Cheap UL hammocks on eBay

[Dale Wambaugh]

I found a seller on eBay with Grand Trunk Ultralight hammocks for $12.65 including shipping and another with whoopie slings for $12.50, which should give me a 12oz hammock for $25.15. I would be replacing the terrible Grand Trunk suspension rope and steel hooks with the whoopie slings.

I have tree straps and all the rest, but I wanted a cheap and really light hammock option.

If you are considering using a hammock, my "bargain" needs tree straps, toggles or carabiners, a tarp, bug net option as needed, and a wide CCF pad or some sort of bottom insulation. You do need to be careful as you can nickel and dime yourself very quickly.

[Dale Wambaugh]

The items arrived today and the hammock and whoopie slings come to a mere 10.6oz. Toggles are a next-to-nothing 0.2oz per pair, plus 20' of Kevar mule tape at 1.4oz for a total of 12.2oz. Perfect for a day hike chair and nap rig

Add:

26"x50" CCF foam pad: 10.6oz
dp hammocks bug net: 0.6oz
A massive Arrowhead Toxaway 10'7"x12' silnylon tarp with lines: 16oz
4x Ti stakes: 0.9oz

That gives a workable 3-season shelter that is the equivalent of a tarp, pad and ground sheet that weighs 2.5 pounds :)

I lust for a Cuben hammock tarp!

[spelt with a t]

Dale what was your experience communicating with the dphammocks guy? I've looked before at his UL hammock with the mystery low-stretch material but got a weird vibe from the site and never ordered.

[Kevin Babione]

The only thing I've ordered from them were their bug nets – I bought three of them. They work well – I've got toggles installed on my ridgeline so I can easily slide the bug net around and "lock" it into place.

The other thing I do with their bug net is that I carry 4 snap barrettes that I stole from my daughters and I use them to keep the tulle clipped to the sides of my hammock. I found that the tulle blew in any kind of a breeze and it killed any bug protection I was getting.

Customer service was good and prompt, and my order was small. I'd use them again.

[Dale Wambaugh]

"Dale what was your experience communicating with the dphammocks guy?"

I bought the bug net a couple years ago and don't recall any problems. Like many cottage operations, he does seem to march to the beat of his own drummer.

The bug net is a 5 minute project for any DIY– there isn't much to it. I have a 'round-to-it project in mind to re-purpose some sheer curtains for a bug net– the thrift stores are full of them for cheap and pick you color.

I see that dp is building a hammock with the underquilt sewn on. FINALLY, someone has gone there. Their version is only rated for 50F but I see that he has left the option to insert a pad between the layers; a folded space blanket would work well too.

Someone needs to build a hammock with a fully baffled underquilt built right into the hammock body– all the fuss with suspension lines and sliding underquilts is silly. I can see where the underquilt was developed as a separate item, but the truth is that no hammock is useable for 3 season coverage in North America unless it has some sort of bottom insulation. A zip-in, fully removable bug net would be my next wish and make laundering the rest easy. I really need to learn how to drive a sewing machine :)

[Matthew Perry]

"Someone needs to build a hammock with a fully baffled underquilt built right into the hammock body"

Here you go (not cheap, but a good deal for what it is) INSULHAMMOCK:

http://www.camping-hammock.us/insulhammock.html

[Dale Wambaugh]

Wow. Good for winter, but not quite what I had in mind. I'll have to read up on that. Thanks.

[Matthew Perry]

My pleasure, Dale. It's seems pricey, but when you consider it's a hammock, top and under quilt, it seems much more reasonable.

M

[Dale Wambaugh]

I think much of the current trend in hammock design has as much to with sticker shock as good design. That and the fact that the cottage makers a biased toward sewing cloth hammock bodies vs something more like a quilt. Is is analogous to tent makers getting into sleeping bag manufacturing.

That aside, I would build a hammock pretty much like a Hennessy with a diagonal band of insulation on the bottom with a pocket between to add a pad or other insulation. I would prefer to use a top quilt or conventional mummy bag for the top side insulation. That would allow good ventilation and multi-season tweaks.

My fear with the Insulhammock design is that there is too much space inside to heat up and the full enclosure would trap too much moisture. Also, I think you can get by without insulating the full length of the hammock. That is so much more fabric and fill which equals more weight, bulk and expense.

When looking at hammock designs, keep in mind that a large part of the market is camping oriented vs hiking.

The rub with free-hanging underquilts is shifting and complexity. A hammock setup can get to be a real spider web of lines and sewing the insulation to the hammock body takes care of both issues. It would take the base price to equal a quilt plus a hammock, but wish as you might, you are going nowhere in North America with a hammock that doesn't have some sort of bottom insulation.

[Ian]

That Insulhammock is a great idea but I kind of wish that they would have stopped with the integrated UQ. Seems like trying to incorporate it as a TQ may cause it to pull away from your body potentially causing you to burn more calories to warm the air around you. Just a theory.

The design seems so obvious that you have to wonder why there aren't more of these out there.

[Bradley Attaway]

There are good reasons the separate UQ reigns supreme, mostly centered around how much hammocks stretch under load, but also due to the flexibility of adjusting insulation with a sliding UQ.

It's POSSIBLE to do, but the compromises and limitations of hammock stretch, baffle size, etc. would ultimately make fabrication difficult and expensive, and the resulting product inconvenient, uncomfortable, unreliable in effectiveness, and quite possible heavier as well.

I'd love to be proven wrong, the idea is so intuitively appealing, but there are good reasons the hammocking community–a tinkering bunch–has settled on the sliding UQ for the time being and, in my opinion, the foreseeable future.

[Dale Wambaugh]

There have been fits and starts with this sort of thing, but like I said, initial sticker shock is a major detractor.

Imagine if you bought your tent body, sleeping bag and pad all in one package. KA-CHING!!!

Jacks R Better begun selling complete 3-packages from $789+. That is a lot of truth telling!

Most people get a hammock, find that it needs insulation, try the pad they have, find that sucks, get an underquilt, throw some bug protection and a tarp in there somewhere and end up with this contraption that looks like the kitten has been in the yarn basket. They nickel and dime themselves to the same cost or more. Been there.

Clark's probably has the most integrated system, but you wouldn't say "Clark's" and "ultralight" in the same sentence without a negative. They ain't cheap neither!

[Author]

Posts