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  1. #1
    bendback's Avatar
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    Townsend Bridge UQ

    Looking for some suggestions for a good UQ fit for a Townsend Big Boy Bridge. What do you like?
    Thanks

  2. #2
    Senior Member BananaHammock's Avatar
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    Although it looks funny, most gathered end quilts work well. Using a piece of shock cord to hook up your quilt closer to the body helps or use prussics on the suspension and hook on at two points instead of one helps keep the spread right. The foot end I just leave down the center. It only covers the center of the hammock but it keeps the body warm. I tried bridge quilts and I don’t see any major improvements. You lose a lot of space with pads but the MassDrop Klymit X Double is a decent fit and pretty comfortable but you get close to the bars.
    Get lost in the woods and find yourself again. A vacation,to me, is working with your hands and surviving because of the fruits of your labor. In the business world I teach;in the natural world I learn.

  3. #3
    Slugger's Avatar
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    I just use a Hammock Gear Incubator 20 I had purchased for a gathered end hammock....fits the BGBH great! All I do is hook one of the suspension lines over the spreader bar ends at each corner. Great fit.
    Retired US Navy, 10-year Stage IIIb colon cancer survivor. I believe my last words will be "Hold my beer..."



  4. #4

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    Bill put out a 3 video series a couple weeks ago about attaching quilts to his bridges that might help. I've rigged mine with shock cord loops and work just fine. His setup is a little more elaborate, but he is the expert.


  5. #5
    bendback's Avatar
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    [QUOTE=Dvankirk;2011339]Bill put out a 3 video series a couple weeks ago about attaching quilts to his bridges that might help. I've rigged mine with shock cord loops and work just fine. His setup is a little more elaborate, but he is the expert.

    Thanks for sharing

  6. #6
    Senior Member Cruiser51's Avatar
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    An oft overlooked solution for bridge hammock is the Clew suspension. I made UQs for my new bridge and initially set it up using the traditional shock cord method, as Bill points out there will be an issue, getting it to snug up in the cat curve area.

    I am in the process of swapping it to a Clew suspension, which I used on my gathered ends and it works a treat. I believe it will also work perfectly on the bridge.


    Brian

  7. #7
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    Missed this the first time around- so thanks all for chiming in and sharing the video.
    Hopefully I can make a better video when my wife isn't sick and the boy isn't quietly turning redfaced and struggling in vain not to cough through the videos.

    Videos are easier than reading but for those who like to read:

    Biggest thing to remember- THIS IS NOT A RIDGERUNNER
    I realize that Brandon has done so well that his bridge has become the Kleenex of the segment. But unlike facial tissue, bridges truly can be vastly different.
    End bar bridges generally have a decent bit in common. Recessed bar bridges though function much differently. Mine are also much flatter or even inverted at the center. On the plus side- a standard UQ adapts much more easily on this style of bridge than end bars.

    The other point here... the RR is a one size fits most design. There is really only a few sleep positions you can get into and even though it is a bridge you are still hanging off fixed points that are outside the bedspace (the bar is past your body). My premium models with recessed bars and amsteel in channel suspensions mean there are dozens of ways to sleep in the bridge. So while it may seem like an UQ with a cat cut side would work fine- there are lots of positions where it would be much worse. If you tend to sleep in any position but back or semi-side then you actually create lumps and bumps with your hips, elbows, or shoulders that would push that type of UQ off you. So for those that ask... that's the main reason I don't do a custom quilt. The secondary reason is that my stuff is expensive enough and off the shelf Underquilts from quality vendors like HG, UGQ, and Loco Libre fit them well already. James at Little Shop of Hammocks built a few custom quilts for a few folks but I personally never got to see one. Not that I think his name doesn't belong on the list of quality vendors by any means... but it's not a readily available solution to suggest.

    Second thing to remember- THIS IS NOT A GATHERED END
    There are reasons folks like bridges... those reasons are magnified in my bridges. With the ability to belly sleep in these... you can literally find your waist picked up to level or even a hair above your arms in that position. Even on your back you may like the bridge firmly supporting your lumbar area. Even in the sweetest of sweet spots on a GE hammock your butt is generally a good bit lower than your shoulders and/or feet. Point being; UQ's do a great job sealing up to that slight curve. Without that curve... you will often find it hard (even with a pick me up) to get the UQ to magically invert and seal perfectly.

