Indoor Brazillian Stand?

Hey all,

I'm looking to set up an indoor hammock as a sort of guest bed (and perhaps shifting to it as my primary bed if I really enjoy it). From the advice I've seen here, I'm thinking I'll go with a brazillian hammock, since that seems widely accepted as an excellent choice for an indoor, night-after-night hammock.

Right now I'm leaning towards one of the following:

http://www.seasidehammocks.com/FORTALEZA-p253.html

http://www.seasidehammocks.com/AMAZO...-XXL-p113.html

http://www.hammocks.com/hammocks/han...richammock.cfm

Anyone have advice between these? (feel free to suggest others!)

The thing is, I live in a rental house, and I can't really mount it to the ceiling or the walls, so I'd need a stand. I understand that there aren't any off the shelf stands suitable for this purpose, so I want to build one myself. My understanding is that the brazillian basically requires a pretty high mount due to the angle of the dangle, but this is actually a strength in my case, because I was hoping to have the crossbrace up near the ceiling, rather than on the floor, or (as Turtlelady's tripod stands) somewhere around chest height, so that I can simply unhook the hammock and leave the stand up without blocking any traffic.

I had originally been considering building something with a tower made of 2x4's (with some 2x4 feet) at each end and perhaps a PVC or chain link fence tube crossbrace between them. But then I saw this post from oldgringo (http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=33309) and I really like the small footprint and simplicity of the design, and since I'm headed home for Thanksgiving, this would be a great project to tackle with Dad in his shop. :)

1) My major question is how long would this need to be (I just want an estimate to determine feasibility)? Is there a dimension on the hammock listing that will give me this information? (I understand that different people like different angles, just wondering if there is a rough rule.) For the brazillian style, I probably don't want to wrap the suspension back on itself as is done for oldgringo's example, correct?

2) Are there any major issues with using this design in this manner? The crossbrace will be higher, which would create more torque on the stands, but since the weight of the hammock will still be down pretty low, I don't *think* this adds too much tipping risk?

3) I had an idea for my previous 2x4 monstrosity that I was wondering about... basically, if I want the option of cramming this in to a smaller room at some point, it would be nice if I could fit it diagonally across the room, as far into the corners as possible. For this purpose, I was considering making the feet at a 90 degree angle (with the ridgeline bisecting it, so that the upright would basically fit back into a corner, with the feet running along both walls). Is there any inherant problem with this design? I recognize that it would only protect against tipping over sideways based on how "wide" the feet stick out (that is, it would be "less effecient" because you'd need more pipe at that angle to provide the same amount of tipping protection), but what I'm wondering is if this somehow makes it a less safe design, does anyone have any thoughts on the safety of this modification?

This site is an amazing resource, I've been interested in hanging for a while, but I just never get a chance to go camping any more... then I stumbled upon the idea of indoor hanging, and now I'm really chomping at the bit. :)

- Ductyl/Justin

3) I had an idea for my previous 2x4 monstrosity that I was wondering about... basically, if I want the option of cramming this in to a smaller room at some point, it would be nice if I could fit it diagonally across the room, as far into the corners as possible. For this purpose, I was considering making the feet at a 90 degree angle (with the ridgeline bisecting it, so that the upright would basically fit back into a corner, with the feet running along both walls). Is there any inherant problem with this design? I recognize that it would only protect against tipping over sideways based on how "wide" the feet stick out (that is, it would be "less effecient" because you'd need more pipe at that angle to provide the same amount of tipping protection), but what I'm wondering is if this somehow makes it a less safe design, does anyone have any thoughts on the safety of this modification?

--------------------------------------------------------------

There wouldn't be any more of a tipping problem since your in a corner. The perpendicular angle to the crossbar- the tipping angle (sideways), would tip the stand into the corner walls. No problem there. The outside end would need a little longer feet to help with the torque caused by the wedgeing into the walls. Other than that, good idea, keep working it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Floridahanger

3) There wouldn't be any more of a tipping problem since your in a corner. The perpendicular angle to the crossbar- the tipping angle (sideways), would tip the stand into the corner walls. No problem there. The outside end would need a little longer feet to help with the torque caused by the wedgeing into the walls. Other than that, good idea, keep working it.

---

That's an excellent point :D

But what if I use this design *not* in a corner, what if it's just out in the middle of a room? I feel like the hammock pulling inwards would cause the angled feet to function the same as (or better than) the horizontal feet (except the angled feet will need to be longer, of course). I was also planning on pinning all of the crossbar joints, so that I don't have to worry about it spreading apart when nobody is in the hammock.

Free standing would be ok IMO as long as the feet are not too long to make it a trip hazard for you or others.:p Maybe, a removeable horizontal feet for when not in corner?
Or you could hang from the horizontal bar, ala turtlelady, instead of the vertical support. I think you could use shorter feet since pull force going straight down instead of pulling the Vertical supports together. Good luck.

Thanks for the response :)

I've been tossing it around in my mind and discussing it with my roommate... I feel pretty confident in the design of the feet now. I think it will be stronger than the flat feet in the fore/aft shifting, and the longer hang distance from the brazillian should make tipping less of an issue. (That is, it's much harder to get "sideways" force when the hammock is hung as a longer pendulum, which the greater hang angle provides.)

I was briefly considering making two sets of feet, one angled and one straight, so that I could swap them out... but that just seems unnecessarily complicated. Basically, if there's room to put it out in the open area of the room, it will probably always have the hammock in place, so there's no need to minimize the size of the feet.

I'm getting pretty excited about the idea now, I have some neat features I'm hoping to implement.

Great, now remember when your done. Pics or it didn't happen.