Mule, I don't think it is. At least not when used with the Speer hammock for sure. Isn't it designed to attach to the Speer Velcro at the same fixed point each time? Not really sure. But the PeaPod for sure needs to start with a minimum ( recommended to me by Ed Speer) of 6" extra sag. And I concur that for me, this has been a real MINIMUM. I often have closer to a foot separating hammock and pod, especially if I am adding clothing.Originally Posted by skskinner
Thanks for the good news. Your PeaPod seems awesome though. Mule
Predictions are risky, especially when it comes to the future.
w/ the pea pod you need to allow that extra space before getting in the hammock so the hammock wont compress the pea pod's insulation when you get in.
but the snugfit is designed in such a way that compression isn't an issue.
man... a snugfit inside a pea pod!!! that's got to be warm!
I too will something make and joy in it's making
and about the shorter walls of the clark not keeping the pea pod lifted so high... if you make a speer type (top entry) hammock that's not so wide, you'll have shorter walls on the side.
i make my hammocks about 48" wide.
I too will something make and joy in it's making
I bet it would work great with a War Bonnet or Claytor ( aren't they narrow?) if you could get past the net.
This is a bit lengthy!
Maybe somebody can benefit from this test while somebody else offers me needed advice!
I put my HH sil hex tarp/Speer hammock/pod up yesterday. For the purpose of a little bad weather napping. We have been in a cycle of bad, wintery weather about every other day, with the worst precip due today, starting after midnight last night. I had planned to sleep out overnight also, but it turned out I would have to make a work related commute this AM, so I couldn't take a chance on not being able to sleep due to barking dogs or whatever. So I stayed in, but I was too lazy to break every thing down, so I left things set up. It rained some and was windy throughout the night.
When I hit the road at 0600, it was 33°, had been raining most of the night and was quite windy, and I didn't even think to glance at my hammock/tarp.. As I was headed back home about 0930, I stopped for gas. It was about 34° and pouring rain and the wind chill nearly cut me in half while gassing up. For the drive home over the next hour, the deluge continued with temps between 32-38°. I'm wondering if my stuff has blown away. When I get home and have a look, I think "OH CRAP" as I see a loose tarp flapping around in the wind. Including one guy out( opposite to the windward) has come completely untied and that corner is really moving. I figure my pod will be soaked. But to my amazement, I couldn't see one drop of water on the shell of the pod. Score one for the HH Hex, which saved the day even with a lousy set up. Although, I don't think the rains had been really heavy yet at the house, only on the road a little west and north of home. Still, this had me feeling pretty confident as I tightened the tarp up.
But soon the deluge was at the house, and went on for hours. Along with ice balls falling out of the sky. With very heavy winds. So naturally, about 1500, I decide it's time to go out for a nap. There are 3 or 4" of water standing under my hammock and throughout the backyard. It was 36° plus wind chill. I tried to figure out how I would handle this in the field, with the tarp and hammock up, but with my rain clothing soaked. Little details like where to put this clothing, since I can't take the wet clothes in with me, especially with down insulation. I didn't have a ridge line set up to hang things from, though often I do.
Then, while I'm trying to figure this out, I remember! Oh no! I forgot to put any kind of drip line on the hammock webbing. I meant to, before bed last night, but then I forgot. This dawns on me when I look at the PeaPod attachment cords and notice water dripping from the ends. But I figure I've gotten away with it. The shell still looks quite dry, top and bottom. I look inside near the ends and don't see any water or anything damp looking. So then I tie on some drip lines, and decide to raise the hammock a bit ( the pod bottom was only a few inches above standing water) as well as lower the tarp a bit for a little more storm pitch, which I really didn't have to start with. Which was a mixed blessing, since with less room under the tarp, soon I had brushed up against the pod( with my wet rain gear), on one side, so much that the shell was quite wet on that side. Bone dry on the other. Absolutely zero drops of water had so far come in from the out side to get on the pod shell. So far, so good.
So, I open the pod to put my pillow and other stuff in the hammock, and I find myself staring at a good sized puddle of water!I look and can see a damp trail where it has flowed down from the webbing. Major bummer indeed! But it appears most of it has stayed in the hammock, which I lift out of the pod and dump the water. The pod LOOKED dry inside. So now even though the hammock is still quite damp, I crawl in. It's still 36° with plenty of wind chill and blowing rain. One side of the pod looks really wet on the outside from where I rubbed up against it. I close down to a breathing hole from 3" to 10" or so. I have no quilt other than the PeaPod itself, but I have on my old faithful Bozeman Mountain Works super light Polarguard clothing over my jeans and cotton shirt, with the hood up.
After just a few minutes, I realize I am plenty warm, and getting warmer by the minute. Not bad IMO, considering all the dampness and wind and DOWN. But after a while, I do notice ONE spot that is a bit cool, and might have become a problem after a few hours: My butt! Just a couple of inches wide spot that feels downright cold. Of course, this corresponds with the really wet area on the inside of the hammock, but it didn't feel very wet now after 15 or so minutes of body heat. So I feel out side for compressed down, all seems ok. Then I decide to take a stuff sack that is on top of me and move it underneath. UH OH! My hand hits what feels like a wet mess, and ice cold! It is a large nylon storage sack that I keep the pod in and which I threw under the hammock yesterday. I move it, and the wet pod surface that hits my butt feels even colder. It appears to me that, just like the hammock, the water has gotten into my down on the bottom, and maybe quite a bit. From the inside, without the benefit of any DWR. I'm thinkin, if I couldn't bail to the house, I'd be screwed for sure.