    SO- the trick here if you are struggling is to SHORTEN the adjustable RL. While this may make belly sleeping harder, it will soften the center of the bridge a little. I find this can solve that odd night when it's just a hair chillier than I'd like. Yes you need to back or side sleep but even an inch on the RL will soften it just that little bit where you will sag into the quilt a little better.

    Third thing to remember is that- HEAT RISES
    DUH. Bridges sleep colder, my bridges sleep coldest. But unlike a gathered end where the UQ wraps all the way up your side- my big wide flat bridge hammocks prevent that from happening. So your UQ is below you. Any heat you drive down is trying hard to rise straight up and through the bridge body. So... back to the lesson of your ground dwelling days where top insulation matters way more than your pad and lets look at your top quilt instead. The general trick with a hammock is to keep stacking up the UQs- but in a bridge I have found more success stacking TOP quilts first. Heat rises, and in order to heat up your UQ we need to find a way to not only drive some heat down... but also to trap that heat better. This doesn't really mean we should switch to a Mummy bag since that leaves most of the bridge body open/uninsulated from the top. So rather than shoving that Costco blanket into the UQ to fill the gap- use it up top. Stack top quilts up and consider using the tabs along the sides to spread and secure that outer most quilt to the bridge as well.



    To Slugger's point: For the bigger, broader fill the whole width of the bridge at the shoulder folks- slipping the suspension over the head bar can do the trick by itself. Though I would caution you to be extra careful with the spreader bars, especially when the bridge is new and the amsteel hasn't taken a set. Of the few folks who have shot a bar through the bridge; most of them were related to the UQ somehow. What a few folks did was undo the spreader and slip the suspension over the hammock body (or wrap the Primary around the bar) then put the spreader bar back in. While that works fine when fully loaded; as you get into the bridge the UQ suspension stretches first which can then grab or push the spreader out of the amsteel leading to tragic unhappiness.

    One trick that the first tester Mark came up with is to make a small section of shock cord with a loop on each end. After the bridge gets set up you just loop each end over the tip of the spreader bars and over the amsteel to prevent it from popping off. I think it's overkill and/or might develop a bad habit of not checking the spreader bar tips so that's why I don't include a set of 'training wheels' but they do work.

    What I have found is that your shoulders simply act as the 'spreader' in just the same way as they do on the gathered end- so there is really no need to force the quilt open across your shoulders in any way.
    By shaking the quilt a little you can easily get it to pop over you if you're pushing it downwards. Simply shimmy the quilt head to toe and then side to side and it will wrap you and suck up tight.

    In fact- for those like me who tend to flop around from side to side or even to belly you will find that letting the quilt float this way allows it to drift along with you a bit better as you use more of the width of the bridge.

    If it's been a few years or winters- primary shock cords on UQ's don't last forever. Several experienced hangers who switched over found that was the issue. Since you sit so much lower relative to the RL than your gathered end.. the stretch out isn't as apparent in your GE. So if your bright and shiny new Bridge arrives and you're wondering why the UQ seems to sag more... it's worth considering swapping or upgrading the diameter of the primary suspension shock cord.

    So... try it the way I show in the video first. Check your shock cord second. Even if it is not worn out, a bump up in shock cord diameter to 1/8" may go a long way to helping get some lift. If the UQ isn't coming up and hitting the spreader bars then it's not snug enough from head to toe. The pick me up in the center covers you from side to side.

    To Cruisers point-
    Squidmark was a big proponent of the CLEW system and did a few quilts for these bridges. He moved on before he convinced me it was a winner... but what I would say to you as I said to him:
    Back to points one and two. The biggest challenge is to get the center to pick up since the bedspace inverts. WV does some very interesting things with side to side tricks to get that to seal. I have a trick or two reserved myself if I ever do take up quilts again.

    I didn't feel that the CLEW offered anything special (for my bridges at least) as getting the end to end tension balanced is not as big of a concern as side to side. On an end bar bridge I could buy into it more... but again you're more or less good head to toe being inline with your connection points. As you find a hang angle in the GE I totally get the concept and I appreciated it's SUL potential vs something like a wookie style solution.
    Eventually Squidmark more or less agreed, though he remained a big proponent of the CLEW for a gathered end. Again, not my thing personally but I do understand the concept and tend to agree it has some serious potential. I think that's why Squidmark was pushing so hard on the bridge version initially. Also- it's simply not that friendly of a system for commercial use (in modern light materials) so I think that's why it remains a mainly DIY/MYOG concept.

