Hi all,

I'm just starting to read about bridge hammocks, so take this with a grain of salt.

I don't hike with trekking poles, and I'm a gram counter, so I've been looking at ways to minimize the weight of the spreader bars. 4oz for carbon isn't bad, but what about an inflatable?

Intuitively, I think a 6" diameter tube should be stable in compression at 36" length. At least that's a ball park we can base some numbers on. Sew a shell from, say, 1osy nylon, or what ever you have left over from your hammock build. That has a surface area of just over half a square yard, so a pair will come in at about an ounce. Stick-on valves can be found under a half ounce. A bladder heat-sealed from poly film will round that out to about two ounces for the pair. So half the weight of carbon spreaders.

But that's not all there is to this.

A 6" diameter means you kind of get two spreaders, 6" apart, vertically. Put differently, imagine your spreader bar was a 36"x6" sheet of plywood. It seems like this could help reduce shoulder squeeze for a given spreader length. Increasing the diameter to 8", lowering the virtual second spreader by another 2", adds about a half ounce to the pair. Having that lower spreader will likely let you reduce the length of the spreaders, saving weight on the spreaders, and by having less fabric in the hammock body.

Two thinner poles in an X would have a similar effect. Not sure how the weight would work out on that.

I know Grizz played w/ lowering the spreader and adding a second suspension triangle and didn't find it effective. But I don't think he played w/ double spreaders.

Thoughts?