New Hammock Design?? Gathered End & Origami Footbox

[Redoleary]

OK so I believe this is something new and is more a happy accident, than great design. It started out as an epic failure and evolved into a remarkably comfortable hammock. I should also say here that this is more of an implied footbox or even a footbox effect rather than a traditional sewn on footbox.

I plan to add a mini spreader bar to it, it's doing just fine without it, but I might as well go all in.

The gist of what's going on here is, I started tablecloth hammock 60"x126" and by folding the corners of each end in and making a channel end hammock. Because of the fold it became a tapered hammock 34" wide at the channel and 120" long. Although it's 34" wide at the end, the body of the hammock is about 58.5" wide after adding the side channels. So I had effectively made a skinny hammock with floppy sides. However I sewed a small channel into the sides into which I put zingit UCR's that connect to the hammock suspension. Now those floppy sides have structural support and this created a quasi footbox. It would be similar to a structural full length Knotty mod, plus the fold at the end channel.

If you look at the drawing, the top half is the before the fold and channel is sewn, and the bottom half represents the after the fold. On the top half you take the green corner and fold it til it touches the corner where the blue square and red body meet and tack it down, I sewed along the sort edge of that triangle to secure it. Do that three more times for the other corners then just fold the end over to make a 3" end channel. The side channels start and end 18" from the ends (yellow in the drawing). I did add a piece of bungee to one side to get some give for entry exit. Haven't been able to spend a night in it yet, too cold out and I don't have an inside stand. But early tests have been very promising.

Even as I look at it I'm not sure you would need to do all four corners, you could just do opposite corners and make it lay specific, ie: right lay or left lay.
As always suggestions for improvement are welcome.

[XTrekker]

Gotta love those happy accidents. Would like to see some more pics sometime if you dont mind.

[fallkniven]

That's very interesting. Some more pictures would be great.

[Deadphans]

Neato. I've subscribed. I souls like to see where and how this goes.

[Redoleary]

It is difficult to really show it, but this is the outside when I'm inside.


Not seen in the above photos,I added the bungee to one of the ucr's on the side I use for entry exit. I estimated that the bungee needed to be pretty strong and this one isn't bottomed out or anything when I'm in the hammock. It's a bungee bone about a foot long. You can also see the ucr from the other side coming up the the ring and my SRL comes out of the middle of the end channel from a melted hole, it connects to the suspension.

[Redoleary]

Here you can see how the ucr leaves the side channel and goes up to the suspension. Also note the fabric where the side channel ends the fabric turns toward the center of the hammock.


This is hard to document, but here is on of the corners and how it goes up to meet the end channel. It doesn't meet the end channel in the center, each side is folded over 6" to the left or right of center on their respective side. The corner is also located 5" down from the edge so that when the end channel is folded over to the 6" mark the corner is well secured by the stitching for the end channel.

[Les Rust]

Intriguing idea, Red. Looking forward to your testing and seeing how this goes.

[stevebo]

interesting idea! Have you had any trouble with the end stitches ripping the fabric? I did some experiments with tablecloths last year--at my weight (235) the stitches seemed to distort and damage the cloth over time--the fabric around the stitches would kind of turn a white color , and would eventually rip. Has anyone else had this problem? (and good luck with your new design!)

[Metavo]

Love this idea.

[Redoleary]

interesting idea! Have you had any trouble with the end stitches ripping the fabric? I did some experiments with tablecloths last year--at my weight (235) the stitches seemed to distort and damage the cloth over time--the fabric around the stitches would kind of turn a white color , and would eventually rip. Has anyone else had this problem? (and good luck with your new design!)

I have not had issues with the tablecloths ripping or otherwise being damaged. I'm in the 190# neighborhood, but I also put a piece of 7/8" grosgrain in the channel stitch line, so there are three layers... hammock body,grosgrain,folded channel fabric.