New Bridge and Custom Underquilt!

[APSolitude]

(Disclaimer: I received nothing for free and paid full retail price for both these items. I just wanted to spread the word because of how impressed I am!)

Hey Everyone!

I just wanted to post some pictures of my new hammock and underquilt!

As a preface, I was looking for a hammock that would fit my dog and I (a 55 lb Golden Retriever) in colder weather. For reference I am 6’ 200 lbs. In warmer weather she sleeps in a pup tent I made for her under my tarp but on colder trips where the wind or rain was whipping around her tent I didn’t want her to be cold or uncomfortable. Now I know some will say ‘its just a dog, their fine’ so I will say I have my own reasons for wanting her in the hammock wrapped in downy warmth with me in colder weather.

First off I have to give ENORMOUS thanks to the 2 people responsible for this: Just Bill at Towns End and James at Little Shop of Hammocks. These 2 gentlemen not only answered all my questions and emails (of which there was a lot!) in a timely manner but listened to and worked with me to assure I got what I wanted and was satisfied. Aside from the amazing customer service I received from both, the workmanship in their products is top notch! From stitching to fabrics to design to functionality…all on par or better then any other vendor I’ve bought from (and I’ve bought from a lot! Haha).

First off I found Towns End in my search for a big bridge hammock (I was previously using a WBRR). After talking with Bill we decided the Big Guy Bridge was the best choice to fit both my dog and I. If you haven’t checked out Bills stuff head over to Towns End and have a look! (https://thisgearsforyou.com/). The design is amazing! True double layer recessed bar bridge hammock (can support 350lbs!). I have spent some nights in it now and I can sleep on my back, stomach or side as comfortable as I can in my bed at home. I’ve never found another hammock that can do this! The suspension and ridgeline are super easy to set up and fine tune and the head a foot pockets that are created by the recessed bars and cord lock cinches at the end make it so you can dial in both ends to suit how you sleep. You’ll see in the picture of my dog the footbox creates a little mini hammock of its own that she sleeps in (in the picture with me she wormed her way up as I had a treat in my hand lol) but I have slept multiple nights with her in it and she just curls up in the bottom…I barely know she’s there as there is SO much room in this bridge. Especially if I curl my legs up to sleep on my side (which I do most often) no part of us touches. Just amazing how versatile this hammock is.

20190218_092637 by Marcus Watson, on Flickr

20190218_092656 by Marcus Watson, on Flickr

20190218_092709 by Marcus Watson, on Flickr

20190218_092716 by Marcus Watson, on Flickr

20190218_092726 by Marcus Watson, on Flickr

My next challenge was getting an underquilt for it. As I researched it other owners of Bill’s hammocks were able to jerry rig their current quilts (GE or bridge style) and get them to work or use a pad but I needed one that ran the entire length of the hammock to insulate both Callie and I. I had been on James’ site before (https://www.littleshopofhammocks.com/) and seen some of his quilts posted on HF before. My brother in law got a quilt from him and when I saw the quality I figured I’d contact him and see if he’d be willing to design one for my bridge. As previously stated, he was SO helpful and amazingly thorough in understanding the bridge, its measurements and how to get a quilt to function on it. And let me tell you it shows! Even as high as my hopes were I could and still cannot believe how well the quilt fits the hammock and functions; it actually fits like a glove! Even the tabs on the hammock and quilt for extra support line up perfectly! James makes his baffles in a way that causes the least amount of down shift I’ve ever experienced and it lofts up so full! He even added custom attachments to snug the quilt up around the spreader bars. The end suspension is fully adjustable and includes cord lock cinches so I can mold it perfectly to the head and foot boxes. I am so very grateful he was willing to undertake this challenge and he even sent me pictures and updates as the build progressed!

20190218_092738 by Marcus Watson, on Flickr

20190218_092808 by Marcus Watson, on Flickr

20190218_092828 by Marcus Watson, on Flickr

20190218_092911 by Marcus Watson, on Flickr

20190218_093449 by Marcus Watson, on Flickr

20190218_093542 by Marcus Watson, on Flickr

20190218_093655 by Marcus Watson, on Flickr

Well this post is already long enough so if anyone has any questions feel free to post or PM me and I’d be happy to answer.

