Best hammock/system to buy in bulk for scout troop?

[OutandBack]

Scouts making their own hammock kit sounds like a great team building effort. We have several vendors that offer kits and they also have great how to video's. Plus you have us in the DIY forum that can help you out.
Making a hammock with whoopies and tree straps is very easy, so is a fronkey style bug net. There are great make your own underquilt video's from a army surplus woobie or a 20 buck down throw.

[kitsapcowboy]

Scouts making their own hammock kit sounds like a great team building effort. We have several vendors that offer kits and they also have great how to video's. Plus you have us in the DIY forum that can help you out.
Making a hammock with whoopies and tree straps is very easy, so is a fronkey style bug net. There are great make your own underquilt video's from a army surplus woobie or a 20 buck down throw.

+1 on this. DIY hammock gear can quite budget-friendly and approachable for the novice if one doesn't try to get too fancy. It definitely promotes resourcefulness and creative thinking. I would have them make single-layer hammocks, Fronkey bug nets, and Amsteel whoopie sling suspension sets, with closed-cell foam pads for bottom insulation (if they don't have regular (ground) sleeping pads already. Overachievers can attempt segmented pad extenders and/or double-layer hammock bodies!


$20 - 4 yards of 1.9 oz ripstop nylon fabric for hammock body
$28 - 7 yards of No-see-um bug netting for Fronkey bug net
$5 - 25 feet of shock cord for bug net closure
$10 - 50 feet of Amsteel Blue 7/64" for whoopies, structural ridge line, and continuous loops
$7 - 25 feet of 1" poly webbing for tree straps
$4 - Spool of Gutermann Mara 70 thread
$30 - Cheap 30-degree rectangular sleeping pad from big-box store (used as a top quilt)
$15 - Closed-cell foam sleeping pad (used as bottom insulation)
$5 - Light-duty 6'x'8' utility tarp from big box store (pitched as asym w/ 10' ridge line)
$5 - 50 feet 550 paracord for tarp ridge line, guy lines, etc.

(With those approximate costs, you've got an approximate $125 set-up for one individual to spend a night hanging in the woods; it's far from deluxe, but its affordable and the conditions aren't too extreme. These suggestions were off the cuff and readily available for one individual camper; I'm sure there are some better budget options out there, and money could be saved by a group buying certain supplies in quantity.)

[rais'n hammock]

Our troop just did a DIY project where we had 20 scouts make their own hammock. We ordered kits from RSBTR and webbing from Makeyourgear.com. the total for just the hammock was about $31.50 per hammock. The Costco quilt is a good idea and another great DIY project. Sargevining has a new video where he converts the quilts with no sewing. https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=xXKYwST-m0I
For the tarps you can find the cheap Yukon tarps on Amazon for about $20-30. That is a total of around $105 per setup and a lot of work. Not impossible but make sure you have a lot of support from your committee and parents. Just making the hammocks we had 10 injectors and a person at each one to guide the boys. It still took between 1 1/2 & 2 1/2 hrs for the boys to make them. But, they did it themselves!
We didn't go all the way with insulation and tarps. The boys mostly used pads and blue tarps with some more reminders of the knots they know; bowline, tautline, and trucker's hitch.
We also have boys who double stack their hammocks bunk bed style and share a single tarp.
Most of the scouts were not interested in bug nets but that will depend on you area. We do not have no see ums in our neck of the woods and simple spray keeps the other bugs away. I use Tule for my fronkey modified style bug net and it was about $4 for materials to make.
Good luck and I encourage the DIY for anything the scouts are doing! Yes, they can just purchase things for not much more but for the scouts it is not about where to purchase things for cheap. The skills they gain making things are often skills they will not get elsewhere. And they will have them for the rest of their life. (I learned to sew at age 8 and it was not that hard to pick it back up when I started with DIY gear as an adult.) They will also have more pride in their equipment which usually translates into taking care of it more responsibly.
Enjoy the journey not just the destination. A peaceful campsite and relaxing night in a hammock are just the reward at the end of the 20 mile hike and hours of planning/prep that got you there.

