Hammock wheel with tarps

[patermagnus]

Anyone have ideas on the plans to set up a hammock wheel with a telephone pole as a center? A boy scout camp I know of is interested in setting one up for the boys, but they want the boys to be able to set up completely even with a tarp. How far would you put poles from the telephone pole and how far apart on the rim to allow tarps?

[Phantom Grappler]

Allow 15 feet between poles. Some rigs can be set up with less distance between poles. I think most hammock and tarp set ups will work with 15 feet spacing of poles.
Im not sure about tarps overlapping at center pole and causing problems during rainy weather. Some of the overlaps at center pole might not shed water because of overlap with another tarp that is too close to allow correct tarp pitch.
Or are you going to use an oversized group tarp to cover all hammocks with one large tarp—covering everything?
Don’t rely solely on my guesses. There are hammock campers on this forum who have done projects similar to yours.
Good luck


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[zukiguy]

We did a section of the AT up in Pennsylvania a few months back. One site had a huge frame set up for hammocks. Rather than the "wheel" idea it was just a big square arrangement like a huge Pergola without the roof slats. At most I'd imagine you could put 5 hammocks on there with tarps. The poor guy in the middle would be dodging a spider's web of lines.

The "wheel" setup sounds good but I think all the overlapping is going to be really problematic. I don't know about your space constraints but maybe a series of triangles spread around so they can be rigged in groups of 3 rather than one big central spot. I could even envision a pair of triangles set close together so that you could put 3 hammocks/tarps on each triangle, then another 2 between the adjacent corners of the triangles (hopefully that makes some sense). That would be a total of 8 hangers for 6 poles. Not too bad.


Good luck...please post some photos of what you come up with.

[Alamosa]

I would allow 20 feet for the spokes. We are not seeing hammocks getting shorter and this length should give a lot of flexibility now and into the future. It also allows the possibility for the hammocks to be hung closer to the wheel than the hub which gives more room for tarps.

By managing tarp sizes and pitch angles, I think they can avoid or at least manage any overlap. Many troops and camps have some very large tarps that could be rigged to cover entire sections of the wheel.

It is a very cool idea and opportunity for the boys. It is these unique experiences that they end up taking back to their troops and talk about many years down the road.