Originally Posted by
BillyBob58
For many years, my overall fave hammock, and arguably most over all comfortable hammock, was my Claytor No Net. Part of that favoritism was probably because, being a narrow hammock, it worked best with my Speer Pea Pod. Even better than with my Speer hammock for which the Pea Pod was designed. But, it was also the GE hammock that most often gave me the least calf ridge, usually none. And it was otherwise at least as comfy as any of my other GE hammocks for my 6'1", 205 lb self. No RL was ever needed.
That hammock was only 10 ft long and 4 ft wide! I usually hung it with less sag than my hammocks with fixed RLs. And yes, I have a number of 11 ft GE hammocks, but I don't think any of them beat that hammock for comfort FOR ME, and more than one can't quite match it. But guess what: which of my other GE hammocks almost matches that Claytor? It was a TreetoTree Switchback. Which was also a 10 ft hammock, though a little wider(not much). Again, no RL and I hung it with a bit less sag. i think several other of the old timers here(maybe Dutch and OutandBack?) also had called this a very comfy hammock and one of their favs.
To make things even crazier, there was a time here on HF when the Speer hammocks were the favs of many. Plus, Speer wrote the original hammock camping book which also told us how to make our own hammocks. His recommendation for length? If memory serves, it was height plus 2 feet! So for me, that would be an 8 ft hammock! Can you imagine? I purchase one of his longer hammocks, but it was still only about a 9 footer. I felt it was great for back or fetal position, often wonderfully comfortable. Once again, like the Claytor and Switchback, calf ridge never seemed to be a problem.
Lately, my fav GE hammock(still a big fan of JRB bridge hammocks, also 90º hammocks) is a Superior Gear Insulated. They sell 10 ft hammocks, but I chickened out and got an 11 footer. But I think it is also relatively narrow and I use it with it's adjustable RL at max length. IOW, less sag. And I rarely if ever have calf ridge and if I do I can find a way around it. But I have often wondered if I would have like the 10 ft version even more? After all, I have a good history with other 10 ft GE hammocks.
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