I tried for a long time to use my WBRR without a pad and i always had some shoulder squeeze issues. There’s not as much room for a pad to get away from underneath you in the RR...using a ThermaRest pad in the double layer RR, i have slept very well. However now I am thinking of getting a new pad that is wider to fill the entire bottom area. So its basically a floating bed hahaha.
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Make sure you slide as far toward the head end as possible to minimize the shoulder squeeze. You may have to raise your foot end to keep from sliding down during the night. I have very wide shoulders and find I get less squeeze in the RR than a gathered end hammock. Also if tighten up your suspension straps so that there is very little sag you will get less shoulder squeeze but at the price of the RR feeling a little more "tippy".
I've found the optimum distance is about 15'. For me that is about 5 paces. Farther than this and I get a lot of sag when I put my weight in the hammock. The farther apart the trees the higher I have to place the tree straps on the tree. I also added a ridgeline so that I get a more constant sag from one set up to another.
I have a 30" wide Exped 7.5 pad that I wonder if it's too big for my RR at least regarding the "tippy" thing. I have a 24" pad in there now and it's OK but the pad does tend to move around a bit. The bigger pad would stay where I put it since it's a snug fit. Any thoughts
The RR I ordered during the Memorial Day sale arrived on Friday and I set it up yesterday for an afternoon nap. I'm usually a stomach sleeper, and was hoping that the RR would be the best way to do that in a hammock. I think I was wrong.
It's absolutely a beautifully made hammock and easy to hang, but there seems to be a lot of...let's call it "hip squeeze"? Laying on my back, it's a perfectly flat lay and my shoulders are fine, but the mid-section - where the fabric is narrowest - hugs my mid-section a bit more than I'm comfortable with. I'm 6' even and bounce between 220 and 230, so maybe pushing the limits of the hammock (it's a 30d double-layer)?
For reference, I hung it from my turtledog stand with a 15' ridge pole and the CLs at the apex of each end are practically clipped to the end of the ridge.
In any case, I'm going to try sleeping in it next weekend with an air pad to see if that helps. If not, it may be going back. That'd be a real shame because I love the color (True Blue) and got a great deal on it.
I found that when I used a thermarest pad the lay was even flatter but it makes the hammock feel a little more "tippier". I also found that a 25" wide pad is about the widest pad that will fit in the narrow section in the middle. You might be able to lay on your stomach if you inflate the pad to make it more rigid.
I tried with a cheap inflatable (2.5" thick) pad as well as a self-infating (2" thick) pad and they both helped a bit with the side squeeze. However, even slightly flattened out, I had trouble finding a comfortable position to fall asleep in. It just felt like any way I moved, the hammock was constricting me somewhere. I'm not claustrophobic, but if this were a netted version, I'm sure that's how I'd feel in it. Conversely, in my GE hammocks, there's a bit more stretch. There are other factors that I'm sure make up that difference (the RR is double-layer 30D Dreamtex, while my GE hammocks are single layer 1.6 Hexon and 1.9 ripstop).
So, the RidgeRunner is a fine hammock, and extremely well-made, but it's just not for me. I'd kind of like to try an Amok, but not willing to pay that price for curiosity, so I think I'll just stick with the GE style. Now I need to figure out whether I want to hassle the fine folks at WB with returning this or try to sell it here. I've worked in retail enough to know that returns are the bane of many a sales associate's existence, and I know they're already super busy trying to fill orders.
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