Choosing A Top For Your DutchWare Chameleon Hammock

[kitsapcowboy]

I had a friend ask me about hammocks last week. We went on a canoe trip last year, and he'd bought a cheap-o hammock from Amazon, I think, at the last minute. He said he wanted something that didn't fold up around him like a taco. And so I pointed him to the Chameleon and said, "THIS is what I would get."

He got back to me and said, "Wow, so confusing. There are so many choices." I never thought of it as confusing, but I'm detail-oriented: I LIKE having options on top of options, and tailoring my setup to exactly what I want. But some don't like that...

I think the important thing for you -- or for Dutch -- to relate to someone expressing confusion over the available options in the continually expanding modular Chameleon hammock system is a very simple point...

You can never really get stuck.

The storied AR15 rifle, created by Eugene Stoner and used by American armed forces since Vietnam, is a modular long gun platform referred to in the firearms community (not necessarily disparagingly) as "Barbie for men". Where the majority of comparable military firearms from the last century are generally built upon and fitted (often by hand) into either a precision-milled central receiver or a stamped receiver with milled trunnions and blocks -- all with a degree of relative permanence -- the AR15 is a unified modular system of major component groups and subsystems that are pinned or torqued together into a functional firearm. You can build one from a collection of parts with nothing but a few simple hand tools and a bench vice, and, once built, you can swap major and minor components with nothing but your fingers to reconfigure the AR15 radically to optimize it for different users or for different roles.

Like the archetypal Mattel fashion doll, for which any given example stands as sufficient framework for you to explore a world of possibilities through the selective acquisition of an ever-expanding array of accessories, the AR15 can be reconfigured to change its ergonomics, barrel length, or even caliber in fulfillment of mission-specific requirements using no-tools drop-in and snap-on parts groups, Virtually all of these component groups are universal, respectively configurable, and backward-compatible. You can (within BATFE and local limitations) turn your your basic AR15 defensive carbine into a hunting rifle, a PDW, or a precision target gun, just as any given Barbie can (according to her advertising) become a news reporter, a pop star, a paleontologist, or a backcountry camper (albeit in a tent) with the right accessories. Each product is designed as a universal platform -- the cornerstone of a modular system -- that is then readily adapted and outfit for myriad roles with the addition of specific items that do not require permanent modification of the core framework. You may buy it one way at the beginning, but you can never really get stuck.

The Chameleon is just such a multirole hammock; that is the true beauty of its design. Your first top cover will not be your last.

[Snaps]

Good point. I thoroughly enjoyed the Armalite analogy. And then you started talking about fashion and dolls, and I may have drifted off for a bit.

He's about my size (6'1", 180 lbs) and so I just advised that he get a Hexon 1.6 SL in his choice of color plus an asym bugnet. I think his apprehension may have been related to the sheer number of fabric options, rather than top cover vs bugnet or sidecar or asym vs sym. And I still don't know why there's a box there for tieouts... don't all Chameleons come with them?

I'll see him soon and be able to ask him what was irking him.

[Groot]

Ok, new take on an old question. The winter top cover is great when it gets cold, below 40-ish based on preference. But, how WARM can you comfortably have the top cover installed? Subject to preference of course, but at what point is it unreasonable?


Thanks,
Groot

[Dutch]

Ok, new take on an old question. The winter top cover is great when it gets cold, below 40-ish based on preference. But, how WARM can you comfortably have the top cover installed? Subject to preference of course, but at what point is it unreasonable?


Thanks,
Groot

Here in PA I use a top cover on all but the hottest nights. So for me that line is about 60 degrees. Ymmv