Hey there DG! Sounds like you are up for a new bunch of adventures trying to keep warm in a hammock! The learning should be fun!
Of course everyone varies on how any system – like this one or down under Quilts or pads or whatever, works for them. As for using an HHSS at freezing, you see Mr. Hornblower's experience. And if you get that good, IMO that's still pretty good for the cost and weight. Especially considering you won't have to worry much about wind getting past your tarp, unlike most other systems. I'm assuming you're using the original style super shelter, and not the new style 4 season system, correct me if I am wrong. Anything I say is about the old system, which I think they still sell along with the new system. They are similar, but there are some significant differences.
In my case, I remember from my early testing in 2006-07, that I found for backyard sleeping I was just OK at exactly 32°F. Not warm and not cold. I think there have been one or two other folks who have done better than me though. On the other hand, some other folks don't do quite as good. So you will just have to determine how it works for you. Assuming it works at all for you, which it probably will, somewhere between the high 20s low 40s is probably where you will land. But again, you won't have to worry too much about wind and having a large tarp to defeat wind. I have found that even going tarpless, wind has not made much difference to my sleeping warmth with this system. You also pick up a lot of extra resistance to wind blown rain, snow and mist. You can of course accomplish much the same thing with a significantly larger tarp, and/or a very sheltered campsite. And there are other advantages to the larger tarp other than just keeping the wind off your hammock. Still, that extra wind proofing is going to work to your advantage.
But regardless of whether 40° is your limit or something lower, this system you are going to try has a very much unappreciated built-in advantage. It was designed from the get-go to utilize what ever clothing is available (or any other form of available installation, even dry leaves!) to boost it's wamth. Now say for instance you have a thick fleece jacket(or pants) that you do not need for sleeping and in fact prefer not to sleep in it. Normally, you would just leave that stuff down in your pack. If instead, you zip it up so that you can have double layer insulation, and slip it down into the undercover, beneath the space blanket, either on top of the pad or(preferably?) underneath it, you should notice a rather stout increase in warmth. Maybe add a down vest to cover more area, or one of your costco blankets. One person here has even added a light weight down bag(maybe a 40F model, can't remember) to sleep warm at more than 25 below zero.
The only caution I would have for you on that approach is make sure that if you add stuff under there, that it is not heavy enough to overwhelm the HHSS suspension/elastics and cause a gap, in which case you will be cold. Whatever gap heavier insulation might cause, you just have to make sure it puffs up enough to fill the gap and snug up against your back. Also, the elastics in the under cover tend to compress down. But if a fleece jacket is in there as well, the weight of that might cause just enough gap so as to cancel out any down loft compression. OTOH, if just adding fleece clothing, you really don't have to worry about any compression of loft. It is all a process and learning curve, and experience counts. So maybe you will be fine with the basic system at 40F or 30F, but if you just throw any dry clothing down there, whatever is not required for sleeping, you can easily gain 10 or 30º.
BTW, another thing to add: do you ever see any open cell foam for sale anywhere? Just adding a 1 or 2" thick square, big enough to cover the butt and lower back, can do wonders. HH used to sell something called "kidney and torso pads". These went on top of the main pads, and boosted thickness roughly 50% for the entire torso area but almost double thickness under the butt and kidney areas, the most critical spots. Now, I was seeping in VB clothing, and I don't know how much that added compared to the space blanket alone, which is also a VB. But using nothing else under me except the basic HHSS and the added kidney/torso pads, I set my personal record(doesn't get cold much where I live) of +6ºF, warm and toasty. I was so warm that I feel I could have for sure gone at least 5º colder, maybe more. This was with no tarp, using instead just the over cover, but there was not much wind either. Experience shows it wouldn't have made a lot of difference if there had been. I have done 14F with plenty of wind, no tarp, was warm enough. Good luck, and I look forward to your update!
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