turtlelady's Bamboo Stand

[QChan]

I'm excited to find out if your stand works kreecher!

[turtlelady]

LOL! I appreciate the vote of confidence, but you give me too much credit for knowing what I am doing! I am just the instigator, hoping you all will solve all my problems. I only eyeballed the 18" from the floor thing!
But there are two reasons for that general distance.

My original stand, made with EMT electrical conduit, had the limiters through eyebolts 9" from the ground. That low, they limited where I can set the stand in a cluttered area. With limiters higher up, I can set the legs in among things on the floor and it saves having to clear away so much. It also is high enough that the loops of the limiters, when the stand is folded, do not go below the legs and get all tangled up in the bottoms when I attempt to open the legs after transporting. For a stay at home model, all these things would not matter.

I have avoided eyebolts on the bamboo, but after seeing how hard it was to drill the holes for the strings to go through the bamboo on my newest prototype, I think the eyebolts could work on my thin diameter but relatively thick walled bamboo. I would choose much smaller eyebolts than I used originally so they fold up neatly.

Kreecher, your stand looks so much better than your description sounded! I totally love the Dr. Seussian look of your tri-pod stand! You win the prize for the most colorful stand to date! That will be hard to top for creative styling.

Admittedly, we did anticipate an entertaining video of your first weighted tests and hang in this, but I now have highest hopes that this works well for you. Looks like the legs have a real good chance of holding the weight. The ridge pole is harder to predict. It looks so thin! Can't wait for your report from tomorrow. The time difference should work in our favor! I am going to hurry to get to sleep my own sweet hammock now so that the morning will come faster! By the time I wake, maybe there will be a report from you. BTW, where in Europe do you live?

[Isheian]

Yeah, the coupler is cause I believe in redundancy. I hope it makes it more stable while still collapsible. Besides, it only adds $2. I am using 2 inch wide X 2 inch wide x 8' long redwood poles. They are about $7 a piece ($42 for six of them), the fence top pole is $11, coupler is $3, and the two angled end cap for the pole are $3.

Ideas?

[Aven]

Isheian, can you get 6x2x2 pieces of fir? Fir is a bit stronger than redwood and getting a 6' should save a few nickels off the total.

[shumway]

Isheian, I used 2x2x8 spruce from Lowes. They were around $3 each. I cut them down to 5'6" which seems to be a perfect height. I could search this forum for my total, but off the top of my head it was around $30. That's for the wood and the fence top rail. I already had the cordage so I didn't tally that in. Now I've added those end caps which adds a few bucks and my metal shackles would be worth a few more, but I already had them in my hardware collection in the garage.

[shumway]

I forgot to mention that I got a night out with the stand this weekend. I went to a local camp ground for a night. I was hoping to hang from trees - my stand is supposed to be my plan B, not the regular hang method. I was really going to test my new quilts. This place is in an area with very few large trees. What decent trees there are have so much dense underbrush that finding hanging trees is a real challenge. TL Stand to the rescue.

The end caps held on just fine with that gorilla tape friction fit. The shackles worked great for guiding the whoopie slings to the center. I was more comfortable with this arrangement than with my S hooks. Another change was to the padding I use on the tripod tops to protect my tarp. I cut some squares of CCF and tied them on top. They were easier to install than knee pads and worked really well. I still want to find a better way to hang the tarp though. The issue is 2 fold. First the tarp is really high above the hammock. The second is that the ends kind of fold downward and don't give as much coverage as if the tarp was hanging on a straight ridge line. Maybe I could solve both issues with a longer ridge pole. I got caught in a sudden thunderstorm and my gear stayed dry, so maybe it's not as big a deal as I think.

[jwright]

Shumway,
Glad the gorilla tape worked - that will really make it easy to add the caps for those who don't drill.
What if you set up the tripods so one leg was close to inline with the hammock but pointing away, could you add a 2 foot extension to this leg, with a notch in the top? You could then use a standard tarp ridge line running flat to suspend the tarp and the line would rest in the notch, supporting the tarp and would then angle to a stake out point a few feet away. The extension would give you the extra length the tarp needs - just thinking on the fly, sorry if has been tried, I'm just starting to work on incorporating the tarp.
jason

[kreecher]

It's been hanging for almost two hours now with 95kg (210lbs) in the hammock.

The legs: Because I have those little black anti-slip footsies on the bottom of the legs, a lot of pressure came onto ONE leg. Without them, the legs would've slid apart and put themselves in the optimal position. But then again, this also shows the footsies are taking a lot of pressure as well, making sure not everything goes onto the limiters. So I had to move the legs so that the stress would be more equally divided by putting pressure on the tensioner cords. Before I did this, one of them was bending quite a bit to the outside. After adjustments they're ok, but now bending a bit inwards. Bit weary about this bending... Also not sure how I'm going to do this setting up... I'll have to ask somebody to lay in my hammock so I can make adjustments I guess. I wish there was a better way. Any ideas are welcome.

The ridgepole: As expected, it's bending upwards. At 75kg my whoopie sling construction didn't do much. at 95kg I'm happy it's there.

Limiter cords: I risked leaving them where they were, because I only got to set up the system at 10pm. I have spent the other time finishing a sleeve (like a huge pillow case thing) to put in a down comforter as a car camping DIY UQ. And whilst I had the sewing machine out, I also made a pillow (double pillowcase, one to put in husks or something, the other to put the husk pillow inside with a piece of 2" nasa foam, very comfy ) since my partner has been eye-balling mine and I want to keep on sleeping on mine. I am however going to make the flux capacitor thing as well and going to put it at about 18" coz it does seem to be a good spot to put them. Since the bending also occurred a lot higher up, I may consider putting some there too.

Pictures: The stand under stress:


The ridgepole bending slightly:


Hang from the ground: Right now there's only 12cm or 4,7". This will be too low to be able to add a decent UQ. But then again, I won't weight it down 210lbs/95kg, since I only weigh 147,7lbs + UQ + top quilt. Still, I'll probably shorten my hanging loops a little to get more clearance.

Conclusions: I'm not completely happy about the bending of the legs. The part I was most worried about, the ridgepole, seems to be holding up best. I need to find a way to help these legs keep straighter for my peace of mind. I may have to add a couple of limiters instead of just one set. In hindsigth, I'm also not sure I'll let it hang through the night right now, because I don't want my legs to be permanently bent before I can fix them. I may take out the weight in an hour or so and start thinking about reinforcing the legs by using limiter cords on a couple strategic positions. Then if I'm happy, I'll do the weighting test again tomorrow, hopefully I'll be confident enough to let it go through the night.

@Turtlelady: I live in Belgium, which is located in between the Netherlands, France, Germany and Luxembourg.

[shumway]

Jason, I think I know what you're saying. That idea sounds pretty good except I think it would raise the tarp even further from the hammock. Right now I'm using a standard ridge line over the pad on both tripods, down to pegs about 4 feet from the tripod leg. It's just I have a really long tarp. Ultimately it would be nice to have it on the ridge pole to give the best coverage possible. Up high it make the space feel more roomy, which is really nice, but when that sideways rain starts it's nice to have it down low. The wheels are turning.. we'll see what comes of this

[titaniumfrycook]

Way to go Kreecher! That is one snazzy stand!

In my setup, a bow like that in the ridge pole wouldn't make me hesitate - I've slept in far worse. Unfortunately we've used different materials and only you can make the call.

How well do you feel the ridgeline connected to the ridge pole is working? Is it making a big difference? I like the idea now that I can see its purpose.

Good luck!
John