Big Guy Bridge and Tensa 4 Stand

**wbJohn** · 08-31-2020, 12:45

I got a Big Guy Bridge from Just Bill and love it I slept in it Friday night and then napped in it Saturday. I should have started with a bridge hammock.

I do a lot of kayak camping and got a Tensa 4 stand for camping on islands and other places where trees are limited. I was told the stand wouldn't work with the Big Guy Bridge but took that as a challenge. A suggestion was made to reduce the baseline of the stand to about 3 feet which seems to work with the Ridgerunner but the head end spreader bar and fabric touched the stand when it was loaded. I tried spreading the baseline out much further, about 8 feet, and the tips of the head end spreader bar hit the stand. I also noticed the ridgeline became very slack when the hammock was loaded.

I have an older Tensa 4 with the ZingIt foot teather line and tried making that taught and that straightened out the slack in the ridgeline. I made a UCR to replace the foot teather. I'll continue to experiment but I think the geometry might not work. I can always just order a couple of Solo conversion kits if there's no hope or just use a gathered end but the BGB is just so comfortable.

Bill, Cheryl and Todd are working on this and I hope there's a solution. I haven't done a lot of fiddling yet but maybe somebody else has.

**Saltfly** · 08-31-2020, 13:58

I’ve tried to get it to work. In my opinion the tensa doesn’t work that great with the ridge runner either without suspension changes and stuff. I bring two solo poles and rarely use both at the same time but at least I got em. The comfort of a Townsend bridge is worth the extra staking out.

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**Slugger** · 09-01-2020, 16:58

I'd be interested in seeing how this pans out. Like most others say, Bill's BGBH is heaven. The most comfortable I've ever been in a hammock. I kayak also but haven't tried an overnight trip yet.

**wbJohn** · 09-03-2020, 20:06

I have been experimenting and have come up with something that seems to work. I sent pictures to the Tensa folks and Bill so they can tell me if the hack is dangerous.

In the meantime, Bill has sent a hammock to Tensa so they can try to figure it out. When I hear back from them, I'll share.

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**Just Bill** · 09-04-2020, 06:06

Originally Posted by wbJohn

I have been experimenting and have come up with something that seems to work. I sent pictures to the Tensa folks and Bill so they can tell me if the hack is dangerous.

In the meantime, Bill has sent a hammock to Tensa so they can try to figure it out. When I hear back from them, I'll share.

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Hammock is on the way to Cheryl... So we shall see.

For sure the Tato stand works... but it would be nice for you Tensa owners to have an option.

**BradA72** · 09-04-2020, 15:08

I hope they can figure it out, I couldn’t get my Luxury bridge to work with my stand.
I’d prefer to take my bridge with me.

**wbJohn** · 10-06-2020, 21:55

It seems Todd has another solution that looks really good. It's in the thread in DIY.

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**kanazky** · 10-07-2020, 00:05

Could you use 2 Tensa Solo's instead of the stand to get the right spacing?

**wbJohn** · 10-07-2020, 00:56

Originally Posted by kanazky

Could you use 2 Tensa Solo's instead of the stand to get the right spacing?

Yes. Both my solution and Todd's don't require me to buy anything I don't already have. Todd's solution is to tether the base of the poles to the Orange Screw, thereby effectively splitting the stand in two. Since I just bought a 600 foot spool of Amsteel, making a couple of UCRs was simple. I'll be testing it out before my next trip this weekend.

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**Just Bill** · 10-07-2020, 09:10

Originally Posted by wbJohn

Yes. Both my solution and Todd's don't require me to buy anything I don't already have. Todd's solution is to tether the base of the poles to the Orange Screw, thereby effectively splitting the stand in two. Since I just bought a 600 foot spool of Amsteel, making a couple of UCRs was simple. I'll be testing it out before my next trip this weekend.

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John-
Todd's solution/explanation was what I was trying to communicate in our last email. That's more or less what Cheryl suggested in our call together.
I'm not familiar enough with the stand to get into specifics- but I got the sense you can collapse a few sections of the poles to adjust the height- or get it right in the ballpark. From there you could tune things a bit by tipping the bipod out of vertical (away from the hammock).

That said- I think you understand it better than I do, lol. But 'splitting the stand' seems like the simplest explanation.