[sidvicious]

haven't read the replies:

i'd call dutch. his gear is for serious campers, and affordable.

[vmonarca]

I would diy the hammock part. Really easy and cheap buying ripstop in bulk. You can diy tree straps or purchase outright. I use atlas straps to a beaner with a small continous amsteel loop larksheaded over the gathered end of my hammock. TArps, you can get cheap blue tarps or something like Kelty Noahs tarps. I have scouts who use the Noah 9'. Isn't weather proof though. Most adults use the 12' which works really well in all weather. As far as insulation. Our scouts use what they have. Sleeping bags and ground pads. Materials around 15 per hammock. 15-30 for tree straps, and 75 or under for tarp.


Vin

[johnspenn]

Another suggestion: I know several people who use pads successfully in their hammocks, without a double layer. Young people, like the Scouts you're dealing with, typically have a much more forgiving sleep cycle than old people like me, who have to have everything just so to get a good night's sleep.

Get them set up with inexpensive single layers, let them use their existing pads and bags.

Then educate them and their parents on better ways i.e. TQ, UQ, synthetic, down and etc. and leave the upgrades to individual preference.

[potsticker]

Thanks so much to all who replied, I really appreciate it!

I definitely agree we should have some DIY elements, just unsure how much I want to bite off. My summary of replies shared so far:

Hammocks - Tablecloth DIY, Ripstop DIY, Dutch ($50)/DD Scout (~$20)/Hennessy Scout ($80 w/ Tarp).
Bugnet - DIY Fronkey
Insulation - DIY Costco Throw, pads
Tarp - Builder's, Yukon ($30), Kelty Noah ($50)

I'm nervous about making the hammocks ourselves like rais'n hammock did with his troop as I'm not sure I'll have the parental support necessary to pull it off. To get 20+ boys to make their own hammock each would obviously require time and many sewing machines. Maybe I could do it in smaller batches by patrol? Sadly I'm no expert sewer either.

I've ordered enough to make a couple myself at home and will see how badly I butcher them (my skill in fouling up menial tasks is legendary). I realize I'm also fighting my own hammock snobbery (e.g. sleeping with a pad in the hammock...left that years ago and don't want to go back!). Per comments I'm sure most of these scouts won't care, especially after a long day of backpacking!

Thanks again for the detailed and thoughtful replies!

[ag1024]

Our scouts love doing hammocks. But I usually steer them towards something cheap and easy, until they decide if they really like it and want to invest more significant amounts of money into it.

I like the Grand Trunk Ultralight, to be had for about $20.00. (better if you have an amazon Prime account):

https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Trunk-U...unk+ultralight

Or, you can do a Tablecloth Factory hammock from TableclothFactory.com:

http://www.tableclothsfactory.com/ta...shes-s/132.htm

These are good for making your own hammocks out of Crinkle Tafeta fabric that is sown at the ends. You would also want to teach the scouts to gather the ends, as in the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJlE...otation_535444

And here is a video about how the pioneers used hammocks a hundred and more years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=704HL2OKBJ4

All this is great fun for the scouts. Enjoy.

[GadgetUK437]

To get 20+ boys to make their own hammock each would obviously require time and many sewing machines.

Not if you buy 144x70" tablecloths. They are already hemmed, all that is required is a paracord whipping at each end, larkshead on some continuous loops and a SRL. Hell, if you are feeling lazy, you can substitute cable-ties for the whipping, (but scouts should be able to whip something, shouldn't they?). The work of 10 minutes per hammock.

[kitsapcowboy]

The TCF option is a no-sew way to go I hadn't considered, but it's a good one and indicates the need for even one machine. FWIW, if you did decide to sew from scratch.and decided to fold and gather the ends with whipping, the only "sewing skill" your scouts need to master is the ability to feed through and sew a couple of long, straight hems to make durable edges on the long sides that won't fray, no need to sew the more complicated end channels. Fold and whip with paracord, and then larkshead with Amsteel. The splicing is easy and can be done with a couple of $3 loop Turner from Wal-Mart.