Multi Hammock Stand - Any ideas?

[biggameken]

I'm looking for a portable hammock stand design that will hold multiple hammocks. I live in a subdivision with no trees and so there is no way for my two sons and I to test out our gear at home. I've been experimenting with 3" schedule 40 pvc and have come up with a cube shaped structure that stands about 7' off the ground and is about 11' long. We call it the "Hammock Nest".

There is space enough in The Nest to hang 5 hammocks (one on each of the four sides, and one diagonally across the middle). The only problem is the structure can barely handle that much weight

I'd love to hear if anyone else has any ideas. I need something I can disassemble when it's not in use in our back yard. The current structure isn't as steady as I'd like. I'm open to any and all suggestions.

On a side note, I'm a Scoutmaster and would love to have some sort of structure we could breakdown and place in our Troop trailer for use at locations where there aren't trees. We have more and more boys in our troop converting to hammocks.

[Catavarie]

Ask ye shall recieve...

http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ght=tensegrity

Certainly not the most portable though.

Also there is a older thread on Treeless Options with lots of good ideas.

[biggameken]

Good info Catavarie. I see several good ideas for hanging one hammock in the links you included; but any ideas for a multiple hammock stand? I suppose I could build multiple single hammock stands, but I was hoping to get away from that.

Keep the ideas flowing. If I can get a picture of my Hammock Nest tomorrow I will post it to this thread. It might spur some ideas.

Thanks again Catavarie!

[Catavarie]

Video showing Macintire's stand with 3 hammocks attached.

[HighlandHorde]

One thing that I have seen (but not tried) one of the nearby Scout Venturer Companies do is use the Turtle Lady's Hammock stands. With 3 of the "tri-pods" you can hang 3 hammocks. You just set up the stands in a triangle.They tried setting up in a square for 4 hammocks but it wasn't as stable. 3 worked great.

[WV]

As seasoned experimenter with tensegrity stands, I'd suggest you follow HighlandHorde's suggestion, and look into TurtleLady's stand. Tensegrities are intriguing, but the long spars needed must also be extremely strong, and assembly is complicated. TurtleLady has noted that she should not have used "Bamboo" in the title of her thread. Her stand can be built with a wide variety of materials. I think something based on her ideas would be a good project for Scouts. Be careful, have fun, be prepared.

[lmoseley7]

Hammock stand 002.jpgThis might not help you for 3 hammocks, but it will definitely work for two. I was given an old trampoline frame by a friend that knows I can reuse anything you can throw away. I started thinking about putting together a stand for one hammock but when surveying the pieces of the trampoline frame the double hammock stand just kind of made itself in my head. I wanted to be able to put something together without welding, cutting or drilling and the attached photo shows the result. Since then I have added bolts in a couple of the attachment points to help with moving it around the yard. The key to this build was that the connection points of the trampoline frame were square which prevented the uprights from rotating too much. A little rotation was actually helpful to have you hanging over the ground and not a pipe underneath you. Tarps would have to have a pretty short ridgeline to work over this stand however.