be for doors. If you're camping in forests where wind is hindered by the trees and brush, and not up too high, then I would say you might get more out of the UQP. Or, you can do like me and employ both!!
"I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe... ?"
- Kate Chopin
In response to the OPs question, no. A tarp with doors will trump a tarp without + uqp. And likely the sock plus tarp with no doors will prolly be best. The sock would act like a 365 degree uqp. That said, YMMV.
Brady
I'm not sure because when in winter temps under 35, I use everything. I have a Superfly tarp which has doors, an UQP, and a hammock with a top cover. I'd rather be warm and ready for any wind, rain, cold that may pop up.
NJ Hammock Club Facebook Page - Come join the party!
And you might be a candidate for the inadequate insulation I mentioned above.Originally Posted by The Tree Frog
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks