Sleeves or Skins vs. Stuff Sacks for Hammocks and Tarps
I love "snake skins."
2017-02-07 When I was a kid back on the farm in Kansas I remember being scared to death to go down into the cellar where the potatoes and canned jars of beans and other goodies were stored. Why? Because more than once we found snake skins there! And there was nothing appealing about them to me.
Well, back at the end of December, after watching a number of guys on YouTube brag on them, I ordered a Hennessy SnakeSkinsXL. As soon as it arrived I knew I was in trouble as it is very slender, perhaps 3-12 inches at the largest end and about an inch at the other end of each half. No way was it going to fit over my Walmart Equip Mosquito Hammock. I almost sent it back but got distracted when I stumbled across the Hammock/Tarp Skin on eBay that I rave about below. Well today when I went out to the garage to hang my ENO Doublenest hammock to play with ridgelines. It took only about six minutes to hang and adjust the ENO. Simply put up the straps, attach the biners to a loop on each end, slide the skin off to one end and make any adjustments needed. That's it.
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I wanted to do the same with my Snugpak Jungle Hammock with integrated Mosquito net but decided not to as once I get it out of its attached stuff sack it is a mess to put back, especially without it touching the floor which is not a good place for it. So I gave up. But when I came inside to put things away I noticed that Hennessy Snakeskin and decided to see it if would fit the Jungle Hammock. Happy day, it does, quite nicely! So I headed back to the garage with my hammock and tree straps and toggles (the whoopee slings are attached to the hammock. About five minutes later it was hung and ready to check out what I was investigating!
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SnugPak Jungle Hammock in a Hennessy SnakeSkinsXL "Instant Stuff Sack" with whoopee slings and small stuff sack with tree straps and toggls
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And once done, it just took about five more minutes more to take slip the snake skin over it, wrap up the whoopee slings and wind up the tree straps and put them and the toggles into their little stuff sack. And when I brought it back inside to put it into the little backpack I was pleasantly surprised again. It takes up less space than when it was in was shaped like a ball in its stuff sack. Now to get some kind of skin for the Bear Butt Rain Fly!
2017-01-11 Today my second Hammock/Tarp Skin on eBay came. I immediately put it on my ENO ProFly Rain Tarp. It went on much easier than the Hennesy SnakeSkinsXL. So I took it out to my garage to hang it. It took me about five minutes to have it hung (without tying down the corners and anohter five minutes to take it down. The Hammock/Tarp Skin is 15 feet long while my tarp is only about 9 feet long so I am considering shortening it. But even without that I'm very pleased! I think it is a winner.
2017-01-09 Not too many weeks ago I decided that I wanted to play with skins or sleeves for my hammock and tarp instead of the compression/stuff sack that came with it. So I ordered a Hennessywww.amazon.com/Hennessy-Hammock-SnakeSkins/dp/B01M4IVF58 SnakeSkinsXL. When it came I was a bit surprised at two things. First the fabric which seemed heavier than I expected. Second and more of an issue, it is tapered from about an inch or inch and a half at one end to about three inches at the other end. The issue I have with that is that my ENO Doublenest hammock will not fit into it. I was able to get the ENO tarp into it but even that was tight.
Then a post on one of the hammock forums referenced a Hammock/Tarp Skin on an ebay site. It was only $10 plus shipping and was advertised as 4 inches in diameter. So I ordered one. This morniing I put my ENO Doublenest hammock in it. Fit very nicely. Also the fabric (Ripstop nylon) is light and very flexible making it easy to use. Everything has a down side and I'm sure this does too but for now it seems like not only an inexpensive but very good solution.
Then a post on one of the hammock forums referenced a Hammock/Tarp Skin on an ebay site. It was only $10 plus shipping and was advertised as 4 inches in diameter. So I ordered one. This morniing I put my ENO Doublenest hammock in it. Fit very nicely. Also the fabric (Ripstop nylon) is light and very flexible making it easy to use. Everything has a down side and I'm sure this does too but for now it seems like not only an inexpensive but very good solution.
With my ENO DoubleNest hammock in the ten dollar Hammock/Tarp Skin I got off ebay and the ENO ProFly Rain Tarp in the Hennesse XL Snake Skin I headed for the garage, even though it is 28 degrees outside. I wanted to see just how easy or difficult it is to hang them. First off I attached the ENO Atlas Straps to the supports on the wall. Next I tied one end of the Rain tarp ridge cord to one support and then the other one end to the other support and tighened them up so the rain fly, sill in its Hennesse Snake Skin was fairly tight and straight.
Next I attached one of the hammock end caribiners to one of the Atlas Straps and the other end to the other Atlas strap and then changed the attachment loops on each end until the hammock was suspended at a comfortable sitting height off the garage floor.
It probably took about five minutes to have both the tarp and hammock suspended, still in their tubuler sacks or skins. With that done I first slid the Hammock/Tarp Skin off the hammock onto one of the Atlas straps which was very easy to do. Then I slid the two halves of the Hennessee SnakeSkin off the tarp. It fit so tighly that it was a bit harder to do but removing both skins probably only took a couple minutes. So certainly within ten minutes the hammok was ready to us and the tarp was ready for the tiedowns. Accomplishing all this if both the tarp and hammock were in their original stuff sacks would have taken at least twice as long and involved a lot more fiddling, not to mention both would have been on the garage floor at lease somewat whereas they never came close to the floor whn deployed within their skins.
Packing back up was a bit more difficult as the Hennesse SnakeSkin is simply too small in diameter to comfortably fit over the tarp. It took a lot of fiddling to get it back on. The Hammock/Tarp Skin on the other hand was VERY EASY to slide back into place.
I have two conslusions from this experiment. First, the skin approach is really quick and easy for setting up and taking down. Second, The Hennesse SnakeSkin is a quality product but seems to be custom made fir their hammocks and tarps which are probably lighter and pack smaller than my ENO ones. Third, both the hammock and tarp are a bit harder to pack away in their skins than simply stuffing them into their stuff sacks. When in the skins they are kind of like a large, soft rope. On the other hand they would stuff down into a back pack very nicely, confirming to the space available and allowing a lot of stuff to be shoved in, around and among them.