The decision between using a tent or hammock is a purely personal one.
But, in my opinion, once you have tried a hammock you’ll be hard pressed to want to sleep in a tent again.!
Modern hammocks are, without doubt, both comfortable and spacious.
If you have never tried a hammock or maybe tested one out many years ago you are in for a surprise – they are extremely comfortable, well made and roomy, offering a choice of left or right entry, although not many of the manufacturers are able to offer that ( the hammock I’m reviewing here does though,! )
You will also find a built in mosquito nets to keep you nice and bug free.
Modern technology and materials now mean you can get a high end hammock with all the trimmings in one, super lightweight carry bag.
You don’t need to carry around several bits of kit – a tent, fly sheet, poles and pegs, a mallet, a sleeping mat, a mossi net or a ground sheet – it’s all there in one lightweight carry bag – your survival hammock……
All good manufacturers consider the environment now, and the effect of someone setting up camp with a tent, even for a few days, will leave a footprint of dried and damaged soil and plants – using a hammock will completely eliminate that.
Hammock design has now taken that on board as well, ensuring the methods of securing your hammock to a tree are both safe and will not harm the bark of the tree at all.
Manufacturers supply purpose make tree slings that loop around the tree to secure the hammock, these are easily removed and will leave no trace on the tree.
This is an important point to consider when choosing your camping hammock – I have found that the good quality manufacturers take this seriously and produce quality equipment to go with their hammock system.
Choosing your hammock
There are several good points that favour a hammock over the conventional tent setup –
- off the ground sleeping
- a level bed
- lightweight
- compact
But, of course the downside has always been – what if your not in a forest and have no trees around you.?
Introducing the DD Jungle Camping Hammock
I have been looking for a system that can offer the best of both worlds – a tent, for hiking across open ground and a hammock for woods, and I think I have found the solution.
The DD Jungle Hammock. This hammock system offers you a comfortable conventional hammock as well as easily being used as a bivvy for setting up camp in the open fields.
I really like this hammock – it only weighs in at 1800 grams,
Weight breakdown:
Hammock + Whoopie Slings = 510g
Mosquito Net = 490g
Waterproof Layer = 370g
Poles = 210g
Tree Huggers, Karabiners, Elastic + Bag = 220g
that’s less than two bags of sugar!
The whole kit goes into the supplied custom waterproof carry bag that measures 42cm x 16cm x 16cm – that is tiny compared to carrying a tent, you also get a couple of straps to keep everything in place.
I found this size of carry bag easily fits onto a rucksack – mine is a 60ltr Mod and the width is perfect.
So how does it work and what makes this a good choice of camping hammock..?
Having tried a few hammocks back in the old days I was very surprised at how far technology has improved and this All New Modular Camping System from DD Hammocks. it really is the bees knees.!
I have divided it up into 3 main sections:
1. the main hammock – this include the lightweight tree suspension kit/slings – DD call these a “whoopie sling suspension kit”.
2. a removable mosquito net.
3. a custom waterproof tarp layer – this can be used in three ways – 1/ left off completely: 2/ below as a bivvy ground sheet: 3/ above the hammock as a compact rain/sun tarp.
* there are also full width “spreader poles” – these give the hammock width and give a very spacious sleeping area – you can leave these off if you want.
I tend to do very little ‘lightweight’ hiking as I prefer to have as many creature comforts with me as possible.! This means having a hammock that does everything right yet it is light and compact to carry is a big bonus for me – it means I can carry more luxuries.!!
Now I am not tall, measuring in as a British Standard Englishman of 5’8″ but the hammock has tons of room inside – enough for anyone upto 6’5″ and weighing 125kg [ that’s nearly 20 stone ]
You also have some fiberglass poles that spring together and are fed through the mossi net which act as spreader bars – these make a huge difference to the width of the hammock and are a brilliant design.
Conclusions:
All in all it’s hard to fault this excellent bit of survival kit. If you’ve always fancied the idea of using a hammock instead of a tent then you won’t go far wrong in choosing this one.
DD Hammocks also make a variety of other hammocks to suit different survival and camping scenarios, but for pure quality and versatility I would go for the Jungle Hammock every time – theres also a DD Jungle Hammock with 2 Base Layers – this is identical to the standard jungle hammock but with an additional base layer for added insulation.
