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  1. #1
    Senior Member XTrekker's Avatar
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    Arrow New Bridge Hammock

    So I have been contemplating about DIYing a Bridge Hammock since the summer and Hikingdad's recent tutorial on how he builds his bridge hammock gave me the push needed to start designing one for myself. Although, his design was great and very well thought out, I had a slightly different version in mind. egrant5329 had posted a great thread about how he incorporated the triangles of his BH into the actual lay area. I really liked this idea because of two things. It adds storage area for gear inside the hammock and it allows for a much shorter bridge hammock. In his design he utilized both head and foot ends of the hammock to lay in. You can see a picture of his hammock here.
    For my BH I decided that I only wanted to utilize the foot end for the lay area and leave the head end for gear storage. The first version that I made about a month ago was great but much longer than I wanted. I had a 7" curve depth with about a 68" curve. The head end spreader bar was 36" with a 30" spreader bar for the foot end. I made sure that the sides of the triangles at each end were equal to the spreader bar width to limit the forces exerted on the spreader bar.

    This new version is much shorter with a 60" curve length and a 6" curve depth. I used my curve generator that I posted here for the curve. The head end spreader bar is 36" and the foot end is 30". The sides of the triangles are supposed to be the same length as the spreader bars but due to an error in reading the correct measurements, I cut the fabric short about 6". So the head end needed 4" of fabric added on to make all 3 sides of the triangle equal. I left the foot end alone because the forces of that triangle arnt as bad as the head end and wont be as big a factor for being short 2" on the triangle sides compared to the 30" spreader bar.

    The correct length of the blank is 10'6" with a width of 52" at the head end and 50" at the foot end. The first version was 52" at the head end and 45" at the foot end. Both versions feel fine but if I ever remake another one I will go with 48" width at the foot end. I will upload a detailed diagram of the hammock dimensions later on in this thread.

    I decided to see if my 18oz of 850fill Goose-Down Full-Size DIY UQ that I made for my gather end hammocks, would fit this Bridge hammock. It did with some slight modifications to the suspension. I added some elastic webbing near the foot end, about 8" down from the end of the UQ. This allowed me to hook the UQ to the foot-end spreader bar. I also added some short pieces of 1/8" shock cord at the head end to hook to the UQ and hold it in place better. So far this is working great but wont know for certain till I get a few nights in it. I plan to add a ridge line to the hammock soon so that when I go to put a bugnet on it, it will hold it up off the hammock. I measured the length of the hammock while hung and got a measurement of 112" and 117" if the hammock is pulled taught. I used mule tape for the webbing on the sides and in the triangles at each end. Sorry I didnt get more close up pics, my camera died soon after shooting some video footage of it. I got like 3 pics and the rest had to be screen captures of the video footage which poor quality. I will upload more pics in this thread soon of detailed close ups. The final weight of this hammock is 274g (9.1oz) with the spreader bars weighing in at 276g (10.4oz). Total weight on scale is 552g. If I ever make another one I am pretty sure I can shave off another 2~3oz without any loss of comfort or change in lay. The hammock fabric is 1.1oz pure finished ripstop nylon in MARPAT camo. I managed to find matching webbing for it but didnt get the pics of that yet. Suspension is just two 6' UCRs.

    This thing is so comfortable that I think I may never go back to regular hammocks unless I am desperate to shave weight; but that may not be a factor soon with my next DIY project. Will hold off for now and not spill the beans on that project yet.
    Would really like to thank GrizzlyAdams, hikingdad, and egrant5329 for their tutorials and design ideas they shared. They all helped so much. egrant5329 also helped me out alot and I would really like to give him alot of thanks for responding to all my questions. Its people like this that make this place what it is.

    I would love to hear any feedback and/or questions. Ill be sure to get some more pics uploaded soon and the schematics of this hammock as well as the next version that I hope to build one day. I will be adding a partial top-cover and bugnet to this hammock soon and I will share the details of that here as well.



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  2. #2
    Senior Member nuttysquirrel's Avatar
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    Beautiful! Where did you get the metal buckles shown attaching the spreader bars?

  3. #3
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    Sweetness. Pure sweetness.

  4. #4
    Senior Member XTrekker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by nuttysquirrel View Post
    Beautiful! Where did you get the metal buckles shown attaching the spreader bars?
    Thanks nuttysquirrel. I made the buckles out of 1/8" x 1" aluminum stock.

  5. #5
    Senior Member XTrekker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by stalker42 View Post
    Sweetness. Pure sweetness.
    Thanks stalker. Re-drawing the diagram now. I'll upload it tonight.

  6. #6
    Senior Member XTrekker's Avatar
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    Here is the basic design of the bridge hammock. The dashed lines in the diagram are just showing some of the changes in the future design. Please pardon the spelling in the diagram.

    I only got to lay in it for about an hour but this thing was so dang comfortable. Hoping to test it out next weekend and see how well I sleep in it. At 522g (18.4oz), it is alittle heavier than some of my hammocks, but not much more. Its actually lighter than my last hammock posted here which weighed 544g(18.5oz). Granted that hammock was made with 40d rather than the 30d that this Bridge hammock is made with. If I ever make a third one, it will be about 3oz lighter than this one.

    Anyways, hope this helps out someone who is interested in trying out bridge hammocks.

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  7. #7
    Senior Member Ratdog's Avatar
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    Nicely done, well thought out and well executed as usual.

    Would appreciate seeing pics or vid of someone in the hammock to better understand impact of triangles.

  8. #8
    Senior Member XTrekker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ratdog View Post
    Nicely done, well thought out and well executed as usual.

    Would appreciate seeing pics or vid of someone in the hammock to better understand impact of triangles.
    The triangle at the foot end is where my feet go but the triangle at the head end is not used as part of the lay area. It will be where i store some of my gear.

    Stole some stills from some test footage I recorded. Uploaded one of them for ya..Quality is poor but I will get better pics soon.


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  9. #9
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    Nice!

    Does the head end pocket need to be deeper to keep items from sliding down into you or does it sag more when loaded?

  10. #10
    Senior Member XTrekker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gmcttr View Post
    Nice!

    Does the head end pocket need to be deeper to keep items from sliding down into you or does it sag more when loaded?
    Thanks

    Yeah the pictures are deceiving. Both triangles sag down quite abit when weight is added. The heels of my feet have very little pressure on them compared to my ankles because of the spreader bar. I plan to make the foot end triangle more narrow next time to put more pressure on my heels and equal things out more. In the diagram you can see this reflected in the future design represented by the dashed lines.
    The head end triangle will dip down alot when loaded with even a small amount of weight and is perfect for storing gear. I have a 44-45" chest and 52" of fabric on a 36" spreader bar has little to no shoulder squeeze for me comparative to a regular hammock. After rolling the fabric around the mule tape it ends up being around 49.5". If you have a wider chest then I recommend reducing the fabric width an inch or two. Drawback is as you reduce the width, you also decrease the stability. It starts to get real tippy.

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