Spent the weekend in Southern Illinois using my DYI Tensahedron Stand. Rating on this stand is fantastic. The stand was easy to set up and the hang was extremely comfortable. Having fixed joints on the stand provided a repeatable perfect hang every time. I only had one stand issue. That was on my first night ever in this stand. I tossed and turned and could not get comfortable at all. Woke up at 3:00am and found myself in the bottom 1/3 of the hammock. The tension line had slipped a little with each toss and turn and by the time I woke up the stand had rotated a lot. After fixing this and tying a better knot all was well and I finished the night out just fine.
Second night Tropical Storm Gordon hit us with 4" of rain. It came down in sheets and we had gusting winds up to 20mph. The rectangular tarp kept me perfectly dry. Only Issue I had was that the basic wire stakes I had kept pulling out of the saturated ground. Other than re staking the tarp a few times I was high and dry in my luxury floating bed. By morning the area was all under about 1"-2" water.
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The rain from Gordo lasted all day Saturday and was plowing at 45 deg's at some points. I closed the doors down on the tarp that night the hammock and quilts were perfectly dry.
The third night was the worst ground yet. The ground was so saturated the pegs stakes would not hold at all. I did not trust even my large stakes to prevent a taco-mouse trap fall into the still flooded ground. I was able to tie one end to a tree and on the other end I tethered to a 20" piece of re-bar I drove into the ground. Even then I used the tree as the foot end and main anchor.
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The wind was still whipping and I could not keep the tarp staked down. Finally I closed up shop as best I could and wrapped the tarp around the stand poles and cross stakes the ends closed. This worked as the stand supported the tarp against the wind. It also kept the wind out completely. I was surprised that once inside the stand and set-up was still plenty roomy and comfortable. I had an uninterrupted nights sleep from 10:30 until 7:00 am when a friend wondered if I was still alive in there.
Bottom line, last weekend was one of the worst rain storms I have camped in and the Tensahedron stand worked like a super star. I highly recommend making or buying one of these.
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