Please help

[gunner76]

I've never even tried to adjust my UQ by myself.

Excellent advice for a new hanger. I always recommend find someone close to your height and weight to get in the hammock and then you can adjust the UQ and have the person move around inside the hammock to see what that does for the fit of the UQ as to airgaps.

Also have to remember that people come in all different shapes/heights and weights. Full length and 3/4 length UQ also come in different lengths and widths. At 6ft 2 a 3/4 length UQ is a 3/4 UQ for me but for my wife, The Terminator, who is 5ft3, a 3/4 UQ is close to a FL.

Best thing to do is to practice, practice, practice. I just got a Wookie UQ for my BB and the Wookie does not have any adjustments which feels wrong as I am use to a learning curve with each UQ, but it works.

If you can not figure out your UQ, don't give up, find an epericened hanger in your area and offer him or her a beer or hot chocolate to help you. If none are available then find a hang to attend and you will get more help than you will know what to do with.

[BillyBob58]

Unfortunately, you won't find the root of the issue if you're testing with a jerry-rigged system. You should exhaust all potential solutions with the quilt rigged normally (w/o the extra bungees), before moving on to a workaround solution.

I have to agree with Goobie on this. It seems that your body position in the Incubator may possibly be the culprit. Knowing your height and length of the UQ may shed some light on why you keep getting those drafts. The design of the Incubator makes it vital that you have the correct model for your size- as your butt needs to be situated right before the leg shelf begins. If you're off, you'll get a draft.

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

I'm 6' tall, incubator is regular length.

Regardless of one's measurements, wouldn't this be easy to test for? Just make certain about this: "your butt needs to be situated right before the leg shelf begins. If you're off, you'll get a draft.". ?

Now, I can see where if your over all size was way off having your buttockal area in the exact right spot might also mean that you cause another problem because your neck/shoulder area is not lined up perfectly with the quilt which will cause a ventilating gap to open up. But at least you should be able to figure out if things are right relative to the leg shelf, and then to quickly know if that solved the problem that help is being sought for. It may or may not cause a different problem. But regardless of one's height and measurements, it should be easy to make sure that you are positioned correctly for the leg shelf.

Boy, sometimes it sure does get complicated. There are 2 threads going right now on how to solve UQ problems. And must be dozens of similar threads over the years. I remember in the early days(and even a few more recently) when a lot of folks felt the HHSS was just way to "fiddly". But I more think it is the opposite. Maybe you are warm in an HHSS(most of us seem to be) or maybe you are not, but either way there is not much to adjust, really nothing. Unless you are adding more insulation to the basic system, but even that there still is not much to adjust, just have to make sure the weight of the added insulation is not enough to cause sagging and a gap not filled by lofting insulation.

But, I never have never had problems with UQs. Then again, I have rarely used full length UQs with gathered end hammocks. 90% of FL UQ use has been with my bridge hammocks which has always resulted in perfect results. Again, really nothing to adjust as long as I make sure that the UQ is not too long for the bridge hammock. So full or partial length always works first time every time.

And my HHSS or partial length UQs have always worked with little fuss on my GE hammocks. OH yes, not too forget this style full length UQ: my Speer Pea Pod, which never failed to keep my back warm on any GE hammock I hung it on, though it did work even better(especially the TQ part) and with less hassle on smaller hammocks. It was this simple: tighten the pod with the non elastic nylon cords on the end, just enough so that my back just touched the quilt after I got in(which meant starting with a gap of a few inches or so), close the pod over me, and be warm. Always.

Still, though I don't have a lot of experience, on the very few times(not counting pods and HHSS) I have used a full length UQ on a GE hammock, I have been warm. One time was a 0F JRB MWUQ on a WBBB, an 18º night with very high winds, and I was toasty all night, head to toe. I do recall a lot of fiddle about trying to get the foot end right and things to stay in place at first set up, but after I did I could not have been warmer. There may have been a very few other times with a full length on a GE, but I can't recall. HOWEVER: that full length JRB UQ did NOT have a full length, surround or perimeter suspension like most do these days. It only had a shock cord suspension that attached to the head and foot end corners. These never had any need of any secondary suspension. Could this have contributed to my success? I have no idea. Regardless, this was one of my few uses of that or other full length UQs on a GE(if you don't count pods and HHSS), and it worked perfectly. But mostly I used it and others on bridge hammocks with zero problems and no real adjustments needed. Just clip it on to the provided hammock rings or loops, done.

And then there is that other current fav of mine, a 90º hammock. With either a pad in a pad pocket, or a quilt in the pad pocket(an inner quilt! IQ) or some combo of the two(maybe clothing on top of the pad rather than a quilt, but a really thin quilt is also great). Or, if for some reason I don't want to fool with any of that, just a pad inside the hammock, not down in the pad pocket. All have worked 1st time every time, totally comfy and always warm. No gaps are possible since I am laying on a pad. (actually, there are POTENTIAL things to reduce warmth a bit, because my 2.5" pad does not fill the 3" pad pocket fully, and the baffle valleys might let some cold air in. Which would reduce warmth, but easily fixed with a thick enough pad or a bit of puff insulation to fill in those valleys.) But, for the most part, just put the pad in there(or the quilt) and lay down and be warm.

But when I get to reading about how much trouble some folks have being warm enough-almost always with a full length UQ and always on a GE hammock- I am just amazed. And I wish I could help. But I do not know anything to suggest that others have not already mentioned. There just seems to be some strange voodoo that happens when we try and lay across the midline of a GE hammock and an UQ, which sometimes is really hard to diagnose. Maybe some one else will know the answer for what will work for you. Good luck, Hang Williams!

