Paint would probably wear off pretty quickly. The poles are clear anodized. I wonder if removing the anodizing and then doing Cerakote would work. My Tensa poles take a bit of abuse vibrating around on the back of a motorcycle.
Paint would probably wear off pretty quickly. The poles are clear anodized. I wonder if removing the anodizing and then doing Cerakote would work. My Tensa poles take a bit of abuse vibrating around on the back of a motorcycle.
I LIKE’em. Good job
In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.
Yes! And it will be quicker for you to whip a full set up, since you only have to cover two legs instead of four!Originally Posted by LowTech
I've had that same thought, and plan, for my Solo.
Guess I'm not the only one.
Two things would stop me, personally, from painting them:
1) I wouldn't want to risk interfering with the telescoping action of the legs. Right now my legs telescope down slick as a whistle, but I'm not sure how a coat of paint might impact the smoothness with which the sections slide under/over each other when I'm taking the stand down. (This was written before I looked up what "Cerakote" was to respond to Draco. After looking up Cerakote, I'm rethinking this response!)
2) I have zero creative talent so I'd fear that anything I might do PERMANENTLY to the legs might wind up being a hideous eyesore! The TENSA frame IS elegantly beautiful in its natural state...I wouldn't want to ruin that! With "skins" I can have my stand back to looking like it did fresh off the production line in the blink of an eye! I'm just risk aversive. Ask me how many tatoos I have?...zero, of course--because that's a major commitment(!), just like paint on my Tensa would be!
Cerakote sounds a lot more TENSA-friendly than regular paint would be...but, this is the opinion of someone who knows nothing about it...sheer conjecture! If that did work, it'd look way better than slipping fabric skins over the poles!!! And you wouldn't have to fool with taking them off at each tear-down and securing them back on each time you reassemble the stand (though it really only adds maybe a minute to the process). Mainly, it would LOOK way cooler than simply sleeving them in skins!
Last edited by Dublinlin; 04-13-2022 at 14:05.
Thanks, Cougarmeat! They were super quick and easy to whip up! I turned the Hexon wrong-side out so that it would be duller and more muted side of the fabric showing. I mean if I didn't want the metal of the legs glimmering in the sunlight, no sense in putting the shinier, brighter side of the fabric to the outside, either!I LIKE’em. Good job
Backyard testing my new stand for the second night in a row in the rain. What a great set up. Had the foot anchor rip out on me due to bad placement but learned from that mistake. Still building trust in it again lol have to check every once in a while it's still in the ground. But learned you need to hear and feel that orange screw grip and bite into the dirt. But really enjoying the stand so far. Was interesting trying to get the continuous Ridgeline for the tarp set up but no different than if I had used trees just a bit tight is all
Stand works well with the blackbird XLC and the thunderfly tarp. Just wish I could get up higher off the ground. I constantly feel like my underquilt is dragging on the ground when I know it isnt
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Stand works well with the blackbird XLC and the thunderfly tarp. Just wish I could get up higher off the ground. I constantly feel like my underquilt is dragging on the ground when I know it isn’t.
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Back yard testing is definitely the way to go! Valhalla, have you tried shortening the strap that connects the two V’s along the ground? I think as you bring the points of the two V’s (where the frame rests on the ground) closer to each other, your hammock will ride higher off the ground. I keep my ground strap pretty long because I have short legs and prefer my hammock close to the ground…but if I shorten that ground strap, my hammock sits higher above the ground.
One of the things I love about my Tensa is that once I got it dialed in to the perfect ridgeline and ground strap length for my hammock, there’s never been any fiddling or guesswork since! Hanging from trees always involves some fiddling because each hang is different…but, hanging from my Tensa, since I leave my ridgeline and ground strap set when tearing down, each hang is fiddle free! Hanging from my Tensa is the same every time…so it’s quicker and easier than starting from scratch on a different set of trees each time!
Last edited by Dublinlin; 05-06-2022 at 16:47.
I have tried shortening it. I think I could probably fiddle with it more, the trade off was having my head touch the bar when I shorten it. As it is my head is about 1-2 inches from the bar. I think if I bring it in any further I'll end up rubbing against it
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Oh. That makes sense. Just out of curiosity, are you hanging your XLC directly on its continuous loops (ie not using suspension straps or Whoopie slings at all…just the bare continuous loops over the Tensa ends)?
