Gadgetory

hi I'm Brandon with war Bonham outdoors and today we're going to take a look at the new Blackbird xlc now one of the most obvious things you might notice the strip that runs along the edge of the zipper between the zipper and the mosquito net as well as the foot box are both made out of mosquito netting rather than fabric and this is to increase breathability as well as visibility from inside the hammock now the C portion of Excel C stands for convertible so the zipper runs along the full length of the one side like the standard blackbird but the zipper hooks around the end of the hammock it goes under the foot box under the shelf and back around so that the entire top being the strip the canopy the foot box on the shelf are removable leaving you with a traveler hammock in addition to that every xlc also comes with a solid fabric over cover that can zip on in place of the net cover where the strip the canopy the foot box in the shelf are solid fabric for heat retention in colder weather now to remove the canopy the first thing you're going to do is remove the guide line from the sides in with the xlc the guide line is attached by these plastic mitten hooks so you can use the same shock cord on both canopies you'll just disconnect the plastic hooks on both sides now once you have the guide line disconnected from the sides of the top cover you'll notice that there is a plastic toggle at each end of the hammock so the next step is to just unhook the toggle you'll do this at both ends the purpose of the toggle is so that when you are sitting in the hammock using the hammock in chair mode and if you lean back against the shelf it will distribute your weight directly to the suspension just so it doesn't stress the zipper so you'll make we want to make sure that when you put the new cover on you want to make sure to reconnect those toggles once you have both toggles disconnected you can go ahead and swap out the covers and I'll do that now and that's the Blackbird xlc for more information check out our website war bonnet outdoors Oh Oh Oh Hennessy hammock has been on the market for about about ten years now and it has about three or four patents now and a couple more coming it's the only hammock in the world with an entrance through the bottom that closes automatically under your own bodyweight so you just walk in turn around sit down in fact I'll do it for you you just pop the entrance lift it over your head grab the sides sit down a little bit left to Center and then when you lay back the entrance will pop shot like that there we go shuts put your feet over on the right put your shoulder on the left stretch out oh that feels like a comfortable mattress you want to get out oh actually what I should tell you it's got a little mesh pocket up here for your gear it's got a little hook for your LED light it's got a little hook for your beer cans and hang your beer right there put your magazine over the string then you get out you just sit up stand up and walk out like that and then if it's raining you want to make some breakfast you just come over here and release this little string here grab the ring reach underneath flip it over like that turn around pull it down behind your knees and sit down and chair so now you can you can make breakfast in the morning you just set up your stove right there drop in the porridge now you just swing back until it cooks drop your arm over the side and let the rocking motion of the hammock stir the porridge for you then when you're finished pop up like this and let's say for instance it's time to break camp so I won't do the whole thing but you'd roll up the roll up the hammock and the rain fly and then you reach over here you grab this little snake together you slide it down like that and if you did the same on the other end the whole thing be packed up in about 30 seconds hi I'm Brandon with war bonnet and today we're going to take a look at the Ridge Runner the first thing you want to do is find two trees 15 to 20 feet apart you ridgerunner has two poles a short pole for the foot end and a longer pole for the head end you'll notice the Ridge Runner has four corner buckles you'll place the pole tip in the central hole you'll do the same thing in foot end you also want to make sure the buckles not twisted the mosquito net is suspended by shock cord at each end of the netting at the head end you're going to want to set the shock cord slightly above the point at which the straps are connected to the tree if you attach it too low the netting will sag a little bit so you just want it touched a little above the foot end you're going to attach that directly to the base of the suspension some folks may choose to not even use this cord but if you if you do you can attach it right there now the hammock tongue we can look at some of the features as you can see there's pocket on this side there's another one on the other side as well we're calling these saddlebags then ending unzips on three sides the two long sides and head end and so you can roll the netting up and put it into a storage pocket at the foot end of the hammock to get in I'm going to put these one zipper about halfway between the saddle bag and the buckle that's just so I can reach it after I get inside I usually unzip it to the corner you can also unzip it pass that and throw the netting over the ridge if you like now you're going to going to want to hold on to both sides of the hammock there's a section of support webbing running through both long sides if you just grab one side and it's going to have a tendency to tip to tip on you just grab both sides hold them stable and sit down now I'm inside the hammock and I've left the zipper within reach you'll find it's easier to use the zipper if you use both hands using one hand to pull behind the direction that you want to zip this is especially true at the saddlebag where the fabric is loose all right now if you don't need the bug net just unhook the cords just unzip both zippers all the way to the ends then roll it up and stuff it into the pocket of the head end this is actually easier easiest to do in the when the hammock is set up a little bit tougher when it's not just a shoestring knot with both these ribbons and you're done everything stuffs into this little bag at the foot end and that's about it for more information check us out at war bonnet outdoors calm you