Discuss - Dual Mode Bridge Hammock

[GrizzlyAdams]

At least two bridges w net and tarps and maybe one standard for my 13 yr old daughter and just to hang in. Youngans can do with less.If all three of us camp we use a tent. Motherly instincts won't allow wife to be seperate from daughter at night. Can't see rountinely getting prop spaced trees to hang 3 hammocks close enough for the wife's comfort. So bridges are for wife and I when daughter stays with G parents.

OK, not a lot of time to experiment suggests going with tried and true. A basic bridge body is easy. Where things get exciting is spreader bars and bug net. Spreaders are a solved problem using tent poles from questoutfitters, relatively inexpensive and easy to integrate into a bridge hammock.

Bugnet....well I'll tell you, if the idea is to get something together quickly and surely you might consider making a "wrap-around" bugnet. Just a matter of using enough netting...think a really long tube going past the suspension triangles, with channels at the ends, with drawcord so that they can be cinched closed. Maybe even sewn closed at the end except for a hole for the suspension line to get through. A zipper in the middle to get you in and out. A car camping solution to be sure, but you're car camping, right?

Forgot to ask if your camo tarp is silnylon.

No, not sil. Used to be sold by Sportsman Guide, but they haven't been offering them now for over a year.

Grizz

[tasthree]

Both types of camping three season for now. We live a hand full of miles from where the AT passes and a gazillion other places here in NC to camp. We go off roading in 4x4,mt biking as well as hiking. Wife and I want to try the NC AT section someday. I want to try a cross county trek thru the Nantahala Wilderness area thats down the road from me. It goes from steep to steeper. Not very many places to pitch a tent off the trails in the bush. Hammock solves that problem. So if I make something I'm going all the way. I'm going to combine features from your bridge and DMB then add my own twist. If my ideas don't work the hammocks will be built close enough to use as you do. If they work out as I hope Ill try to post some pictures somehow. I need to finish up my collapsible wood burning stove made out of soup cans. Then my dual purpose cooking pot bear can made out of this weird military alum container I found at the flea market. The Nat wild area is also a bear sanctuary. Thanks for your time.

[bushmonkey]

Has anyone tried building a DMB but with asymmetrical ends for when it is in gathered end mode?

I was thinking for when hanging with it in half bridge mode your legs could lay a bit flatter but then you would have a slight twist. I think I am going to have build one myself and find out once my money issues start to resolve themselves.

[Ramblinrev]

My experience with the DMB is probably not to be universalized, but I found the gathered end mode to be narrow, confining and atogethered unusable. I am not sure a hybrid hang would help in that regard.
I have, in fact had the gathered ends under tension while in bridge mde and found the added support of the ends to be very nice. I think I ust have tried a hybrid hang when I was playing with the hammock but I don't remember the results. At present, this hammock has been retired as the bridge mode is the only option I can use, even with the BEEP added (Bottom Entry/Exit Portal). If I am going to be using a bidge then I might as well simply go with a bridge and save myslef some weight and complxcity.