Good hammock for a bad hip & back

[Frolicking Dino]

As some know, I loss my mother two weeks ago due to complications of surgery. She had both advance Parkinson's and Alzheimer's so her life was challenging and I'm sure she is in a better place.

Since Granny-Dino is now frolicking on trails of gold, Papaw-Dino has time to do other things and can pursue more active things he wouldn't do before because Granny-Dino wasn't able. He will be 85 on Monday, but he is not your typical 85 yo man. Papaw-Dino and He-Dino just finished building a wheelchair ramp started to bring my mother home from the hospital (Papaw-Dino wanted to finish it saying he would need it when he was 100 or so ). Papaw-Dino worked He-Dino to exhaustion every day and Papaw-Dino was still going strong. Papaw-Dino can run circle around most of us.

I would like to take my Dad on an overnight backpacking trip - nothing too strenuous and preferably something with some fishing involved (he loved to fish before Granny-Dino got so ill). I know several places that would work. Dad has osteoporosis in his back (now under control with Boniva, but some vertebra damage was done before it was discovered) and a hip that sometimes gives him problems (likely arthritis but we won't know for sure until his doc does some test.)

So my question is - what type of hammock set-up would you guys and gals recommend for Papaw-Dino. He is a back and side sleeper who prefers a flattish pillow and a firm latex foam mattress. He is a fairly warm sleeper and not allergic to down. I have a BA, Thermarest Pro 4 and several Ridgerest. I can get a Walmart mat. I will custom make a hammock and hammock-tent for my Dad, but I can't decide if the hammock should be a Speer-type or a bridge-type. I don't think he would want to be zipped up inside his hammock (a bit claustrophobic) so the HH and Warbonnet aren't being considered.

[slowhike]

again, sorry for your loss my friend.
BTW... when i tried to use the WB link you provided, it said i didn't have permission.

about the hammock, i can't say much about the bridge hammocks since i only tired the JRB at trail days (as did you), but you may want to give some thought to the style i use, more tightly stretched w/ a softly inflated air mat.

i would just suggest making it slightly wider if you decide to try that type. mine is a little less than 50", but i think closer to 60" would give a new hammocker a more security.

you could probably try this w/ what you have if you already own a speer type hammock, using one of the thicker air mats you have.

if that style fits the comfort bill, then we can help you make it warm too. ...tim

[Frolicking Dino]

Thanks for the input, Slowhike. I removed the link - I forgot it was in a subscription forum at WB.

[Shadowmoss]

Sorry to hear of your loss. Yes, I'm sure she is indeed frolicking around if she is anything like you.

[GrizzlyAdams]

When my own father passed away, we knew it was a relief for him and release for his care-givers; we knew he had moved on to a much better place and that helps.

As for the hammocks...I'm the flip side of Tim, I have no experience with Speer type hammocks, all of mine is with HH and my DIY bridge hammocks.

The bridge can be hung at a level where to get into it you just sit down in the middle, then swing your legs over and lay back. There is not so much of the rotation of the hammock around the longitudal axis as you'd get with a non-bridge hammock; on the one hand it is steadier, on the other hand you have this "bar" of taut webbing just under the legs when you're sitting with the legs out the side. I wouldn't anticipate that this is a problem, but it is a fact.

I've slept in it with a 26" wide Exped inside of the hammock. It was comfortable, but the pad does move just as it does in any other hammock (except possibly Tim's "coffin" style ). I'm working on an undersupport that would hang from the corners and bring that mattress (or a 40" wide pad made from those Gossamer light pads) to conform beneath me, not inside the hammock. That will be more comfortable for sure. Details to be posted when and if the experiment is successful.

In the meantime though, my bridge was hanging outside when I saw this posting, so I grabbed a Thermarest ProLite 4 (I think those are all and the correct buzz words), and an Speer SPE, stuffed some clothing into the wings and took some pictures.

The SPE has 8 wings, but I used only the inner set. I think the outer ones if filled would just flop over onto the occupant. The wings fit just right to fill the space between me on the pad and the hammock sides. I'm quite comfortable on my back, and when I twist around to my side the wings protect my knees from touching the side of the hammock.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions.

Grizz

[Frolicking Dino]

Grizzly, I think the hammock you posted would work well for my Dad! I wonder if I could incorporate a pad sleeve into the bottom and put a sleeve on each side of the hammock to hold clothing or pad segments to assure warmth for shoulders, hips, arms and knees?

[GrizzlyAdams]

The JRB bridge hammock body is made of three pieces, with industrial strength seams running the long length. They've put a pad sleeve on, piggybacking onto those seams.

Otherwise concern has been raised in HF about sewing a stitch in the long direction on the bridge, because the material is quite taut and the thinking is that the stitch would weaken the fabric there. I've not tried, so I don't know. It would be the most straightforward approach. I'll leave it to those more experience with sewing to make that call.

The solution I'm trying is to make a separate piece where insulating things can be stuffed, and suspend it under the hammock, pulling it up to the body through cords that run from the piece to the ringed corners of the hammock.

To get the piece to conform uniformly to the shape of the body in the hammock I think you need to have uniform tension along the edges of that piece. So this afternoon I'm figuring to cut a rectangle of 1.1 oz material with very shallow "cat" curves on all sides so that a mat placed there will be tensioned up beneath the body properly. With your question I can see that you could put a pad sleeve with added tubes for extended insulation on that piece. I'll let you know how that works out.

Grizz

[GrizzlyAdams]

Grizzly, I think the hammock you posted would work well for my Dad! I wonder if I could incorporate a pad sleeve into the bottom and put a sleeve on each side of the hammock to hold clothing or pad segments to assure warmth for shoulders, hips, arms and knees?

I do believe my synapses mis-fired when I answered this question before. You see, I've already done something that could work.

In this post I describe how to embed a lower line of suspension webbing into the body of the hammock, with the idea of using lowered spreader bars. That experiment led me to see that

(lower spreader bars )== (wider spread of normal spreader bars)

and so embedding this webbing was sort of pointless. Indeed, for many hangs afterward I used the upper suspension lines, e.g.,




So the stitches on the lower suspension lines are getting all the force, and are positioned about where you'd position such for a pad pocket.

So the answer is yes, here is one way that will work, if you were to use parallel webbing lines and embed them in the side, with a pad pocket attached at these points. Now I don't know whether the embedded webbing lines are necessary, but I can see that if they were used this way then it ought to work.

Grizz

[Doctari]

I would second (3rd? 4th?) the bridge hammock, that's what I'm going to use when I reach 100 or so

(side note, oldest & soon to be dead son looking over my sholder said "WHEN? I thought you were past 100 already!")

Sorry for your loss, but then w Alzheimers, that loss was some time ago.

[GrizzlyAdams]

...

The solution I'm trying is to make a separate piece where insulating things can be stuffed, and suspend it under the hammock, pulling it up to the body through cords that run from the piece to the ringed corners of the hammock.
...
So this afternoon I'm figuring to cut a rectangle of 1.1 oz material with very shallow "cat" curves on all sides so that a mat placed there will be tensioned up beneath the body properly.
...
I'll let you know how that works out.

Mission accomplished, posted on the bridge hammock thread.

Grizz