Suggestions for my hammock project

[KristianDenmark]

Hello there!

I'm looking for suggestions on how to approach an idea that I have.

Every year, we have a big local student event around a small lake (boats racing, lots of fun). The recent years, however, it's been very crowded and difficult to find a good spot to sit. Having quite a lot of trees around the lake, I figured why not make some sort of second floor out of ropes and some mesh/webbing/nets, hanging from the trees?

And this idea has lead me here

Basically the outline is something along the following:

• Carry around 5 persons + a small backpack for each, I'm guessing 5*(180+10) = 950 pounds.
• Only a floor, no walls/ceiling.
• Rectangular shape, pretty large area, maybe 12ft by 5ft.
• Suspended between 2 big trees in a height of probably 9ft.
• The one I'm most nervous about: I'd like for other people to sit underneath it.

I do a bit of tree climbing, so I'm familiar with rope load, knots and the like.
My idea is to make a basic grid of climbing rope (making cells of maybe 2.5x3ft, then fill the cells with mesh/webbing/net. I figure I'll make 4 anchor points (one for each corner) and fasten them in the two trees (2 in each tree, spread out to create balance).

I've made a very crude drawing of the idea:


I think that's all. If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments, please go ahead

Thanks for all replies!

[gmcttr]

The first problem I see is that without the "grid" being rigid, it will act as a hammock and everyone will slide toward the center.

[kehlopolis]

Cool idea but i agree with the previous. you will have to make some part of the sitting area rigid or it will sag under load.

A cheap option might be to make the black lined portions out of 2x4. (maybe with even fewer sections than that) then line the top of that with your rope system.

This option would not be very portable unless you got a little fancy with the 2x4 connections.

[KristianDenmark]

Cool idea but i agree with the previous. you will have to make some part of the sitting area rigid or it will sag under load.

A cheap option might be to make the black lined portions out of 2x4. (maybe with even fewer sections than that) then line the top of that with your rope system.

This option would not be very portable unless you got a little fancy with the 2x4 connections.

Yeah I think I know what you mean. I think I would rather set up 5 ordinary hammocks than start using solid materials.

I'm very inspired by this picture


It does seem to sag a bit, but still very much fulfill its purpose. This doesn't seem suspended, but rather like two tightened ropes between trees with a net between the ropes. Do you think the ropes are fastened with special tightening equipment or might ordinary flat tape-line and knots do the trick?

[FLRider]

You could probably get away with that if you managed to tension the lines in your "checkerboard" pattern, raising them above the "cells". That would probably wind up working something like a bridge hammock, but calculating the tension forces on the lines are way above my pay grade in math. Not sure what kind of fudge factor you'd need to assure safety of the occupants (and those beneath them).

But, also, that would wind up requiring twelve fairly-regularly spaced trees. Don't know if you have that available...

[gmcttr]

Sorry to be a "Debbie Downer" here and I'll go away after this post, but here's the scenario I see playing out with the big net in your photo.

You get to the event ahead of time, carefully pick the trees and set up the net in a way that you are certain has enough safety factor to hold your 5 people safely. The crowds show up and despite your best efforts, half way through the event, several uninvited students think your setup is cool and climb aboard. A short time later a few more climb up and the situation gets completely out of hand. The next day, the local papers report on the number of injured students caused by the whole thing collapsing onto the crowd below (or maybe just the few that fell off).

[KristianDenmark]

Sorry to be a "Debbie Downer" here and I'll go away after this post, but here's the scenario I see playing out with the big net in your photo.

You get to the event ahead of time, carefully pick the trees and set up the net in a way that you are certain has enough safety factor to hold your 5 people safely. The crowds show up and despite your best efforts, half way through the event, several uninvited students think your setup is cool and climb aboard. A short time later a few more climb up and the situation gets completely out of hand. The next day, the local papers report on the number of injured students caused by the whole thing collapsing onto the crowd below (or maybe just the few that fell off).

Yeah that is one of my biggest worries. I'm starting to lean more towards setting it up away from the crowd, but slightly higher up, so we'll still have a nice view.

Now I'm just looking for a good type of net in my area.