Tensa Outdoor and the commercial packable tensahedron stand

[ChinoUSMC]

I used the Tensa 4 stand at HangCon ‘21. Absolutely loved it. It rained for a day and it kept me completely dry. The way the tarp poles are set up, the 12’ WD tarp completely covered the whole setup.

MAN oh man, I freakin love it!

I’m in talks with Dutch’s crew to see if they can make pole sleeves (like snake skins). I wanted a complete camo setup and painting them is not an option. Camo sleeves would cover up the bottom shiny poles and I would have a total camo setup.


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[Hammichael]

Camo tape?


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[ChinoUSMC]

Camo tape?


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Too sticky and poles won’t collapse. I would have to keep re-applying the tape... costly and a waste. It’s a great idea if the poles never collapsed.


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[tangara]

I have a question when using half a tensa with one tree. In the past, before tensa, when I had this issue, I've hung from a tree to a ground anchor and used an upside down "V" of two sticks lashed at the height that I needed to level the hammock. I placed the sticks almost vertically, just slightly leaning toward the tree at the base. I didn't anchor the base of the sticks, because it was near vertical. The ground anchor needed to be solid, just like with the recommended tensa setup. I never had my "V" fail, even when I used fairly small tree limbs. I eventually made a set of 1x1 pine sticks to take with me when car camping just in case I'd end up at a spot with non-ideal trees.

For the engineers out there, would the tensa poles be under more / less / equal stress used in an almost upright position?

thanks

[jeff-oh]

I’m in talks with Dutch’s crew to see if they can make pole sleeves (like snake skins). I wanted a complete camo setup and painting them is not an option. Camo sleeves would cover up the bottom shiny poles and I would have a total camo setup.

I would think a heat coloring technique would also work. Maybe not camo, but could certainly take the shine off and get browns, reds and black colorings.

Strike that.... I assumed the material was stainless steel. Steels are cannot be anodized. Quick research on the Tensa web site and they are using Aluminum. So yes they are anodized. You can have the annodized layer stripped off and reannodize the aluminum to a different color. Though about .002" of thickness will be lost

[ChinoUSMC]

I would thing a heat coloring technique would also work. Maybe not camo, but could certainly take the shine off and get browns, reds and black colorings.

I would be a little leery about applying heat to metal and then adding the stress of body weight plus some gear to it.


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[TominMN]

Anodizing...

[curlymaple42]

Anodizing...

Yeh, that's what I was thinking. They do some amazing anodizing stuff these days!

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[Latherdome]

Anodizing...

The poles are anodized already. While a durable coating, it still scratches to reveal the natural aluminum color, for instance when you collapse poles with sand stuck to them. Also all the cut and drilled edges are bare aluminum. We chose clear anodizing as looking best after these scratches and processing happens. Also color anodizing tends to fade in UV, and it can be challenging to get color consistency across production runs. Best not to hide what it is.

I’d suggest an extra super wide tarp pitched low as the most material-efficient way to hide the poles, and it improves weather coverage too.


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[Virtualbotanist]

Hi tensa4 hangers,

I just posted my tensa4 road trip and review in Trip Reports. (Tensa4 motorcycle roadtrip to Belgium and France - summer 2020)

I re-post the review part here:
________
It wasn’t my first hammock trip, but the tensa4 gave me so much more freedom, not having to worry about finding two trees! My days were more relaxed and I never had to stop early searching for hammock trees.

The tensa4 stand is almost perfect engineering. I am very impressed with the simplicity of the setup and small size when stored. It is light and easy to move when set up.
I did however lose a rubber end cap when moving in the middle of the night after finding a wasps nest right under my hammock. I found out the next morning and couldn’t find it. But I can probably get a similar one at my local hardwarestore.
The only annoyance was that after a long ride, the vibration would move some of the buttons inside the poles around, away from the holes. Sometimes more than an inch, making it hard to push them back in position. I’m not sure how to avoid this. Maybe @Latherdome and @Raftingtigger can amaze us once again! :-)

I’m 2 meter tall (6ft7). I have a WB XLC double layer and a huge DD hammocks tarp so I can more or less stand up under it and cover my bike when it rains. This was a challenge with the tensa4. I didnÂ’t order the tarp extension because it looked too small for my tarp.

I use my hiking poles instead:



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I have the hiking poles on the head end. The foot end is higher anyway, so the tarp ridgeline is horizontal. I made sure the foot-end could move independently. It worked great, but I couldn’t set up a porch without the poles.

I’m planning my next trip to Norway and I expect a lot more rain along the fjords. So I’m looking at bad weather tarps like the WB thunderfly or superfly.
Are there any tall hammockers who use this setup? I have a bad back and knees. I’m getting too old to crouch around. Any recommendations?