  8. #8
    Senior Member Peppy's Avatar
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    I have used almost every quilt made on a Towns-End Luxury hammock. My favorites, and easiest to use are the Jacks R Better multifunction quilts or the Mount Washington series. I hang them as normal, but use a mini-Biner at each corner of the quilt and clip it on the Amsteel. It will move and flex with you but never leaves a gap. Beyond those, a rectangular built UQ seemed to work best. A custom AHE with the same dimensions of the JRB listed above work well too.
    Good luck, let us know what you decide.
    Hammock Tourist / Hammock Fiend / Hammock Therapist

  9. #9
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    I sleep very far down the happy medium. I struggled terribly trying to get things that fit well. After a few dozen bad nights, more cash spent on multiple uq, and some back and forth with Bill, I found the best solution for me.
    Ultimately, I settled on exactly what Bill suggested, a HG uq with additional support going over the ridgline. Dont use a long, just a regular. And bump up the warmth my 20 degrees. A 20 degree gets me to 40 and no lower.
    Iv used others with various degrees of success.
    AHE uq for the ridge runner works well but only if you sleep with your feet near hanging out like I do.
    Regular gathered ends work decent, again if not extra long, but usually had a cold back.
    3/4 ge uq works surprisingly well, but your obviously sacrificing coverage.
    Tried a few diy options with larger then normal cat cuts and about 5/7 length. Worked fairly well but still needed over the top ridgeline support.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by chapinb View Post
    I sleep very far down the happy medium. I struggled terribly trying to get things that fit well. After a few dozen bad nights, more cash spent on multiple uq, and some back and forth with Bill, I found the best solution for me.
    Ultimately, I settled on exactly what Bill suggested, a HG uq with additional support going over the ridgline. Dont use a long, just a regular. And bump up the warmth my 20 degrees. A 20 degree gets me to 40 and no lower.
    Iv used others with various degrees of success.
    AHE uq for the ridge runner works well but only if you sleep with your feet near hanging out like I do.
    Regular gathered ends work decent, again if not extra long, but usually had a cold back.
    3/4 ge uq works surprisingly well, but your obviously sacrificing coverage.
    Tried a few diy options with larger then normal cat cuts and about 5/7 length. Worked fairly well but still needed over the top ridgeline support.
    Ultimately- that's where I am ending up these days as well.
    As much as I am a gram weenie at heart- I'm practical too. Insulation is cheap insurance and there isn't really much of a penalty bumping things up. So I tell folks to go a full 20* lower for the UQ.

    I use the 20* Incubator for most three season stuff too. It's easy to vent a top quilt- so I use a zero degree EE enigma to get into the thirties, a 20* set for around 40*.
    I use a zero degree UGQ zeppelin for winter. I don't get out a ton but the last few times this winter I had great luck stacking the zero Enigma with my 20* up top and was very toasty into the low 20's with no tarp.

    The three quarter length does work well but in all but summer the 20* full length is becoming standard issue. That said-with the Hammock version of the EE enigma you can attach a foam sit pad to the underside of the footbox for the extra bump if needed. But in nice weather I found simply bringing the overkill 20* top quilt was more than plenty to keep my feet warm above 45*.

    Again- going over up top helps drive down and trap the heat. That has been a big turning point for me as we are all used to going the opposite way for hammocks in general and lightening up on the TQ.
    With a sewn foot box top quilt you can easily flag out a foot to vent and you're talking a few ounces difference at that point.

    Don't neglect the headgear either. I typically wear a balaclava or buff/beanie with a hoodlum from EE. In warmer weather I still pile on the headgear as it's light and makes popping out of bed in the AM easier.
    Bringing a small insulated pillow also helped. I do really like the exped air pillow but I found in cooler weather that it drew too much heat from my head/neck.

    And finally as mentioned- softening up the center by shortening the RL an inch really can make a 10* difference for me if I'm struggling.

    My gram weenie drove my thinking for longer than I'd like on this issue, but overall I think simply springing for the extra 4-8 ounces of feathers is the best way to go.
    I tend to reduce my clothing system a bit and use my top quilt into an oversize windshell for camp puffy use anyway... but I would not suggest piling on the clothes but stripping them off so you can crank maximum body heat into the insulation before you fall asleep. The hot water bottle trick can also be a way to supplement, but I try not to rely on tricks like that.

    As I've always said- I don't think a bridge will ever do really well for deep winter. Around 20* it starts to be more an exercise in proving that it could be done rather than something that makes sense to use. In that regard though, an Xtherm based winter system still has the ability to drop out to the ground if you get a cold snap so I'm still a fan of that combo- especially if you are looking to reduce bulk and there will be snow on the ground.

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