Tensa Outdoor and the commercial packable tensahedron stand

[rasidi]

During the last Memorial Day sales offered by different vendors i was kind of looking at 13 foot 4 season tarp and now this ..

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[raftingtigger]

The edging on the prototype is camo. Is that enough?

[JasumX]

Took my newly acquired Tensa4 out along with my newly acquired WB XLC on a test run this weekend at a friend's cabin. Learned a few things, but I ended up having some issues that I'm hoping you kind people might be able to help me address.

First, the ground at this cabin is a whole lot of sugar sand... I knew this was a potential issue going into it, but went ahead and tried anyways. Though the orange screws hold incredibly firm in dirt at home, in this looser sand they just couldn't quite handle my weight and the foot end came loose. I wound up tethering to a tree instead which worked fine of course, but limits my flexibility of hanging locations. Does anyone know of a stake/screw that might work better and still handle enough weight (half of my 250#)?

The rest was, I'm sure, user error. I've watched the Tensa setup video as well as Shug's setup about a dozen times each, but I can't quite seem to get the right balance of seat height and ridgeline tension. The best I was able to get after fiddling around with the baseline and suspension lengths left me with my shoulder lightly touching a pole and my butt about 2-3 inches off the ground (not enough room for my underquilt) with a gently taut hammock ridgeline. I must be missing something, and perhaps some additional fiddling will get me there. I'd certainly welcome some expert advice if someone has already blazed the trail through these issues

I can see the potential of this stand, and I'm determined to make it work. Just have to figure out how to get there.

[cmc4free]

Maybe a big corkscrew of the dog tether variety?

[raftingtigger]

JasmumX, start with a 76 inch baseline (from inside pole to inside pole) and a ridgeline of 10 feet 4 inches (clipped into the carabiners on the toggle line).

Now if your hammock has a structural ridge line (SRL) give yourself enough suspension to make your SRL plus suspension = 10 feet 4 inches. Use 1/2 of the suspension on each end.

If your hammock does not have a structural ridgeline then measure the length of your hammock from gather to gather. If 12' then minimal suspension, If 11' then 6-8 inches each side. If 10' then about 12-14 inches each side.

Put the head end of the stand lower than the foot end. My stand just measured 68" high at foot end (to tip of black foot) and 48" at head end. That may be more head down than you like, but I like it that way.

[JasumX]

Thank you cmc4free, that's a great idea! I'll bet they have listed weight ratings listed too which will take some of the guesswork out.

[JasumX]

I just went and set everything up in the yard with the tape measure to exactly your specifications, and it's just about perfect! I think I may have figured out what I was doing wrong as well. I noticed when I bent the SRL of my hammock to ensure it wasn't too tight the apex of the head end poles moved a bit. That wasn't happening when I was playing about with it this weekend.

I think when I was running around adjusting things that I took the slack out of the head end tether without noticing. As I was loosening the hammock suspension trying to get the SRL to a reasonable tension, I was lowering the head end and reintroducing slack in the tether. That gave me the results I was looking for on SRL tension, but gave me the false impression that the hammock suspension needed to be much longer than it should be. Hopefully that makes sense...

In any case, I can't wait to get back out there this coming weekend and give it another shot overnight. Thank you for the quick and detailed response!

[draco_1967]

I spent 4 nights at the Kickstand Lodge near Robbinsville, NC with the Tensa4, and loved it! It's the first time that I've stayed in the same place on one of my trips, and the Tensa was great. I got lots of questions from hangers and tenters alike.

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[KiwiMark]

in this looser sand they just couldn't quite handle my weight and the foot end came loose. I wound up tethering to a tree instead which worked fine of course, but limits my flexibility of hanging locations. Does anyone know of a stake/screw that might work better and still handle enough weight (half of my 250#)?

I've used my stand a decent amount over several trips and I understand the concern that you might find yourself in a spot with loose soil/sand and nothing to anchor the foot end to. But this is incredibly rare, there is almost always something you can tether the stand to and most ground will hold a large orange screw - to have neither firm enough ground nor a pole/tree/car/rock/anything to tether the stand to will almost never happen. what kind of featureless terrain are you thinking of where you would have nothing to tether your stand to?

Needing two suitably spaced trees - yep, that can be hard at times. I've been in plenty of places where there are not two trees a workable distance apart, that's a good reason to have the Tensa stand.
I've also been in places where there are no trees, but the ground was fine and I had no problem anchoring to an orange screw.
I suppose that camping in sand dunes with no trees anywhere around would be hard, but how many people find themselves in that sort of terrain?
I like to plan for the 'what if' scenarios as much as the next person, but I just don't think I'll ever be in a situation where there is absolutely nowhere that I could set up my stand near anything to secure the foot-end to and where the ground is also too loose to hold a large orange screw.
If I was in such a situation then maybe burying a suitable sand anchor might work.

When car camping - the car itself is heavy enough to make a good foot anchor.
A motorcycle should be usable as a foot anchor, but care would be needed especially when it comes to where to attach the line.

[JasumX]

I've used my stand a decent amount over several trips and I understand the concern that you might find yourself in a spot with loose soil/sand and nothing to anchor the foot end to. But this is incredibly rare, there is almost always something you can tether the stand to and most ground will hold a large orange screw - to have neither firm enough ground nor a pole/tree/car/rock/anything to tether the stand to will almost never happen. what kind of featureless terrain are you thinking of where you would have nothing to tether your stand to?

The use case I'm looking at is very specific... It's a friend's cabin where there's a very nice spot with the perfect lake view, and in that spot there's no tree to anchor to. There are plenty of trees in other areas that have a decent view with a tree to anchor to and even some less ideal spots with trees spaced right for hammock use, but none have that excellent view I guess it's more greed as opposed to need, but if I can find a solution then why not!