Again, please check out James’ and Bill’s stuff. These guys deserve to be in the conversation with all the other wonderful cottage vendors around.

[sidneyhornblower]

Really appreciate all the pics. They tell the story. Looks like two attachment points on the long sides of the underquilt to snug it up against the hammock in the middle, right? Reason I ask is I've had some difficulties getting either of my underquilts to fully snug up on my bridge hammock. Not the fault of the hammock or the quilts. They just weren't made for each other. One possible solution was to add attachment points in the center of the long sides of the quilt, but I only did one in the middle. Now I'm wondering if two would work better, since that's what it appears you have (in addition to the end attachments, obviously).

[Firesong]

Really appreciate all the pics. They tell the story. Looks like two attachment points on the long sides of the underquilt to snug it up against the hammock in the middle, right? Reason I ask is I've had some difficulties getting either of my underquilts to fully snug up on my bridge hammock. Not the fault of the hammock or the quilts. They just weren't made for each other. One possible solution was to add attachment points in the center of the long sides of the quilt, but I only did one in the middle. Now I'm wondering if two would work better, since that's what it appears you have (in addition to the end attachments, obviously).

The Underquilt I made for this bridge is totally custom. It pretty much mimics the CatCut of the hammock and is slightly narrower once it's weighted so it can be attached with the grosgrain tabs. It takes advantage of the pole position to help secure it as well as additionally using the end suspension. It was an interesting and mind altering build.

[Peppy]

Awesome set up! Two of my favorite vendors for sure! I see a custom UQ for mine in the future!

[Intimidator]

The Underquilt I made for this bridge is totally custom. It pretty much mimics the CatCut of the hammock and is slightly narrower once it's weighted so it can be attached with the grosgrain tabs. It takes advantage of the pole position to help secure it as well as additionally using the end suspension. It was an interesting and mind altering build.

Potential to offer this quilt ? I'd totally be interested

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[sloanie]

Potential to offer this quilt ? I'd totally be interested

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

I'm a bit curious about this as well; also whether the Big Guy has remained consistent enough for a vendor like Little Shop of Hammocks to offer them to anyone with the same hammock from Just Bill (I guess this is a question for Just Bill). I ask because I bought mine back in late 2017 and wouldn't know if and what kind of design tweaks might have been introduced since then.

[BananaHammock]

+1 on all of this! Readers are dying to know! Awesome post and thanks for the pictures. You took on the job we were all too lazy to take on ourselves and you had great results. Nice work

[Just Bill]

First off- Welcome to the forum Marcus!
Thanks you for the extra effort on the update as well. Looks like a good fit for you and Callie so far!

Kudos to James from Little Shop of Hammocks as well for taking this on!
Still one more to hear from as he also took on a Happy Medium for another Canadian customer we have to look forward to.

I'm just seeing these pictures as well and being the cautious type who likes to see some testing done before I get too excited... I don't want to get too far ahead of things but so far so good!

I was waiting to hear from Marcus and a little more from the other customer who commissioned his quilt, but likely I'll be reaching out to James soon as well. We had a chance to talk during these builds and it's great to see some custom made UQ's for these bridges get moving. I'm hoping we can get a few more going for those interested... maybe even do a small production run. But I don't want to speak for James so let's see how things go.

To answer Sloanie's question: Yes the Big Guy, Luxury, and Happy Medium sizes are all locked in. The only thing that did change during the early runs was the addition of the accessory tabs along the edges. First I did some color matched ones, later I switched to simple black grosgrain just to speed things up a little. For those early adopters who need the tabs added; if you ship them to me I will add them and send them back on my dime.

Obviously the ball is mainly in James court on further production. Figured I'd wait until we heard more from Marcus and the other fella but I mentioned there might be a little pent up demand if he felt good about doing some more. He has a Happy Medium but perhaps I could get him a Luxury model to work with as well so he had one in hand to help dial it in... though looks like he did a great job already. I've enjoyed talking to James on this and a few other items... being someone who started making my own stuff when I got into hammocks I'm not super familiar with every vendor's work. I've been impressed with James' knowledge and craftsmanship so far though and looking forward to seeing more.