The 2 Base Layer hammock adds weight in your pack, at just over the 2kg as opposed to the 1.8kg for the Standard DD Jungle Hammock - but neither is better or worse than the other really, it’s just personal preference – lighter weight to carry or a bit more insulation – your choice really….
You can add to this hammock setup to make things even more comfortable, namely:
Theres also a rather nice 3m x 3m – Lightweight Tarp that goes over the whole hammock setup – with a purpose sown in ridge line.
It’s a super tough coated polyester with a good 3000PU water resistance and as you can see in the photo, has lots of solid attachment points so this will gives very usable dry ‘camp’ area below and around your hammock position.
It’s also perfect for a normal ground sheet or a basha for some low level stealth camping.
I think it’s priced very competitively at under £40 inc VAT & delivery, especially considering the quality and the added ridgeline fixings.
I hope you have enjoyed my Best Camping Hammock Review – Happy Prepping Folks..
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]]>Bushbox Outdoor Pocket Micro Stove EDC Box Review
Possibly one of the smallest micro stoves in the world..!
This is my review of the Bushbox Outdoor Pocket Micro Stove EDC Box – sometimes this size of cooking stove is referred to as either a micro stove, and EDC stove or a hobo cook stove, in effect they are all pretty much the same in so much as they are small, compact cooking stoves.
Quite how well they all work varies a lot, in fact, you can even make your own hobo stove very cheaply and it will work quite well – but, as I always say, you will benifit, in the long run run, by choosing a high quality stove over a cheaper or home made one any day….
Quality of manufacture will guarantee a long working life of your stove and, as preppers, having reliable, quality gear is an essential part of our prepping plan.
Never buy cheap.
Having tested and reviewed other stoves from BushBox Essentials – the Bushbox XL Combination and the Bushbox Outdoor Pocket Stove I was eager to test out the smallest cooking stove in their range,the Outdoor Pocket Micro Stove EDC Box and below is my full review and video review:
Specifications:
- 100% stainless steel
- Multi fuel burner
- Ash Pan soil protection
- Size: 47mm x 65mm
- Only 77 grams
- Fits in pocket or wallet
This tiny survival stove is supplied with a nice, well made pouch that allows you to keep all the parts together and then kept in your pocket or even in your wallet – being so compact and light it fits nicely along with a standard survival card or the BE Survival-Card.
This is my full review and test of the Bushbox Outdoor Pocket Micro Stove EDC Box
Final thoughts:
This little stove has got to be the ultimate EDC cooking stove – it is quite amazing how good the engineering quality is and how compact it is – probably best of all is the fact that is actually works well. Being compact you must ensure it’s placed on a flat level base before trying to put a cup or pan on it and make sure the cup is balanced before letting go – use your multi tool pliers to feed the fuel in [much better than getting burnt] and, be patient, other than that, I can’t find fault with it at all..!
In use, it was much easier with the Esbit fuel tablet, which required a lot less attention than the wood fuel, and also left a lot less residue on the insides of the micro stove.
I have not spoken about price – for the quality of material and engineering the stove represents great value for money at under £17 +postage from Amazon
I keep mine in my wallet along with my BE Survival-Card, as you can see here –
click image to enlarge
Conclusions:
Pros –
- Well worth the money for the high quality of stove.
- very well engineered.
- cleans easily being all stainless steel.
- very compact, light and easy to carry.
Cons –
- be patient.
- best used on flat and level ground
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]]>Lifesaver Water Filter Bottle – full review
bottle tested: Lifesaver 4000 UF
There are a few choices when it comes to filtering water in a survival situation and as preppers we all like to keep things nice and simple – for that reason I am testing the Lifesaver 4000 UF ( Ultra Filtration ) Water Filter Bottle from the Lifesaver company here in the UK.
I have never been much of a fan of fiddling about boiling up dirty water and adding various tablets and chemicals to try to make dirty water into clean drinking water – yes I know it is still a choice and it’s something we should all have a knowledge of, but for me keeping things simple with minimum hassle have always been a survival priority.
