hammock underquilt

Has anyone ever made their own? how?

There's a kit at Thru Hiker that provides materials for a top quilt but those can be easily modified to underquilt duty with end draw cords, corner loops and no sewn footbox. Look at the dimensions and features of a Jacks R Better quilt and you can't go wrong with the underquilt.

Don't like working with down? Order a Ray Way quilt kit for the materials and copy the JRB with it.

Or there's the Red River Gorge. Or any of the other projects at hammockforums.net.

Seriously, hammockforums is a better place to start. Click on Helpful Hammock Articles, then do it yourself gear. There you are.

I have. But I'm not sure my design is the best. There are several decisions to be made.

One is what type of insulation you would like: down or synthetic. I've never made a down quilt but there is a nice design up at http://thru-hiker.com/projects/down_underquilt.php Thru-hiker also sells everything you would need to make the quilt.

The second design question is shape. You will notice that the shape of the quilt at the link above is sort of egg-shaped, to match the bottom of the hammock when you are lying in it. However many people think a rectangular quilt does just as well. You will notice that the underquilts at Jack R Better (probably the #1 seller of underquilts) are rectangular. The suspension bunches the ends up when you hang it, much like your hammock bunches up, so the two match. A similar choice faces you with synthetic insulation. If you look at the Kickassquilts at http://arrowheadequipment.webs.com/kickassquilts.htm you will notice that they sell both an egg-shaped (the Patomac) and a rectangular (the New River) synthetic underquilt. The suspension on New River quilt is simply a cord through a channel on the ends.

For my hammock I made a rectangular 48x72 quilt using 5 osy Climashield. Couldn't be easer. Just sewed the insulation to the two layers on three sides and then turned it inside out and sewed the end closed. For suspension I put grosgrain loops and then zigzagged a line between the loops and my suspension lines. I posted a picture at hammockforums. Not sure of the link below will work or not. But the underquilt works great.

http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/picture.php?albumid=156&pictureid=1412

The last question is length. Mine is a full length quilt. Some people like a 3/4 length to save weight.

The suspension for JRB quilts are two lengths of shock cord with a biner on each end. The biners attach to grosgrain loops on the corners of the quilt. The gathering of the ends is done by adjusting a draw cord - the Jacks have a foot end mod enabling you to draw up the cord from the center. You adjust the ends to your liking, loose in warm weather, tight in cold. While laying in my Blackbird I can reach around and tighten the head end; with the foot end biner attached at the whipping, it needs no adjustment whatsoever. The quilt provides consistent warmth from head to toe. Unlike some, I have no issue with the footbox and the rectangular shape of the quilt.

I also have decided to just make a synthetic uq

has anyone tried using a sleeping bag and just converted it?

Yes. The trick is getting the bag to stay against the hammock bottom - you ususally need to tie or shockcord it (stretch cord) so it stays against the hammock bottom - if it droops you get cold.

Here's my hammock last weekend using a pad inside, an integral designs silponcho on the outside, and an exped wallcreeper primaloft sleeping bag held onto the bottom of the hammock as an underquilt - wasn't that cold out, so I was pretty toasty.



I had the poncho there, but I also had the bag tied to the hammock tieouts on the end with shockcord.