[Bobonli]

Care to share any pictures to clarify? I ended up removing the bungee cords and tightening up the primary suspension last night right after that post.

Let's see if this helps any.

Suspension connected to the under quilts hook at either end of the hammock, one hook on each side



There are other 'rings' running the length of the hammock and UQ that you could use to attach the two; for example, with small mitten hooks, to keep the two married together. I don't use them, preferring to just adjust the suspension and shift the UQ around as I lay in the hammock



What it looks like (basically) un-weighted. It's really cold out here, so I didn't adjust it as much as I would if really sleeping in it.



Unwilling participant in the hammock..



The UQ is not visible because I attached an UQ protector. With a human laying in the hammock the quilt was still aligned with the hammock head-to-toe and shifted a little left-to-right based on where my son's weight was. In that case, where you feel a little gap, you reach over and adjust the UQ by pulling it up a bit closer to your shoulders. For reference, I'm 6 foot 2 and it's a long/wide UQ.

It just occurred to me: there's a HEAD end and FOOT end of the UQ. White carabiner is for the head end, black for the foot end. I wonder if that's contributing to the problem.

[Hang Williams]

Let's see if this helps any.

Suspension connected to the under quilts hook at either end of the hammock, one hook on each side



There are other 'rings' running the length of the hammock and UQ that you could use to attach the two; for example, with small mitten hooks, to keep the two married together. I don't use them, preferring to just adjust the suspension and shift the UQ around as I lay in the hammock



What it looks like (basically) un-weighted. It's really cold out here, so I didn't adjust it as much as I would if really sleeping in it.



Unwilling participant in the hammock..



The UQ is not visible because I attached an UQ protector. With a human laying in the hammock the quilt was still aligned with the hammock head-to-toe and shifted a little left-to-right based on where my son's weight was. In that case, where you feel a little gap, you reach over and adjust the UQ by pulling it up a bit closer to your shoulders. For reference, I'm 6 foot 2 and it's a long/wide UQ.

It just occurred to me: there's a HEAD end and FOOT end of the UQ. White carabiner is for the head end, black for the foot end. I wonder if that's contributing to the problem.

I'll make sure I attach the primary in those 4 clips going forward. In your side view picture, it doesn't appear to be lifting the hammock up much. So you normally tighten down the primary some more (I think someone earlier said they aim for 1' above the unweighted hammock)?

Once my daughter goes to bed, I'll see if opening a bottle of wine can coax my wife to help as she was not up for it after the first 4 nights being fruitless and, hence the thread. Though, in retrospect, we talked ourselves out of adjusting the primary suspension early on since it wasn't in the instruction card, so it'll probably be more successful this time.

[TominMN]

A lot of folks only use the UQ hooks on the hammock at the shoulder and (opposite/diagonal) at the feet, skipping the other two.

[Hang Williams]

Me in just the hammock:


Hammock w/ UQ primary and secondary loosened:


Primary tightened such that the UQ is lifting the hammock throughout (note that adjustment attempts are made once in the hammock such that this same picture would have top of UQ ~ in line with the ridgeline):


UQ with shelf at the bottom of my butt:


From inside the hammock, my 2 air pockets that have been present regardless of any other adjustments made to the UQ:


I've had the wife out there trying to lift and check for gaps, but neither of us can figure out how to make those gaps go away for either of us laying in the hammock.

[BillyBob58]

In the picture #4, your foot is beyond the foot end of the UQ. But this is a full length UQ, right? Are you too far towards the foot end?

[Hang Williams]

In the picture #4, your foot is beyond the foot end of the UQ. But this is a full length UQ, right? Are you too far towards the foot end?

That's where I'm thoroughly confused. If I'm following the advice of lining up the leg shelf with the bottom of my butt, then that's the result. Yes, it's full length, so this doesn't seem right to me.

Edit: I would have thought that the leg shelf should be lined up to where things start to level out, which if looking at the first picture in that post corresponds to roughly where my knees are. The wife felt around that way, though, and there's a relatively big gap at the bottom of my butt that way.

[Shug]

The UQ looks too high up by your head and should be covering your feet. I would suggest going back to where the UQ comes just to your neck and feet in the UQ. Work from there.
I know you are getting a lot of suggestions. You have been patient.
Hoping you get it sorted out soon.

[Hang Williams]

The UQ looks too high up by your head and should be covering your feet. I would suggest going back to where the UQ comes just to your neck and feet in the UQ. Work from there.
I know you are getting a lot of suggestions. You have been patient.
Hoping you get it sorted out soon.

Yeah, my wife was getting the "I'm so frustrated, I'm about to cry" look on her face again, so any adjustments from now on are going to have to be me solo. It should work. It's a proven product, with no apparent quality defects whatsoever, I just can't figure out how to stop there being an air pocket on that left side. The sweater under the hip trick got me thru a 28* night, but I've got to believe there's a fix here. It's gotta be easier to get a 3/4 length quilt to seal.

I'm seriously considering the Superior hammock, but by the time it would get here, I'd be out of the temperature range I'm concerned about to really test it here in GA, so I'd be looking at taking it blind into my planned August trip to either sawtooth or wind river range. That leaves me with conceding to sleeping on the ground (and probably another rotator cuff surgery as a result) or going with an untested system, hence the sense of urgency to get this sorted over the next few weeks.