Quote:

The Speer has the advantage that you can leave the netting off when you don't need it which you can't do with a Hennessy. That's attractive. But I'm worried that if I turn around in the night the velcro will pop open and I'll get bit. Is this a concern at all? Does someone have experience with the Speer they would be willing to share?


Yep. I'm a regular Speer user. I sewed my own.

With the full length velcro on the side, as long as you seal it up when you get in there's pretty much no danger of it "popping open" - and in fact the hennesey has similar things, just not in the bugnet - the hennesey is open on the bottom half and velcroed shut. Sealed up, neither of them lets anything in, Left open, well,
they let flying critters in, both of em'.

Either hammock is a fine choice and used properly will keep the bugs out just fine. I've used a speer
in horridly (like, you have to wear a headnet even wearing 100% deet or you can't breathe) type
conditions and it worked just fine.

I have actually used hammocks like the test hammock in buggy conditions by adding a ridgeline a-la speer, then rather than bothering to sew velcro on the side and sew a bugnet like the speer, just get a section of bugnet or muslin and clip it to the ridgeline, adding a couple of weights to the bottom. If you
have a look at the other sections of risk's page, he shows a few hammocks where he uses a weghted bottom on a bugnet, rather than having them attached. It seemed to work well too. So I don't think it's too
much of a concern. You can always try that with your tester and bugs and see how you do, the trick I found when I tried this is just getting a good "drape" that draped against the sides of the hammock, as opposed to leaving gaps. I'm sure you could pull it off with one of those cheezy coghlans bugnets you
can get a crappy camping stores for 3 bucks.


Edited by phat (02/26/08 12:50 AM)
_________________________
Any fool can be uncomfortable...
My 3 season gear list
Winter list.
Browse my pictures