DIY Hammock Sofa project

[pdxhanger]

I started out wanting to make a hammock sofa. I couldn't think of a way to do it without having the two people slide down into each other in the center, so I started out trying to make a hammock chair. While this succeeded, and I have made two and used them for my wife and I in the field quite successfully, it requires that each chair be hung separately like two different hammocks. So setting up time is greater than I would like, and you can only get the chairs so close without the lines interfering with each other. So when are eating lunch, we have to stretch to hand each other food. I know, my problems are so horrible!

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So I went back to trying to make a hammock sofa again. I started with something similar to the REI evrgrn Downtime lounger, but with lighter fabric. As I expected, with my wife and I on the sofa we are pulled to the center. If we sit against each other it's not horribly uncomfortable, and it's nice if we feel like snuggling, but I think it would be kind of a hassle to try to eat sitting in that position.

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So I tried to do a modification to pull up the center from the ridgeline. This actually did work fairly well in terms of creating two separate sitting areas that don't slide into each other. The problem is that the ridgeline gets pulled down to about a foot and a half in front of our faces, right in our field of view. It also makes getting in and out require dodging the ridgeline.

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I'm not sure what else to try. The Downtime looks like a similar design (albeit longer), but I'm suspecting that the heavy duty fabric makes the dip a little less pronounced on the Downtime. I'm curious about what people who have actually sat with more than one person in the Downtime experience in terms of sliding into each other. Maybe there is some other design feature I'm missing on the Downtime that prevents the middle sagging?

BTW, one person in my hammock sofa is quite nice. But, of course, it's not what I'm trying to use it for.

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[Dutch]

wow such a neat idea

[muddycreek]

Pretty cool!

Maybe a secondary ridgeline, substantially higher? Tarp, too, if you need it. The support line with the question mark could maybe be eliminated if you moved the secondary line towards the back of the hammock and just dropped lines to the top/back edge.

[muddycreek]

Come to think of it you'd just need the middle triangle, not the outside ones. Got carried away.

[pdxhanger]

Pretty cool!

Maybe a secondary ridgeline, substantially higher? Tarp, too, if you need it. The support line with the question mark could maybe be eliminated if you moved the secondary line towards the back of the hammock and just dropped lines to the top/back edge.

Actually, my wife suggested the same thing. One problem I see is that the weight of the people sitting in the hammock increases the tension on the the current (primary) ridgeline in a way that (I think) that secondary ridgeline would not be under tension. In other words, when you sit in the hammock, the primary ridgeline is pulled tighter by your weight, making it a more viable support from which to pull the hammock up. If I'm right, the secondary ridgeline, which does not have that force pulling it apart, would have to be REALLY tight in order not to sag down too far. Or the tree attachment points would have to be very high (especially if the trees were not really close together). BTW, while it looks in your picture like it would be a good place to place a tarp, I think the big sag in the line where the hammock was being supported would make it unsuitable for hanging a tarp over.

But the primary reason that I haven't tried it is that it would involve a second set of straps around the trees, which is (in my mind) the biggest drawback to the very comfortable two-chair solution. If I can't make it work with one set of suspension straps, I may as well just do the two chairs.

Thank you for contributing the idea, though. The collective creativity of this forum is a powerful force, and I'm hoping there is a solution to be found.

[pdxhanger]

I thought about trying a design like this, using more bridge hammock principles to tame the sag toward the middle:

Hammock sofa idea.jpg

It's like a bridge hammock for the back support and a modified bridge for the seat support. But I think there are numerous problems with this:

1. I think it would require 3 spreader bars on each end.
2. I could put fabric over the hole in the middle, but I don't see how to make the asymmetrical nature of the pressure points comfortable. The reinforcement on the edges of the curves would be uncomfortable to sit on.
3. Putting a curve on the edge where your legs hang off would, I feel pretty confident, be uncomfortable. But I suspect having that flat edge the way it is in the picture would let that edge sag in the middle, and I'm right back at the original problem.
4. To make the bridge hammock effect work well enough to eliminate the sag under the weight of two people, I think the suspension would have to be pulled quite taut, which would make the fabric stiff and less comfortable to sit on.
5. I don't know that there is any way to calculate in advance the amount/depth of curve necessary on each edge, and trial and error would be very effort-ful.
6. Testing this would involve a fairly elaborate build, and I'm not up for it just to find out it has all the problems I suspect it does.

[JackM]

How about the secondary line as a taught line directly between the huggers?

[pdxhanger]

How about the secondary line as a taught line directly between the huggers?

Hmmm. That might work if I'm doing tree huggers and Amsteel suspension. If I'm going with a strap suspension using buckles or Dutch clips I'd have to have some extra hardware to attach the line mid-strap. What do you think for adjusting the line tension? UCR?

[JackM]

What do you think for adjusting the line tension? UCR?

UCR's are what I use for my main suspension. I don't see why that wouldn't work. You might also consider a Trucker's hitch: https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...truckers-hitch on any 'ole cord.

[muddycreek]

I wonder if you could do a really deep sag to raise the ridgeline much higher. Then a center support from the middle of the line. For some reason I can't stop noodling this...