Reverse Prairie Travois Hammock Stand?

[mercury]

I just moved to a house with no convenient hanging spot so I started researching my hammock stand options. The Prairie Travois really caught my attention, both for it's elegant simplicity and because it can hang several people at once.

Really the only thing I don't like about the Prairie Travois solution is the long poles required. I'd like to be able to transport my hammock stand occasionally, and dealing with 21' poles seems like too much trouble. Especially since I'd like to build it out of the traditional lodgepole pine which is plentiful here in central Oregon.

The Prairie Travois got me wondering though if I couldn't make a similar design, but in reverse. The 3 poles would be lashed much closer to the ground and the hammocks would be fastened to the long outward-extending ends of the poles instead of the center of the poles. I believe this could work, and if it did, I think it would shorten the required pole length considerably. Unfortunately, my imagination surpasses my higher math skills so I haven't crunched the numbers on this idea.

Does anyone have any comments? Perhaps even some numbers to demonstrate how this could work or why it couldn't?

[SinisterMinister]

Is this what you're thinking of?
http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ght=tensegrity

[MacEntyre]

Sinister is correct... an upside down Prairie Travois with structural integrity is essentially a Tensegrity Stand for Multiple Hammocks.

The Tensegrity Stand uses 12' struts. We have not done a load calculation, so it is not clear what configuration is best, or at what point it becomes unsafe.

Since ours failed, I recommend making certain that the struts are kept on the vertical side of 45 degrees.

- MacEntyre

[gargoyle]

with the size of the poles and struts with either the travois or tensigrity stand, it limits its packability.

If you really want a stand that is more transport friendly, try the bamboo stand by Turtlelady. HERE

[mercury]

I did check out the Tensegrity Stand and Turtlelady's bamboo stands before my initial posting. Both have advantages, but I was hoping to avoid all the tie-downs of the Tensegrity Stand and also to hang multiple hammocks which can't be accomplished with the bamboo stands.

If I wanted to mess with tie-downs, a simple bipod stand would work well. I'm hoping for a design that allows stable setup on hard surfaces where tie-downs are less practical.