I'd like to see a little more on how the quilt interacts with the bar out of an abundance of caution, but there is a tab I added there with this exact purpose in mind so I don't anticipate any problems. While there is a way to fit other quilts to these... a custom quilt is truly the right way to do it long term. From what I can tell so far James did a great job preserving the functionality of the adjustable ends which is a big part of what makes these versatile enough to meet so many different sleep styles... including tandem sleeping with your four legged friends!

Congrats Marcus!

[Just Bill]

Really appreciate all the pics. They tell the story. Looks like two attachment points on the long sides of the underquilt to snug it up against the hammock in the middle, right? Reason I ask is I've had some difficulties getting either of my underquilts to fully snug up on my bridge hammock. Not the fault of the hammock or the quilts. They just weren't made for each other. One possible solution was to add attachment points in the center of the long sides of the quilt, but I only did one in the middle. Now I'm wondering if two would work better, since that's what it appears you have (in addition to the end attachments, obviously).

Shoot me an email with some pictures...
I started having some issues with my Incubator (partially due to stretching out the suspension now after a year or so of use). But I played with it some more and have a few different things I've been doing. Probably getting time to put a quick video together with a few common solutions that have worked for myself and others on the trouble shooting.

[monkeynono]

The Underquilt I made for this bridge is totally custom. It pretty much mimics the CatCut of the hammock and is slightly narrower once it's weighted so it can be attached with the grosgrain tabs. It takes advantage of the pole position to help secure it as well as additionally using the end suspension. It was an interesting and mind altering build.

First off- Welcome to the forum Marcus!
Thanks you for the extra effort on the update as well. Looks like a good fit for you and Callie so far!

Kudos to James from Little Shop of Hammocks as well for taking this on!
Still one more to hear from as he also took on a Happy Medium for another Canadian customer we have to look forward to.

I'm just seeing these pictures as well and being the cautious type who likes to see some testing done before I get too excited... I don't want to get too far ahead of things but so far so good!

I was waiting to hear from Marcus and a little more from the other customer who commissioned his quilt, but likely I'll be reaching out to James soon as well. We had a chance to talk during these builds and it's great to see some custom made UQ's for these bridges get moving. I'm hoping we can get a few more going for those interested... maybe even do a small production run. But I don't want to speak for James so let's see how things go.

To answer Sloanie's question: Yes the Big Guy, Luxury, and Happy Medium sizes are all locked in. The only thing that did change during the early runs was the addition of the accessory tabs along the edges. First I did some color matched ones, later I switched to simple black grosgrain just to speed things up a little. For those early adopters who need the tabs added; if you ship them to me I will add them and send them back on my dime.

Obviously the ball is mainly in James court on further production. Figured I'd wait until we heard more from Marcus and the other fella but I mentioned there might be a little pent up demand if he felt good about doing some more. He has a Happy Medium but perhaps I could get him a Luxury model to work with as well so he had one in hand to help dial it in... though looks like he did a great job already. I've enjoyed talking to James on this and a few other items... being someone who started making my own stuff when I got into hammocks I'm not super familiar with every vendor's work. I've been impressed with James' knowledge and craftsmanship so far though and looking forward to seeing more.

I'd like to see a little more on how the quilt interacts with the bar out of an abundance of caution, but there is a tab I added there with this exact purpose in mind so I don't anticipate any problems. While there is a way to fit other quilts to these... a custom quilt is truly the right way to do it long term. From what I can tell so far James did a great job preserving the functionality of the adjustable ends which is a big part of what makes these versatile enough to meet so many different sleep styles... including tandem sleeping with your four legged friends!

Congrats Marcus!

Shoot me an email with some pictures...
I started having some issues with my Incubator (partially due to stretching out the suspension now after a year or so of use). But I played with it some more and have a few different things I've been doing. Probably getting time to put a quick video together with a few common solutions that have worked for myself and others on the trouble shooting.

I would also be interested.