DYI Tensahedron Hammock Stand

[Latherdome]

I am surprised those orange screws can hold this much weight. Just testing my new fence top-rail stand in the garage saw 92 pounds of force on my main anchor. My head end was fine with a 25 pound weight.

We've taken to telling people that half their body weight is usually a safe amount as a foot end anchor for the commercial version. That's pretty generous, but if you attach a head end counterweight, that weight is directly added to tension on the line, the stand being essentially a fulcrum scale, both apexes being equidistant from the balance point. You'd have seen 67lbs on the line with no head counterweight. If you tipped the head end closer to level with the foot, you'd see less tension, at the expense of less taco insurance, taco being the zero tension point.

Yes, the Orange Screws are surprisingly good in most ground types. Not all but most. Sometimes the ground is too hard or rocky to drive them in. Nail type stakes are better in those conditions.

[IrishSitter]

My initial test had a noticeable lean to the head end, and my hammock center 16 inches towards the head end. When I set the stand with much less lean towards the head end and the same hammock center, the same test showed only 78 pounds on the anchor (foot) end, which all makes sense. I am going to try centering the hammock more and keeping the more level setup to see if there is a sweet spot where the weight on the anchor end(s) is at a minimum (with full term taco insurance coverage).

[docterusa]

awesome... well done.. would love to put one of these together...

[jeff-oh]

awesome... well done.. would love to put one of these together...

Great, I hope you do, it is super easy. I have used mine 10 nights so far and love it. I have survived a hurricane (at least the remains that hit southern Illinois in September, but it was 5" of rain or so.) Stayed high and dry as the ground below me flooded. Woke up to 2" of standing water.

Also, works great at state parks and county fairs where accessible trees are few and far between.

[ajd4096]

Edit: Thinking that looked like a commercial product, a bit of sleuthing turns up Figure 6 in patent WO2006081606A1...

I typed the wrong patent number of course, it should be WO2006081607A1.

The text does discuss the supports rotating upwards towards each other, but does not mention the tension in the end anchors dropping.

Edit:
The patent does not mention this, but their instruction PDF shows tethering only one end.

I had missed another earlier example, also discussed here in this thread:
https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...-Hammock-Stand

Check out patent US180729A, from 1876.
Tetrahedron with rigid supports, although the bottom link is rigid.

[jeff-oh]

I am going to try centering the hammock more and keeping the more level setup to see if there is a sweet spot where the weight on the anchor end(s) is at a minimum (with full term taco insurance coverage).

To easily get Full-term toco insurance, just use two guy lines. One of the reasons I like my setup so much is that it is size perfectly for my tarp and hammock. i hang centered and nearly level. I may rock a little as the tension flips from one side to the other but I will not taco.

[Latherdome]

I am going to try centering the hammock more and keeping the more level setup to see if there is a sweet spot where the weight on the anchor end(s) is at a minimum (with full term taco insurance coverage).

I consider it serendipity that the imbalance required for stability with only one firm anchor also elevates the foot end above the head, which flattens the lay and mitigates calf ridge issues to a greater extent than is commonly appreciated. Level setup, in my opinion, is a questionable aesthetic preoccupation that ignores the asymmetric lengthwise weight distribution of human bodies.



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[Latherdome]

Check out patent US180729A, from 1876.
Tetrahedron with rigid supports, although the bottom link is rigid.

That’s wonderful stuff! Now I must play with having the stand ridgeline continuous with the hammock suspension as shown.

It's remarkable that the Aussie Anchor patent does not cite the obviously relevant 1876 patent as prior art.

[Adventures42day]

20181121_100445.jpg20181121_100528.jpg20181121_100811.jpg20181121_100643.jpg20181121_102502.jpg.

I was experimenting with how to hang two people from one stand. I only have two 12' tarps for the family of 4. I had some 1-1/2"unistrut laying around and figured that would handle the load.

I couldn't quite get the geometry figured out to allow myself and my 8yr old to hang without each touching a pole, and hanging at great differences in height. Honestly, I discovered this system about a week before leaving for a trip to Utah so it was a hurried attempt and I wasn't in the best problem solving mindset.

This did work out perfectly for myself to use in the high desert area where hanging trees were scarce or non-existent. The unistrut is heavy and very stable even while finding the right balance during set-up. I'll only use these while car camping and can strap them to the top of the truck.

I'm using 10' lengths which allow me to use the 12' winter tarp. Wrapping the tarp around the stand worked great to block the winds and still allow plenty of room for me inside.

I use a 36" spreader bar at the head end when tree hanging, but that doesn't work on the tensa stand. It does make for a fun hammock ride for the kid. When the weather allows it, I'll play around with some kind of crossbar system, or maybe a double tensa nesting idea.

[ajd4096]

ThatÂ’s wonderful stuff! Now I must play with having the stand ridgeline continuous with the hammock suspension as shown.

It's not continuous, the ends have hooks (f and g) top and bottom.
"The upper hooks serve to support the hammock H, which is arranged between them, and they also have applied to them another adjustable tent-guy D."

The interesting part is the two claims:
Claim 1 is without the end guys, so they must have tried balancing.
Claim 2 is with the end guys.

The body also discusses having the ends uneven:
"The two lower guys not only answer to support the struts, but enable one set of them to be adjusted to a greater angle to the horizon than that of the other set."

It's remarkable that the Aussie Anchor patent does not cite the obviously relevant 1876 patent as prior art.

The AA was initially just an Australian patent, I'm not sure that citing 100yo USA patents would have been required.
Possibly Google's patent search had not indexed the older USA patents then.


I like reading old patents, one of my favorite hammock patents is US400131A