Hammocks: neatfreak friendly

[AduroNox]

I've been thinking: you know those people who are absolutley obsessed with keeping their tents dirt free? I'm sure you've met one, the 'shake the tent out for fourth five minutes' guy, or maybe the 'one speck of dirt on your shoes and I'll murder you' guy. Either way, they grind my gears.

To add insult to injury, I walk barefoot as much as possible (shoes are only good for when your feet need a rest), and thus tend to track dirt into my ground-dweller buddies' tents.

But then I go back to my hammock, notably free from dirt, and I wonder why the neatfreak doesn't catch on...

-Aduro

[nicholasyax]

I know a guy that uses his air mattress pump with an attachment to vacuum up the sand in his tent (when car camping). Oh, wait, that was me.

[oldgringo]

I hate floors in tents, which is just one of the reasons I love my canvas tents so much. Before I get jumped, I hang in both of them.

[MacEntyre]

I invented the Molly Mac Gear Box just so that I could say, "With hammock camping, nothing but the soles of your shoes will touch the ground!"

It's the neat freak in me!

- MacEntyre

P.S. Dave, nothing wrong with hanging in a big canvas tent! It's about time someone found the best use for one.

[Redwood Guy]

I invented the Molly Mac Gear Box just so that I could say, "With hammock camping, nothing but the soles of your shoes will touch the ground!"

What I would love to see you need to do is make one smaller... and with lighter weight material...

I don't need something that will hold 30 gallons LOL

Just something to get my pack off the ground. It would have to hold no more than 10 pounds. Sleeping gear would not be in the pack so it would just be the pack with water, cloths and such.

Sure, I could just string up a normal back in a bear-bag style method... but by having it string up horizontally it would make it easier to worth with.

Use some super UL material (cubon fiber maybe) with some SUL suspension material. No way that Amsteel would be necessary... to heavy and to high of a weight limit for this application.. but maybe zing-it?? not sure of SUL string.

And compression size would be a huge-must-have. It would have to pack up super small.


A good idea I have had for awhile... you should work on this

[KerMegan]

hmm- I knocked out a proto-type clone of this (from a 5x4 piece of Ripstop I had in the box-using paracord) it is a great idea- after I found that dropping my shoes into the Taco shell let it pull the quilt away from my backside... just mounted it along the hammock on the side I don't use to enter/exit. folds up into a packet smaller than my fuzzy hat but bigger than my bandana, if that helps any.
Thanks to MacEntyre for posting idea and videos.!
KM (who fancies herself something of a seamstress..)

[MacEntyre]

What I would love to see you need to do is make one smaller... and with lighter weight material...

I estimate 30 gal, but that may be misleading. I believe you and I had the same thing in mind. It is 4' overall length, just barely big enough to put a pack in. It holds lots and lots of small things... or one pack. I think it is just right!

and with lighter weight material...

...and a heavier price, eh?

... but maybe zing-it??

That's what I use...

One day I will get some Cuben and figure out how to work with it. Meanwhile, it sounds like you need to take some time and turn out a 1 oz Cuben bikini pack hammock with a spider web suspension! Be sure to post pics!

just mounted it along the hammock on the side I don't use to enter/exit.

That's how I like to hang it. If you shift it toward the foot end of your hammock, you can put your legs right over it on your diagonal lie. If you hang low like me, you can hang the gear box just barely off the ground.

Who is the opposite of a Neat Freak?

Anyone ever look under Stormcrow's tarp? It's like a bear got into his pack!

Then look under WV's tarp. Sometimes he brings lots of things to show folks, and it looks like a yard sale!

All in fun, Adam and Dave... (they's my friends!)

- MacEntyre

[Redwood Guy]

As the saying goes.... "loosing pounds is cheap, loosing ounces is expensive" ...

For those of us that long-distance or thru-hike we already live an expensive life-style (can easily spend $5,000 to do the PCT, not counting gear) so another c-note here and there is just part of our existence.

So, yeah, CF may not be cheap, but the weight and compact size is oh'so worth it.

I still think you need to make something smaller...

The SEOP would not need as much material, and could probably reduce it by close to an ounce, bringing it down to 3.5-4oz.

I think the overall mass of material (ridgeline length) would not need to be as long as it is (4 feet based on your video). A ULA-Circuit is 28 inches tall. A ULA CDT is 20 inches tall. So, by reducing the ridgeline length by almost 50 percent it would stand to reason that you could reduce the overall weight by about 30% (more?) and thus bring it down to the 2.8-3.2 oz range, if not more. And that is still using silnylon.

If you could hit the 2oz range, using silnylon, that I think most of us here would agree would be awesome, and highly reduce the need to use CF.

If I thought my ULA packcover could hold the weight, I might just go that route... because realistically, that is exactly the size of what we need.

John

[WV]

Who is the opposite of a Neat Freak?

Anyone ever look under Stormcrow's tarp? It's like a bear got into his pack!

Then look under WV's tarp. Sometimes he brings lots of things to show folks, and it looks like a yard sale!

All in fun, Adam and Dave... (they's my friends!)

- MacEntyre

Guilty as charged! At least I'm in good company!

I'm working on it, though, because I acknowledge the wisdom of your approach. I sewed a tyvek floor (very small) into my winter camping hammock tent so I wouldn't lose small objects in the snow. Now I can just put my MMP under the foot end of the hammock. In summer, I've found that the Aarn pack balance pockets can hang from the tarp ridgeline, making other ridgeline organizers unnecessary. The items I pack in them tend to be things I might need to access from the hammock, too. There are mesh pockets in the bottom end corners of my tarp that hold water bottles (and the weight of the bottles stabilizes the tarp, making end tie-outs for the doors unnecessary except in typhoons). For me it's just a matter of having a ready place to store each item in camp and an easy routine for unpacking that gets things where they belong. I do so much experimenting with new gear that the routine has suffered along the way, but the Perfect Hammock (for me ), when I develop it, will have answered all storage questions along with providing the most comfortable night's sleep imaginable. It's not as far off as it used to be, too.

Meanwhile, I still need to shake the leaves and bark out of my hammock every now and then.

[MacEntyre]

So, by reducing the ridgeline length by almost 50 percent it would ...

...be very difficult to put a 20" or 28" pack inside.

The items I pack in them tend to be things I might need to access from the hammock, too.

That's another good thing about the way KerMegan hangs her gear hammock.