Holy wind batman! Q on shock cord on DCF tarp

[BillyBob58]

"The other night I slept in the windiest conditions I've ever slept in. Lots of blowing sideways rain along with an overhead lightening storm. I was using my HG dyneema tarp with doors. On the tarp I used shock cord / guylines with tarp worms that I ordered from Dutchware.

The shock cord gave the tarp a lot of room to move as the wind blew directly into the side of the tarp, so much so that the tarp was constantly pushing into the hammock throughout the night. Or at least that is what I think was happening. The other side of the tarp also had a lot of room to move around as some of the wind made it's way underneath the hammock and over to that side of the tarp."

Hey Red, I hope you don't mind a side question not related to shock cords, though definitely related to high winds with large tarps with doors: did any of that wind manage to reduce the warmth of your UQ as far as you could tell? Of course, if your UQ is rated way warmer than actual temps, you might never notice, or if you notice a change when the strongest gusts hit, it might still be warm enough to sleep thru. But maybe not if you have a 20F UQ and it is 20F plus high winds, unless your tarp can block virtually 100% of those winds.

So, were you able to notice any influence of those winds on warmth once in the hammock?

[red05]

Thank you everyone, greatly appreciate the comments.

[red05]

Hey Red, I hope you don't mind a side question not related to shock cords, though definitely related to high winds with large tarps with doors: did any of that wind manage to reduce the warmth of your UQ as far as you could tell? Of course, if your UQ is rated way warmer than actual temps, you might never notice, or if you notice a change when the strongest gusts hit, it might still be warm enough to sleep thru. But maybe not if you have a 20F UQ and it is 20F plus high winds, unless your tarp can block virtually 100% of those winds.

So, were you able to notice any influence of those winds on warmth once in the hammock?
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Well, I was actually laying directly on one of those Costco down blankets (I'm waiting for the other down blanket to be converted into an UQ). This was far from ideal, which I knew.

The overnight low got down to around 35 to 38 degrees and I had my tarp down pretty low to the ground. I want to say that the wind didn't greatly affect my comfort level. I didn't actually feel a lot of the wind gusts directly. I'm pretty sure a lot of the coldness discomfort was because I didn't have a proper UQ and that my body was laying directly on and compressing the down blanket that I brought.

Sorry I can't really help any more than that. I'm still quite new to hammocking.

[cmoulder]

Well, I was actually laying directly on one of those Costco down blankets (I'm waiting for the other down blanket to be converted into an UQ). This was far from ideal, which I knew.

The overnight low got down to around 35 to 38 degrees and I had my tarp down pretty low to the ground. I want to say that the wind didn't greatly affect my comfort level. I didn't actually feel a lot of the wind gusts directly. I'm pretty sure a lot of the coldness discomfort was because I didn't have a proper UQ and that my body was laying directly on and compressing the down blanket that I brought.

Sorry I can't really help any more than that. I'm still quite new to hammocking.

That's the biggest factor... compressing the lower insulation. With that combo I would have been absolutely miserable and freezing.

While I don't doubt that the modified CDT underquilts work well for some people in certain conditions, when significantly cold weather arrives you'll appreciate having a 'proper' underquilt such as an Incubator from HG or one of the other fine hammock-specific gear makers.