UQ Suspension

[TominMN]

A bit of background: My first UQ purchase was a Yeti from WB. A wonderfully constructed piece of equipment, but...

The one thing I wasn't totally crazy about was that a Yeti comes with only primary suspension. I set out to remedy that. I added secondary suspension to it and it functioned quite well. What I didn't like was having all that shockcord around me, particularly with a 3/4 UQ. Certainly less bothersome with full-length UQs.

So,... I started experimenting.

I went through several iterations and have settled on a design, at least for now.

I reinforced the sides of the Yeti with grosgrain and attached a lineloc to each corner. At the head end I use static cord. The head end linelocs function to position the UQ. I could see no reason to use shock cord on that end. At the foot end I use shock cord to both snug the UQ to the hammock (primary suspension function) as well as stretch the UQ out length-wise (the function of secondary suspension.) I haven't discovered a down side yet. I think the biggest concern is to be sure that a UQ is not damaged by failing to sit in the hammock and only in the UQ. There has to be something that will "give" so that the UQ is not destroyed. Toward that end, I needed the UQ to be tougher (hence the grosgrain) and also incorporate a "weak link" in the UQ suspension that would fail before any other component. I did THAT at the attachment point of the shockcord at the foot end.

I actually piggybacked off of Brandon's Wooki design to do this as a Wooki is basically a fixed-length piece of gear with a tensioner on just one end. So my "idea" isn't really all that original, just applied in a slightly different context.

If anyone can poke holes in this set-up, I'd sure like to hear from you.