Hammock in a tent?

I have tried several times to use a hammock for camping, but always had the same problems. So I continued to use my faithfull tent and my uncomfortable mattress.

My vacations are often road trips. By motorbike or by car. A small mobility problem makes me unable to hike.
So I pitch every night and pack every morning. Mainly in commercial campsites (easy to find, all conveniences, generally inexpensive and, first reason: wild camping is prohibited in France if you are not an hour's walk from the nearest road).

The tent gives me enough privacy to change clothes for night (and days: my roadtrips can last a few weeks), enough dry space to store my things (helmet and motorcycle suit, backpack... .).
Insulating foam mattresses are reliable (inflatables always end up leaking, usually at the worst moment), quite light and compact... but not comfortable!
My hammock and tarp installation tests have shown me: it's comfortable, but in commercial campsites, trees are mainly used to delimit spaces. It is therefore forbidden to use them to hang anything, and they are not suitable for this. A tensa stand may do the job to hang, but not for privacy and storage.
So, I'm still searching a way to put a hammock in a tent. A setup compact and light enough to be loaded on a motorcycle.

Here's a picture off the tensa site using a winter tarp:
Attachment 189759

Do you think that's private enough? A wide winter tarp would add about 23 cm per side.

Spoutch, I feel your pain. How about this ... because you are car camping, take TWO shelters; the tent for gear and clothes changing and the hammock for comfort. I often do that kayak camping. And the tent in the campsite signifies you're a legitimate camper (in the park host's eyes) and anything else (hammock) is just part of your stuff.

Or ... many find it enough to bring the walls of the tarp down a little and if the tarp has doors on the ends, they can close too. Even if the front edge of my tarp is up, If I stand between my hammock and the tarp on the far side, I'm pretty well covered. It's not like slipping on some pants is going to take 3 minutes.

Also, with a park/campsite, I often just take my clothes to the restroom (salle de bains) and change in there.

Now for the hammock ... Many parks in the USA also use trees just as boundaries between sites. It can lead to conflict. Then I realized I didn't need two trees - I could attach one end of the hammock to the rack on the car and the other end to just one tree I could reach from where the car was parked. Note that I can put the hammock/tarp up after any site review by the host and take it down first thing in the morning. If you have a tent set up, they are going to notice that.

If you use your car for one support, you'll want to be sure whatever you attach to, your car will take the force. For example, someone on the forum reminded me that the luggage rack that comes with the car is usually held on by just sheet metal screws and expects to just stabilize any load, not hold it against a strong force. But I also have a kayak rack on the car and that has a much more solid bond. I can tie to that and ONE tree.

But maybe all the trees are away from where you park the car. In that case, I've been using the Tensa Solo. It's a collapsible strong pole that holds one end of the hammock. Two anchor lines come off it and must be secure. There are stakes for the ground but a picnic bench can work as well. If you look up my post in the Trips sub-forum (Around the Ocras in 8 days) you'll see photos of my use of the Solo pole.

The final step up is a fully portable independent stand. In this forum, you can see posts of one design called a Turtle Dog Stand. It is essentially two tripods holding a long pole between them and the hammock is suspended off that long pole. There are many home-made styles and sizes. The other type of stand is like the Tensa4 design - and there are many home-made varieties of that too.

Both the turtle dog and the tensa4 are completely independent of trees. I could go on and on about each one but you have your own focus and situation; so as you look at the posts you'll pick out what is important to you.

One last idea ... If you have a hammock set up you can put it in what's called a "sock". It's a nylon "tent" and the hammock goes inside with the hammock suspension coming out the ends to whatever they'll be attached to. So you are in a suspended single-wall tent. You still need a tarp because the sock is breathable; if it wasn't, you'd have a lot of condensation build-up. And the bottom hangs just under your hammock - so you don't stand up in it, You unzip it and exit from your hammock to the ground. So you'd be changing in your hammock. I don't recommend that - too much fussing around. It's easier to just get out of the hammock, go into your ground tent, your car, or the restroom, or stand between your hammock and the back wall of the tarp.

Excellent review of some options Cougarmeat!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spoutch

A tensa stand may do the job to hang, but not for privacy and storage.

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How much storage do you seek? If you brought it all in a car, or on a motorbike, seems like you already have sufficient storage.

And what kind of privacy are you seeking? I have a winter tarp, and I've never had any privacy issues. If somebody was watching me change clothes, I'd probably feel flattered!:lol:

Galvanized top rails for fencing may be utilized, as shown in the video.

https://youtu.be/GZVoJyxi_E0

https://fence-material.com/canopy-pa...tee-ft-90-deg/

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

In Texas, we have a McCoy's Building and Lumber which have 21-foot sections of 18-gauge steel, one end is swaged.

You can rent a pipe cutter from Home Depot to make two cuts, which gives three 7-foot sections. Do the same for a 2nd 21-foot section. You now have six sections of 7-foot pipe.

This comes to four legs, and two top rails. A 4x4 meter weather tarp to throw over the top and there is the privacy. Open one side for "porch-mode" to walk the motorcycle underneath, or have a small chair and table.

Thank you for answering !
The hammock stand with an enclosed tarp seems like the kind of thing I need. I really like the XX design stand.
Wild camping on a loch beach in Scotland a few years ago convinced me that I had to be able to do without pegs and stakes.

The next step may be figuring out how to build it, compact enough to pack on a motorcycle.
I'm thinking of using it when I'm on a solo trip (so mostly on a motorbike) because I can't see how to use it in a family state of mind (with my wife and our baby).
I think my all-weather tent will still be used for that, even if it means sleeping on a foam mattress.

For storage, in the car, there is no problem. But on a motorcycle, you don't want to put on a helmet and suit that absorbed nighttime moisture. Rain while riding is quite a big problem. ..
With experience, you find a way to keep the water out of the clothes most of the time... But, once wet, you can't dry before home. So, you really don't want any water inside!
Maybe a second hammock to put stuff behind the sleeping one? (Not my idea, I read some years ago)

For building: we don't have the same raw materials here. I will do some researches.