Advice on bridge hammock inside a canned ham style camper?

[Redpath]

I have an 1972 Serro Scotty Sportsman camper that originally came with a bridge type hammock above the normal sleeping area. It has curtain type rod holders on the sides of the camper, and I tried to run large wood rods across and sewed some heavy fabric to make a hammock to go across. It worked a few nights, but we had a fail when one of the kids who had poison ivy was scratching and tossing and turning all night and the wood flexed just enough to release from the holders and send him crashing down on us. He barely woke up and didn't even remember it in the morning... I don't know if some sort of metal rod would be better or if there is any other way someone has done this. I don't want to drill all the way through the camper skin, It's kind of a classic trailer. Any advice would be appreciated.

[olddog]

I have pondered hanging my hammock in the fifth wheel but my wife isn't too keen on me 'messing up her trailer'. One of my thoughts was to wedge some turned wood porch columns in between ceiling and floor to support a chain link fence toprail. Something similar to a TL or TD stand. The columns would just have notches at the top ends to support the toprail. With the hammock attachments on the toprail the compression load would be on the toprail and not pulling in on the sidewalls of the trailer. Attaching the columns to the sidewalls would have to be considered but if wedged in tightly between floor and ceiling they would only have the vertical load through their length. If you've ever had the skin or paneling off one of these trailers you know that there isn't a lot of structure in the framing. Good luck.