I am just getting into hanging and for now i will only be camping during the summer typically the lows will be in the 60s will i need an underquilt or would i be ok without one or worse canse should i use my sleeping pad i currently have?
I am just getting into hanging and for now i will only be camping during the summer typically the lows will be in the 60s will i need an underquilt or would i be ok without one or worse canse should i use my sleeping pad i currently have?
A 40- or 50-degree underquilt is advisable, even in high summer. You can save weight with a torso-length quilt.
Even if the overnight temperature never drops below 70 degrees, convection can still rob you of your body heat and make you feel uncomfortably chilled if it is especially windy.
If you are too warm, you can vent or remove the quilt.
At 60 degrees you will need some sort of insulation. I use some DIY Costco top and under quilts when I hang in the spring and fall (Louisiana summers are just too hot.) A few of my friends use 40 degree sleeping bags and are plenty comfortable at 60degree temps.
In the summer I'll sometimes have my Costco underquilt hanging on the side incase temps drop below 75degrees, and just use a light blanket on top.
If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else.
- Yogi Berra
I used a ccf pad my first two years of hammock camping. I always used it, even if overnight lows were in the 70s.
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson
I do a lot of summer camping and thought I'd get by with nothing or a lightweight pad- neither worked out well. A one season 3/4 length synthetic from AHE was the perfect solution for me.
Your pad will keep your backside warm just fine in those temps. The disadvantage to the pad is that it can be difficult to stay on top of it inside the hammock, but like many others, I used a pad exclusively for at least a year before I bought an underquilt.
A cheap temporary solution is to make an underquilt from something else, like an old sleeping bag or my favorite, a poncho liner. Search PLUQ (poncho liner under quilt) here on the forums or on Derek Hansen's page, theultimatehang.com. There are also YouTube videos showing how to make one. I've made both the no sew and the sewn versions. My sewn PLUQ works well down into the 60s. You can see it in use in the video I'll link to below. The PLUQ is shown near the middle to end of the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cq7o5sJbmk&t=1s
"...the height of hammock snobbery!"
yes you will need something under you to keep you warm even if the lows are in mid 70s. if you want to buy an underquilt, I'd recommend the hammock gear Phoenix 40 degree econ.
Here in Florida most of the time you will want something below you a pad or uq to keep the mosquitos at bay. As previously mentioned here the pads are difficult at times to stay on top of and one of my friends knee received about 40-50 mosquito bites in one night. I had purchased the Klymit v hammock pad when they first came out and were a little cheaper. They are an expensive pad, equivalent to a 40° uq in price. With the warmer nights I typically prefer a pad for these conditions. I have a couple of uq now and plan on trying these instead of a pad.
https://www.klymit.com/hammock-v-sleeping-pad.html
Not trying to hijack OPs thread, but is this really a thing? I'm a mosquito magnet, but I've never been bitten through the hammock body. Even the cheap Walmart hammock, not a bite. My Half Zipped is the Hexon 1.6 and the Eldorado is the 70D nylon version. All single layers. All my bites occur outside of the hammock, and yeah I'll be itchin and scratchin throughout the night.
For my first summer I just put my older therm-a-rest pad in my under quilt protector (UQP). That combination was enough to block the heat loss. Because I wasn't sure about the required trees, or even if I was "sold" on hammocks yet, that pad also gave me a go-to-ground option.
In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.
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