(I can’t tell for sure by your photos because of the tarp…but it looks to me like maybe your hammock is further from the ends of the Tensa frame than mine is. I hang mine straight off the continuous loops. I don’t use any suspension straps like I’d need for hanging from trees. But, then you’d have to use the tarp extensions for your Tensa because otherwise your ends will be too close together for your ThunderFly tarp—but, your hammock will be higher off the ground!)
Last edited by Dublinlin; 05-06-2022 at 21:26.
Valhalla, it just dawned on me that if you are using your XLC’s original suspension, you probably don’t have suitable continuous loops to hang your hammock directly onto the Tensa, thus bypassing using your webbing straps or whoopies. Thinking back, I just remembered that I long ago added secondary continuous loops to my XLC that had whoopies and to my daughter’s Blackbird that had buckle straps. When hanging from trees, I prefer Dutch’s Spiders over Warbonnet’s Amsteel whoopies or webbing buckles, so I’ve larks-headed continuous loops around the knobby ends of my Warbonnet hammocks. You don’t have to even remove the original straps or whoopies to do that. It’s cheap and easy to do and then you can use either the continuous loops with a different suspension set up (Dutch’s spiders from trees; directly onto the Tensa with no suspension straps) or you can use the original Warbonnet suspension. Simply adding continuous loops gives you more options!
I’m posting pics of the end of my daughter’s Blackbird with a blue continuous loop added in addition to its current buckle straps (actually those are Dutch buckles rather than the original Warbonnet buckles) and of my XLC with a silver continuous loop added in addition to its original whoopie sling. If you made or bought a pair of 12-15 inch continuous loops from Dutch or from Jared and larks-headed them over the knobby ends of your XLC and then hung the continuous loops directly over the ends of your Tensa, your hammock would be higher off the ground without having to narrow your base up as much. I’d go with the longer version of continuous loops, not the shorter. You WOULD have to use the Tensa tarp extension set, then, though, if you were going to hang your tarp on your Tensa.
Below is a picture of my hang last weekend. I was using my 11 foot Trail Lair (which is MUCH stretchier than my XLC, so it always tends to hang lower to the ground than my XLC would if hung from the same place). Because I WANT my hammock at comfortable sitting level and I’m short (4’ 11”), I have the base of my Tensa spread really wide—much wider than I’d need to spread it to still avoid bumping into the frame when stretched out diagonally in the hammock. I posted this photo, though, to show you how HIGH the ends of the hammock are when you hang directly from the continuous loops. If you zoom in on the red circled areas, you can see how the fabric of the ends of my hammock comes right up to the top of the Tensa poles. That’s how you can gain another three or four inches of height off the ground for your hammock without narrowing your base. Hanging straight from a pair of continuous loops will shorten the ridgeline length of your Tensa set up…thus you WILL need to use the Tensa tarp extension set to use your 11 foot ThunderFly…OR you could do what I did this last trip and hang your tarp between two trees and just set your Tensa up underneath. YES… I DO prefer hanging from my Tensa EVEN when I have suitable trees on hand!
Looking again at your hammock hanging from the Tensa and comparing it to mine hanging from my Tensa, I think you could easily get your hammock about four inches higher off the ground by adding continuous loops to the ends of your hammock and hanging the loops directly into your Tensa frame. This would not require you to narrow your base…just require you to shorten the Tensa ridgeline (if you’re even USING the Tensa ridgeline—you don’t need it with your XLC since it has its own structural ridgeline). So, your hammock would sit higher without your head touching the Tensa frame. No one wants their head rubbing the frame!
Your hammock:
My hammock:
BTW, I use a ThunderFly with my Tensa, too. Great tarp!!!
Last edited by Dublinlin; 05-06-2022 at 21:28.
If you have some suspension- as opposed to just hanging from the hammocks continuous loops- and your head contacts the stand- you can also lengthen the head end suspension a few inches while tightening the foot end an equal amount. This might land you in more of a sweet spot where neither head nor foot contacts the stand.
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