Name: Jeff Jackson
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Height: 5’ 10” (178 cm)
Weight: 185 lb (84 kg)
Website: http://www.tothewoods.net/
Email: jwj32542 at yahoo dot com
Location: Monterey, CA, USA

Backpacking Background:
I have been backpacking for about eleven years. Three years ago I switched to lightweight hiking and I always keep my packweight below 30 lb (14 kg) for seven days or less. I generally hike in mild weather (50-85 F/10-30 C) with some winter (~20 F/-7 C) and warmer (85-100 F/30-38 C) trips. I take a hammock on every trip, with many nights in my Hennessy Hammock and my homemade hammocks based on Ed Speer’s design. I often sleep in my hammock at home, and I have hammocked in temps as low as -10 F (-23 C).

PRODUCT INFO

Manufacturer: Crazy Creek (http://www.crazycreek.com/)
Product: Crib LEX Lightweight w/ UltraLite Tarp (2006)
Color: Forest/Royal (Hammock/Tarp)
Listed Weight: 54 oz (1531 g)
Measured Weight: 58-3/4 oz (1664 g) (8.7% over listed)
MSRP: $199 US

Product Description:

A full-featured camping hammock with zippered bug net, pad pocket for insulation, and shaped tarp for weather protection. See the Initial Report for full description.

Testing Update

During this test period, I have used the Crazy Creek backpacking and car camping in Los Padres National Forest. Temperatures ranged from 40-70 F (5-21 C). The terrain was always mountainous, and weather included dry, drizzly, windy and non-windy conditions. I have spent a total of twelve nights in the Crib.

My findings during the Long Term Test phase confirm the findings during the Field Testing phase. I evaluated the Crib on the basis of comfort, durability and performance. A brief summary follows.

Comfort - The Crazy Crib is very comfortable when used with my 2.8" (7 cm) thick inflatable insulated sleeping pad but I could never get very comfortable using thinner closed cell foam pads. Either the pad buckled under my head or I could not lay diagonally in the hammock, which caused sore knees and a stiff back.

Durability - I noticed no durability issues with this hammock. Even after using it as a bivy without a ground cover, I found no wear on the hammock body.

Performance - This is a fully functional camping hammock, and the hammock component is very quick and easy to set up and adjust. Although the straps would not work on some of the very large redwood trees in my camping area, I never had a problem finding suitable trees at my campsites.
The weakest link, however, is the tarp. Although customer service claimed that it was ready to use without seamsealing, I pitched it in the rain and saw leaks. This is a serious safety issue; the company claims this tarp will keep me dry as delivered, but I never felt comfortable relying on this tarp when expecting rain.
When pitched over the hammock at the height that would give proper coverage after occupying the hammock, I found it difficult to enter and exit the hammock without rubbing my back on the tarp. Sometimes, condensation had formed under the tarp during the night, so touching it like this made me wet.
In my opinion, replacing this tarp a standard rectangular tarp would improve performance.

Unfortunately, I did not get to test the hammock in hot muggy nights or during a strong windy rainstorm. This would have given me much better insight into the hammock's overall performance.

What I Like

Very quick and simple to set up.
Very roomy inside.
Very comfortable when used with an inflatable pad.

What I Don’t Like (So Far)

The tarp is too complicated and too difficult to get a tight pitch. I never felt comfortable using the tarp with unsealed seams as recommended by Crazy Creek's customer service.
The weight.

Overall Impression

As I said in the Field Report, I am very impressed with the comfort of the hammock when used with a thick inflatable pad, but rather unimpressed with its performance without a heavy pad. For this reason, it has not earned a place in my backpack but I won't hesitate to take it for cold-weather car camping trips.

I would like to thank Crazy Creek and BackpackGearTest.org for the opportunity to hang in this Crib.

Jeff Jackson

Read more reviews of Crazy Creek gear
Read more gear reviews by Jeff Jackson

Long Term Report

All material on this site is the exclusive property of BackpackGearTest.org.
BackpackGearTest software copyright David Anderson