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  1. #1
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    Question New to Hammocks, Stuck at Choosing One

    As I read on online forums, some people are mentioning themselves as "newly converted to hammocking" like it's a new world, a good productive cult. I'm feeling I'm also in that direction as I spent a summer long camping before in a crappy Decathlon hammock and enjoyed the superb outdoors sleep quality of my life in that cheap piece of fabric letting the breeze chill my bum during 40C nights of eastern Mediterranean. Now the question I want to ask here is if the rationale or the expectations I have are reasonable or not in terms of what I can get from hammocking.

    I want to move forward and buy a good hammock with bug net and preferably with a hooped structure because I want to use it as a bivy on the ground as well. In the country I live, a bivy is the only legal way of camping, tents are forbidden and hammocks are somehow tolerated. Bivies are expensive, not comfortable and they don't serve any other purpose than being a body bag sleep experience. If I'm paying 150€+ amount, it should bring me the joy of hanging from a tree, the comfort of sleeping in a hammock and it should be a standalone shelter like a tent, unlike bivies that you need extras for bottom and top protection.

    All I want is finding a good hammock that I can somehow use as a bivy for stealth camping time to time, in an environment rain is minimal, draft is average and dew is tolerable. I don't want to involve in millions of options, solutions and gear related experiments until I suffer from something specific. I'm 176cm, 87kgs, already have a good inflatable mat and a normal CCF pad and a -18C down mummy bag as I go bikepacking for landscape photography in the the wild.

    I ended up with DD Hammocks, Frontline XL to be specific since they are in Europe and easily ship to where I live, fairly priced unlike American companies. I'll do stealth camping with a hammock where trees exist and will sleep on the ground on meadows or boulders during my short bike tours. I'll add a tarp and a groundsheet to my setup for sure if it's needed but I assume in the DD option a C Fly Wedge setup of tarp might be suffice. What would go wrong? Is this an overkill setup?

    Another option I'm seriously considering buying a good Hennessy, probably Jungle Expedition Zip, sacrificing the expectation for a hoop/pole structure and tolerating the bug net hitting my face when I'm using the hammock on the ground. As far as I read here, Hennessy and Warbonnet are the two right places to start to hammocking. Warbonnet is pricey for me and doesn't ship to Germany, meanwhile I loved Hennessy's approach of including everything in the package and saving me from the confusion.

    I already have tents and a hammock that I love to use and I'm not much interested in buying many things and enjoying playing with my outdoor toys. All I want is to have a good sleep without being noticed and not waking up wet due to rain or dew before I leave the site and keep on cycling to the next lakeside.

  2. #2
    all secure in sector 7 Shug's Avatar
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    Setting a hammock up on the ground is not really too tricky with a little practice.
    The Amok Draumr sets up easily on ground and uses a pad as structure.
    The new Haven is very effective on the ground though I would use a different tarp.
    Shug



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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shug View Post
    Setting a hammock up on the ground is not really too tricky with a little practice.
    The Amok Draumr sets up easily on ground and uses a pad as structure.
    The new Haven is very effective on the ground though I would use a different tarp.
    Shug
    Thanks for the examples Shug. I travel with my bike and don't have the sticks, never needed before. But I assume I can use my bike's height in the same way and the other end can be fixed to the ground with a stake probably.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by bibimbap View Post

    I ended up with DD Hammocks, Frontline XL to be specific since they are in Europe and easily ship to where I live, fairly priced unlike American companies. I'll do stealth camping with a hammock where trees exist and will sleep on the ground on meadows or boulders during my short bike tours. I'll add a tarp and a groundsheet to my setup for sure if it's needed but I assume in the DD option a C Fly Wedge setup of tarp might be suffice. What would go wrong? Is this an overkill setup?
    I started off with a DD Frontline XL and a 3x3 tarp. Came as a kit for about €150

    Eventually changed out the suspension for whoopie slings as I never needed tonuse it as a bivy.

    Not the most comfortable hammock but certainly one that I have enjoyed travelling with.

    Sent from my ANE-LX1 using Tapatalk
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