Hi everyone,
Since it's winter now (finally) and I've been able to try out my gear in colder temps and Santa has brought me my Hammock Gear Incubator, I thought I'd report back a bit on the usage. I own a Warbonnet Blackbird XLC, and SLD Trail Winder 20F and a Hammock Gear Incubator 40F.
I must say that I'm pretty impressed with this gear. All of it in isolation but as well in combination. From my tent camping days with the SO and later family I only remember misery (but you know, what don't you do for them). I really don't like remembering the nights in the Swiss Alps in tents, with bad air mattresses and pillows and sticky humid conditions and cold (also both in combination and isolation as well).
I'm so blessed to finally have found hammock bliss and I'm really loving the testing and tinkering aspect of this new hammock adventure (even if it's just out in the backyard). As in this Hammock learning curve video https://youtu.be/WI0B20DwLPU but for me that's basically the fun of it.
For anyone that doesn't know it already, here's Shug's Incubator video https://youtu.be/xrGfSgt1w2E, which made me buy the Hammock Gear Incubator instead of something else for my (first?) down UQ. My first UQ was an SLD Trail Winder, which, if you don't know it, is a synthetic UQ/UQP i.e. it's an Under Quilt Protector with insulation integrated into it.
I really like the combination of the Trail Winder and the Incubator. I got the Trail Winder first and it worked well above freezing and down below, as the temperature rating would suggest. I sleep cold though and I also sleep inside (in my DIY Tensa). That made the Trail Winder a bit too warm, as I usually only want the basement to go down to 64-ish overnight, as it's also my home office. So going back to current time Montreal (I'm a bit outside), in 15F, pretty humid, weather I really appreciate the combination. That's basically the point, have the Incubator for inside, TW for shoulder season and the combination in winter (as far as it'll take me
While I am at it, I do want to mention something that I haven't so far really seen in any videos or posts, at least explicitly. When I first got the Incubator, I was a bit disappointed to be honest, possibly, because of my Trail Winder experience before. The Trail Winder seems to be a bit wider, than at least the Incubator. So when I got the Incubator, I thought something was wrong at first until I figured out that the "Under Quilt tug" as Shug calls it, not only pulls the UQ up around your shoulders but you also use it in combination with the "other" UQ tug, which is the one that ensures it's up around your feet on the other side. Using the secondary suspension, as Shug shows in his videos, you call pull it tighter at the foot end on the side where your feet are and vice versa on the shoulder/head side and you basically create sort of an asymmetrical UQ shape with it, that kinda contours your body as it lays in the hammock on an angle. I guess like a Warbonnet Wookie or an asym TW would naturally. I also find that the TW around the Incubator, especially with the vest around it as well, really helps keep everything in place on the foot end, even when I rummage around with my feet in the two sleeping bags I'm currently using.
Shug also mentions the little plastic triangles you can use to pull the Incubator UQ in by attaching it to a the ridge line or a hammock that has appropriate fittings. Instead of having to use those with extra line/shock cord and my ridge line, I just use the Trail Winder's middle shock cord cinches and I just hook one of the shock cord loops sticking out around the plastic cinch thingies (what do you call those?
I must say I'm not a fan of the S-biner of the Incubator. It's plastic (which I'm sure has it's pros as well) but the gate seems to always try to bend on me. I think I'm gonna replace it with my metal S-biners, even though they're bigger, but I have a few extras and you can always just cinch the suspension a bit tighter or hook them up higher on the XLC. The WBB XLC has a nice feature (for me anyway, not sure if that's on purpose) where the Amsteel continuous loop actually is made up of two loops so to speak and I can hook my UQs either on the gathered end, or the middle knot of the Amsteel continuous loop or the webbing buckles. I actually hook the TW head end on the cinch buckles, while I put the foot end on the continuous loop and I put both the head and foot end of the Incubator on the gathered end of the hammock.
I also tie a slippery half hitch on secondary suspension of the Incubator like Shug in his video. It really helps I find (not just because I might be a bit "Shug neurotic" myself :P), as the Incubator's secondary suspension is much easier to uncinch than the Trail Winder's, even though they seem to use the same type of buckle. With just the one slippery half-hitch, it definitely can't uncinch, even if you lift it and pull.
Let me know what you think and what your own experience are with stacking UQs/UQ and protector in colder weather. I'll keep experimenting with our changing weather (snow changing to ice rain today, so I gotta experience that for the first time) and my upgrading gear. The only thing missing now is a proper tarp (Superfly for my b-day). Hoping for a bit colder weather now actually vs. that mixed bag of snow/rain. 15F last night was nice but I'm sure this setup can go a bit further down and that will make me figure out a better solution for the face (I mentioned tinkering, right?)
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