Here’s a first glimpse of the People’s Bridge Hammock (Volksbrückenhängematte), hereinafter referred to as “PBH/VBH” or just “PBH”. It uses the principles of my adjustable bridge hammocks and simplifies them to produce a hammock that is:
(1) Comfortable
(2) Relatively easy to make
(3) Relatively inexpensive
(4) Relatively Pad-friendly, but excellent for use with an underquilt
The various adjustments I made to bridge hammocks to make them more comfortable all had the effect of distorting the catenary curves of the sides, so I threw out the catenary side cuts and substituted simple geometric concave sides. No more curves – just straight lines. The angle where the straight sections meet forms the ridge under the knees.
I have made the PBH using both dacron and nylon fabrics. The one in the video below is made with Momentum 90, a sweet fabric, but it turns out that the best combination of strength and some stretch is achieved with 1.9 oz. ripstop nylon, which is nice, because it’s cheap. Going with lighter weight fabrics may be false economy since they may need more reinforcement at possible stress points, like corners and the knee-ridge angle. (I’m talking about hammock weight economy, not $$$.)
Instead of using webbing along the full length of the sides, I use a 7” section at each corner with loops at both ends. There are channels along each side for whoopies (that’s right, they’re adjustable) connecting the corner webbing pieces. That makes for a much more forgivable construction process. After the sides are done, you adjust the whoopies to make both sides the same length. The suspension and end cap designs can be whatever you choose to steal from somebody else. (Some day Grizz will catch up with me.) There are others you can pilfer: Hangnout, TeeDee, Bic, the Jacks, Warbonnet, & dblhmmck – to name a few.) What’s unique about the PBH is the hammock bed design.
Okay, here’s what it looks like:PBH bed shape.jpg Simple, eh? This size fits me (5’ 7”); scale it up for someone bigger. I’ve used up to 60” width for the head end on some prototypes. You don’t need to make the foot end narrower, but it saves some weight.
And here's what it looks like in use. Notching the sides of a ccf pad helps it curve to fit better, and if you line up one pair of notches with the knee ridge, the pad stays in place pretty well (much better than in a gathered end hammock). If I were going to hike the AT and expected to need a pad, this is the combination I would take. A SPE would help. This hammock has zippers on each end. It turns out that a simple rectangle of noseeum mesh makes a perfect Risk Quarterweight Bugnet (see description at tothewoods.net). The net zips on or off (seasonally), but entry or exit on either side is easy - just lift the net. Note in the video that my back is level and pretty straight, and my legs are raised comfortably, but my heels can drop, so there is no hyperextension of my knees.
The extensions for the ends of the trekking poles let me attach an Ogee tarp directly to the spreaders for better coverage, but that's not an integral feature of the PBH - use any spreader design you want. Same with the end caps and suspension designs. See Grizz's videos "Gone Loopy" and "End Cap Origami" for the ones I used. This hammock uses Dynaglide, but all the cords can be removed to wash the hammock bed (or to replace the Dynaglide with Amsteel).
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Originally Posted by WV
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