Bridge Hammock

**funbun** · 08-21-2007, 10:31

Okay guys, I'm still getting a lot of shoulder squeeze. I have a bridge hammock with 36 inch head spreader and 24 inch foot spreader. After laying in the hammock for about 2 hours, these linebacker shoulders are feeling the squeeze.

I fooled around with the ridge line and can probably tweak it a little more, but it seems useless as I am a side/fetal position sleeper. I can't bring my knees up.

Anyway, I think I'm going to make a small hammock as a dayhike hammock chair and go back to the ground for overnight trips.

**schrochem** · 08-21-2007, 10:41

Originally Posted by funbun

Okay guys, I'm still getting a lot of shoulder squeeze. I have a bridge hammock with 36 inch head spreader and 24 inch foot spreader. After laying in the hammock for about 2 hours, these linebacker shoulders are feeling the squeeze.

I fooled around with the ridge line and can probably tweak it a little more, but it seems useless as I am a side/fetal position sleeper. I can't bring my knees up.

Anyway, I think I'm going to make a small hammock as a dayhike hammock chair and go back to the ground for overnight trips.

Are you getting shoulder squeeze laying on your side????

I would suggest a longer spreader and longer triangular suspension line.
Take that 36 out to 40-46" and the foot to 30-32 and try it again. Adjust the suspension lines to minimized the forces on the spreader.

**funbun** · 08-21-2007, 10:47

Originally Posted by schrochem

Are you getting shoulder squeeze laying on your side????

I would suggest a longer spreader and longer triangular suspension line.
Take that 36 out to 40-46" and the foot to 30-32 and try it again. Adjust the suspension lines to minimized the forces on the spreader.

No I get shoulder squeeze laying on my back. On my side, I can't get my knees up.

**GrizzlyAdams** · 08-21-2007, 10:56

Originally Posted by funbun

Okay guys, I'm still getting a lot of shoulder squeeze. I have a bridge hammock with 36 inch head spreader and 24 inch foot spreader. After laying in the hammock for about 2 hours, these linebacker shoulders are feeling the squeeze.

I fooled around with the ridge line and can probably tweak it a little more, but it seems useless as I am a side/fetal position sleeper. I can't bring my knees up.

Anyway, I think I'm going to make a small hammock as a dayhike hammock chair and go back to the ground for overnight trips.

Scott's right. Shoulder squeeze is mostly a function of spreader bar width. I'd try something wider before bagging the project.

Now sleeping fetal is a challenge. What you really want is to have the hammock sides pulled away also in the middle. You can do this I think with stakes...sew in something really sturdy to the webbing at the mid-point, and use that to pull a strong guyline out to a long and stiff stake.

So just imagine that the hammock body was like a large cot whose sides are held up by rigid poles, and are likewise held apart. Could this work if the cot was wide enough? If the answer is "yes", then you try to approximate the holding apart by wide spreader bars and stake-out lines. The cut of the fabric and webbing approximates the rigid poles holding up the sides.

Grizz

**funbun** · 08-21-2007, 11:00

Thanks, guy I'll try that.

Would wider spreader bars mean a more tippy hammock? Also, what about a trap? Would the tarp hit against those really wide spreader bars?

**TDunc** · 08-21-2007, 11:06

Originally Posted by GrizzlyAdams

...Now sleeping fetal is a challenge. What you really want is to have the hammock sides pulled away also in the middle. ....

Grizz

I am not working on this type (YET!) so I can not go try this thought out before asking... but, being a side sleeper, let me ask a question. What if the hammock had "wings".. Keep the original side seams in place just add a winged section (almost like a small storage area) on each side, under the hem that would facilitate the knees? Hope this was a little clearer than mud.

the winged section only being about two foot long on the bottom and come to a curved top up next to the hem.

**GrizzlyAdams** · 08-21-2007, 11:18

Originally Posted by funbun

Thanks, guy I'll try that.

Would wider spreader bars mean a more tippy hammock? Also, what about a trap? Would the tarp hit against those really wide spreader bars?

Yes, it would be tippier, although I don't know how long the spreader bars have to become before it is "too" tippy. There seems to be a fundamental tradeoff between stability and shoulder squeeze, as both are determined by the angle of the fabric from the shoulder to the spreader bar.

But yes, the poles hitting the tarp are going to be an issue. In mine, the 36" bar touches the tarp sides when I'm out of the hammock. I get another view inches of clearance once I'm in, but probably not as much as a foot. The next generation design we've been talking about with a lowered spreader bar will help that a lot --- you use a shorter spreader bar to get the same squeeze, and it's lower. The tippiness problem is reduced as well.

So as I talk though this, it seems to me that the lowered spreader bar version is the one you want to be looking at to get better spread without undo tippiness, and still fit under a tarp. Guess we'll have to make one guys, instead of just talking about it, or dreaming up equations about it

Grizz

**GrizzlyAdams** · 08-21-2007, 11:21

Originally Posted by 4D's

I am not working on this type (YET!) so I can not go try this thought out before asking... but, being a side sleeper, let me ask a question. What if the hammock had "wings".. Keep the original side seams in place just add a winged section (almost like a small storage area) on each side, under the hem that would facilitate the knees? Hope this was a little clearer than mud.

any way you could sketch this and post the picture?

Lots of silt in the river today

Grizz

**TDunc** · 08-21-2007, 11:37

PLEASE don't laugh at the sketch.. but the red area is where the wing/pouch/loose material may be....

The first view is the end view and the second is the top view. BTW what do you use when doing a sketch that works well with the forum..I did one in a word doc and it was too large..

**GrizzlyAdams** · 08-21-2007, 13:02

Originally Posted by 4D's

PLEASE don't laugh at the sketch.. but the red area is where the wing/pouch/loose material may be....

The first view is the end view and the second is the top view. BTW what do you use when doing a sketch that works well with the forum..I did one in a word doc and it was too large..

living in a Mac world, I had to soothe the machine down when it encountered the evil .bmp file format. All is well now and the image is converted to one I can see.

I make figures in Powerpoint, then do a screen capture (which gives me .png). Sometimes I bring up the .png, other times I convert first to .jpg.

If I understand this, the wings would be something like cutting ovals out of the side of the hammock and attaching socks.

If I have that right, it would require more courage with sewing than I have. That fabric is bearing load, which means that the cut edge would have to be re-enforced to essentially carry the weight around the oval. It also occurs at the narrowest part of the body (which might be helped if this were the over-riding design goal by a shallower cut, and/or wider body (as Scott has recently mentioned).

I've been fine on my side, curling my knees slightly. Any more than that is fighting the fabric tension.

Grizz