Hi all!

After my last solo dirtbike/hiking trip through a large swathe of Australia, I came to the conclusion that I'm just completely over tents. It seems like I spend half my time putting them up, taking them down, drying out my gear after the rivers appear in them at Cradle Mountain etc etc. I was looking at bivy sacks, but after stumbling in here have now decided to try my hand at a DIY hammock. Still very early stages though, and at the moment the idea bubbling round in my head is along the lines of a double skin top loading HH asym copy, but I really like the Clark Jungle Hammock idea of having both a bug net and a weather shield (maybe an under pocket or two as well). All the same, the idea of multiple zips or velcro for attaching them has the potential to drive me nuts too.

So, I'm starting to wonder about the feasibility of use a few small rare earth magnets to do the attachments instead. If sewn into the hem of the hammock and separate netting and weather panels, they should pretty much centre themselves if you get them roughly in the right place, and by stacking the magnets one panel should just clip straight over the other.

The only problems I can see (apart from having your credit card wiped every time you get into it ), would be in getting the right strength magnets to balance holding strength with easy entry/exit. Also not too sure how the weight would work out since you're potentially using three sets of magnets, closely spaced enough to seal properly.

So, all opinions will be gratefully accepted - I'm still in two minds as to whether it a brilliant idea or just impractical (ie stupid ). I'll probably have a fair bit of time to mull it over before I actually have a base hammock and tarp to play with anyway - got to get to it and order some fabric.

Cheers,
Scott