I'm also thinking: What a disaster this would have been way into the outback. But I ride it out, and lay there about another 30 minutes. It's still blowing and raining hard, but I am surprised to realize that 30 minutes or so later I am more than warm enough. Even my butt area cold spot has warmed up to OK. I have little doubt that I could sleep there for 8 hours or more, especially since I am getting warmer by the minute. Even in this cold rain and wind chill.
But after 45 minutes or so, the lightening is getting scary, so I decide to bail, and since the pod is wet I decide to take it in and dry it out. When I get it spread out on the bedroom floor, I am yet again surprised to see it still has most of it's loft, even in the area that would have been the wet low spot and the areas where the outer shell were so wet. The pod ends, which are mostly nylon and very little down, which were in contact with the webbing, are soaked! But at the low point that felt so wet, the surface nylon feels a bit damp but the down looks close to full loft. So I'm thinking that most of the moisture I felt under me was where this nylon storage sack was in contact with the hammock, where the little pond had formed, and was wicking to the pod. But apparently, most of the wet I felt was in the storage sack and maybe just on the nylon surface of the pod, with very little in the down. I just checked the pod an hour later at room temp, and it APPEARS bone dry ( even the ends) with full loft. No doubt there is some moisture ( or at least WAS) in that down ( I should weigh it) but not enough to visibly effect the loft. (OK, I stopped and weighed it. My scales are low tech an only measure to the ounce, but after a little over 1 hour at room temp, there is no measurable moisture.) So somehow, and amazingly to me, the down absorbed very little moisture, despite the outer and inner shell getting quite wet.
None the less, I continue to be impressed by the combo of this PeaPod even when used in combo with only some warm, lofty clothing that I would have with me any way. I think I can safely, and probably comfortably, use this combo to the high 30s to lo 40s with no problem, even if moisture will be a concern. With even a light quilt added to that, this is good for really cold weather, for me.
And it looks like exposure to moisture is not going to be as hard to deal with as I had worried about, Though I surely hope to be able to do a better job in the future of keeping things drier. Probably, it is better to avoid a small lake in the bottom of you hammock, particularly if you are counting on down for most of your insulation!
good report billybob. it's good to know that the down pea pod did so well, even when getting somewhat wet.
I too will something make and joy in it's making
Today I was experimenting with some different hanging angles( per some advice from Slowhike and Youngblood) with the Speer- tighter angles and laying midline with something under the knees vs more sag and laying diagonal. The reason for experimenting with the midline lay is to possibly get more shoulder room, which it does, at least until you get TOO tight, then shoulder squeeze returns. The reason for trying less sag was to try to get flatter with a mid-line lay, without having to go diagonal.
But I made an accidental and unrelated discovery. I have previously talked about the drawback in the PeaPod, because of the hammock sides holding the pod above you from 1 to 4", causing the temp rating to be lowered on top compared to the bottom.
We have also discussed that some hammocks, that are not as wide ( say 4 ft or so) will not have as much excess material and less "bathtub" effect, possibly allowing the pod top side to lay close to your body. Thus making the pod as warm on top as it is on bottom. This was mentioned by a Clark user, for one. This would be a huge advantage for gram weenies looking to shave every ounce, where you would now have almost full mummy bag functionality for a 20* rating top and bottom. All for 42 oz., not counting any pad you might carry for ground backup. So I was thinking about getting a more narrow hammock to try it out.
But while fooling around with the hammock sag, I tried lots of sag PLUS laying mid-line with padding under my knees. I bet you can guess what happened? Since the sides were pretty loose, they laid right down on me or very close to it. In the same manner you hear about folks pulling the excess on double hammocks over them like a blanket. But this allowed the PeaPod to drop down on my body with little or no gap. I now had 2.5+" loft over me and very close to me. And it was actually plenty comfortable, much like being kicked back in my recliner. And with it mostly closed at 50* with only a short sleeve cotton tee shirt and jeans, I was quickly too hot and had to come out of there.
Now I would prefer, most of the time, to sleep more on the diagonal. But this wasn't really bad at all. And I'm thinking that if you were cutting it kind of close with your warm clothing and maybe no additional top quilt( or a really thin one), and it got much colder than expected about 3AM one night, you could just switch to this technique to get a lot of extra warmth on top and get thru the night. I suspect this approach could get me into the 30s( or lower) with nothing but the PeaPod, just like I was in a 20* bag on the ground. I'll try to check it out on a below or around 30* night, with just the pod and maybe some longjohns, but no quilt or super warm clothing.
Last edited by BillyBob58; 02-09-2008 at 00:16.
You know BB58, were it not for the fact that the geometry of the bridge hammock makes a PeaPod impossible on it, your reports would have me wanting to buy one, bad.
Good thing I'm still on this bridge kick though, because my equipment budget was blown badly about the time I figured I'd get an RMS AND JRB down sleeves. Then there was the fabric sale over at DIY Tactical... time to hibernate with this equipment/fabric purchasing...I still have 2 kids in college with two more in the wings
nice reports though, I enjoy reading them.
Grizz
BillyBob, good info!
here's another advantage to laying more in line when it's cold.
when i find myself pushing the limits of the insulation i have w/ me on a cold night, i can get the most warmth by sleeping on my back, in-line, not compressing any more of the top quilt insulation than need be. i end up w/ more insulation loft on the sides to make contact w/ the hammock & the outside insulation.
it may not always be free to move around & find the absolute most luxurious position like i could in warmer weather, but i would be plenty comfortable none the less... & warm<g>.
I too will something make and joy in it's making
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