Carrying bottles full of drinking water is a definite strain on yourself and your resources, after all you can only carry so much at any time – so from a sheer practical point of view it makes sense to filter your drinking water as you go rather than try and carry or horde it.
The way I look at it is that I would rather have a stream delivering unlimited amounts of water, even if it is dirty, grubby and undrinkable water than have to keep trying to find and to keep carrying thousands of bottles.
In fact any water source will do – it gives you a relatively unlimited supply to draw your water from and will certainly make your life much easier.
In a survival or bug out situation it’s just one less thing to worry about.
When I received my Lifesaver bottle I read the instructions fully ( something I advise you to do fully and make sure you carry out the setting up and flushing procedures correctly ) I also gave it the once over and, having read various reviews, also checked the bottom O ring seal to ensure it was in place and seated firmly – apparently this can come adrift and cause it to leak at the bottom – however, mine was perfectly fine and seated in the pump end cap.
The filter bottle itself is about the same size as a standard 1.5 litre bottle and it fits nicely in the side pocket of my bug out bag – having set the lifesaver up I then set out for a field test – my full review from kitchen to smelly, grubby water test is in the video below:
Information & Specifications:
The principle of the LifeSaver is quite simply really – You fill the bottle up from a water source [any water source will do *except salt water* mine was a nice grubby stream as you will see] and then the ‘dirty’ water goes through a course pre filter which catches odd debris like leaves etc.
When the main bottle is filled up [ the bottle holds 750 ml ] Replace the end cap and after a few pumps to pressurize the bottle you can release the drinking nozzle and the “dirty” water passes through the main cartridge and then through an activated carbon filter to give you clean, sterile drinking water.
Very clean, sterile drinking water actually – the cartridge has minute pores which can filter down to 15 nano metres – this will stop parasites, viruses, bacteria, fungi and waterborne pathogens and the activated carbon filter takes out the bad tastes, instantly…!
You can see this and more in the video below – I found the final result quite amazing..
Lifesaver Systems Limited 4000 UF Bottle
The 4000 litre model costs under £125 inc VAT & delivery:
The LifeSaver 4000 UF delivers 4000 litres of clean, sterile drinking water and when the filter has dispensed the 4000 litres it will automatically shut down – the filter itself is given a two year shelf life from the initial activation process which I simply done at my kitchen sink.
When the filter gets to the end of its 4000 litres of usable life you simply remove the old filter and replace it with a new cartridge – new cartridge costs under £95 inc VAT & delivery – Lifesaver Systems Limited 4000 UF Cartridge,
This effectively gives you a complete new water filter and 4000 litres of sterile drinking water all over again.
Calculations & Costs based on 1 persons water requirements per day of 5 litres:
With the 4000 UF filter you will get 5 litres/day for TWO YEARS
*there is also a 6000 litre bottle available which give added value for money – prices below:
With the 6000 UF filter you will get 5 litres/day for THREE YEARS
The average price for a 4000 UF cartridge is £95 inc VAT & delivery – so that is equal to an amazing 2.4 pence per litre...!
The 6000 UF cartridge costs around £110 inc VAT & delivery which makes and even better saving of just 1.8 pence per litre…!
So this really is a huge saving when stocking up a water cache and trying to store bottled water at a bug out location.
* the Activated Carbon Filter will last for 250 litres – these are dead simple to change over when needed and with that in mind it’s worth investing in some spare filters along with the bottle – fortunately they are cheap and come in packs of 4 for under £20 inc VAT & delivery – Replacement Carbon Inserts (Four-Pack)
To match the 4000 litres capacity of the filter cartridge you would need 16 activated carbon filters.
Along with a couple of replacement cartridges I have also invested in a some of the course ‘pre filters’ to ensure I have all the main filters as
LifeSaver 4000 UF water filter bottle full review and field test:
Final thoughts:
The LifeSaver 4000 UF water filter bottle gets a big 10/10 from me – I didn’t find a single thing that I could give a bad mark to.
It did exactly what it said it would and has now proved to be a permanent addition to my survival kit
My advice to any anyone preparing for a survival situation, whether that’s out camping, hiking or prepping – is to make sure you add one of these to your survival kit as soon as you possibly can.
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