Suspending Turtledog Style Pole from Ceiling

[erric]

Hi Hammockheads! First post here, hopefully it's not a silly question.

So lets say I've already determined that placing anchors into my ceiling is safe, and ignore all of the tricky questions involved with anchor choice, etc, and assume I have two eye bolt or climbing style bolt hangers firmly and safely affixed overhead. If wanted to suspend an aluminum pipe from those hangers, similar to a turtledog stand, from which I would then hang my 10 foot hammock, what would be a good way of rigging that suspension so that the pipe could be raised up to the ceiling when not in use? Extra line dangling down would then be tied off somewhere on the wall. I'm clueless with knots but very eager to learn. I was thinking amsteel would be a good choice of line to run between the anchors and the pipe, but I'm no expert there either. I've seen some turtledogs where the pipe is attached to the tripod legs only with a knot, but something more permanent like an eye bolt drilled through the pipe as I've seen on others sounds better to me.

Compounding the issue is that I'm in a condo in a refurbished office building with very high (over 12ft) ceilings, and I don't own a ladder (no room in this 1BR to store it) so I'll be renting one from Home Depot and will preferably have to do this in one go, with the anchors out of reach for adjustments afterwards.

Anyway, if anyone has any feedback on this I'd appreciate it. I'm also open to being told it's a harebrained idea. Thanks all!

[Latherdome]

If the ceiling joists are fair game for drilling, and strong enough to bear you in the hammock with the pole, why not just hang the hammock straight from said hooks, skipping the pole? The pole is redundant here, exception being if the room is just too small relative to height to get the right hang angle.

[TominMN]

I'd use pulleys and rig up something very much like the kayak/canoe/bike hoist that you can see if you look at images for kayak hoist on Google. A block with a becket at each point on the ceiling and blocks directly below on the pipe.
The thing is, there will be substantial stress at the pulley attachment points on the pipe if the pulleys are too close. So the anchors in the ceiling have to be very close to the length you need for hanging or the pipe needs to be VERY stout.

[erric]

If the ceiling joists are fair game for drilling, and strong enough to bear you in the hammock with the pole, why not just hang the hammock straight from said hooks, skipping the pole? The pole is redundant here, exception being if the room is just too small relative to height to get the right hang angle.

because of the 12 foot ceilings. the room in question is 12' long, so the hang angle wouldn't work, as you said.

[erric]

I'd use pulleys and rig up something very much like the kayak/canoe/bike hoist that you can see if you look at images for kayak hoist on Google. A block with a becket at each point on the ceiling and blocks directly below on the pipe.
The thing is, there will be substantial stress at the pulley attachment points on the pipe if the pulleys are too close. So the anchors in the ceiling have to be very close to the length you need for hanging or the pipe needs to be VERY stout.

This is a really interesting idea, I hadn't thought of these even though I've seen them before. I'll look into them.

EDIT: Looks like premade solutions are off the table, anything over 150lbs capacity is electric and very expensive because they're assuming you need to be able to actually hoist all of that weight up to your ceiling. Putting it together DIY with individual components would be an awesome project though.

[oldpappy]

Each eye bolt will only be holding 1/2 your weight plus 1/2 the sleep system weight, so unless you weight 300 lbs or so you should be OK if you go that way.

Your idea is workable this link shows my deck outdoor lab - the bottom of the loop is 4 ft 9 inches off the ground:
https://www.hammockforums.net/galler...mageuser=27438

To keep it simple, maybe cut a fence pole in half so you have 2 each 5'3" sections to take down and store each night (as I do):
https://www.hammockforums.net/galler...mageuser=27438
This makes the fence pole/top rail 10 foot long - plenty for even an 11 foot hammock.
P.S. ignore the black tubing it is not needed.

Then figure out a simple way to pull the remaining 2 support loops up out of the way or better yet, use a steel screw hook and a reacher to take the loops down each day: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-Ste...w-Hook/3035617. If you can zoom in on my 1st pic you will see I use these.

Outside I use a turtle dog tripod at one end and the loop to deck support that you see in the 1st photo. Simple, 1 min to set it up or take it down.

P.S. 2 Cheap Paracord continuous loops are all you need for your hang points - I used a fisherman knot to make mine.

[TominMN]

I'd use a one-piece pipe and hoist it to the ceiling. Otherwise it would be difficult to pull the rigging back down in the evening. You're right about the 150 lb thing: it applies to the entire rig, not just one half. That's the reason I suggested making it from components (that are up to the weight anticipated.) Also, those hoist kits have a bunch of bulky hardware that is great for hanging from garage joists but not so wonderful for a finished ceiling.

You can incorporate some "stop" in the cordage that will set the pole at the proper level for sleeping. The you just need some way to tie it off when you raise it in the morning.

This should be a piece of cake to do!

[SnrMoment]

Whoopie slings of appropriate length on each pole end.

[tightwad]

Whoopie slings of appropriate length on each pole end.

As stated his ceilings are too high and the hooks too close together without causing the hammock to be hung too far off the ground for either safety or access.

I'd suspend the ridgepole from some appropriate steel cable and then if you need to pull it up high you could use a 3rd eye bolt at the apex of a triangle to snug it to the ceiling. You could use some small line and a hook on the wall to secure it, like the old time chandelier setups. You would be ok with fencepost top rail or even the heavy conduit joined into a long enough length (more than the width of the eye bolts). I think you would also cause less torsional (is that a word) pressure on the eye bolts as the weight would be exactly down, not from the side.

[Banjoman]

I think he means whoopie slings coming down from the ceiling anchors to the ridgepole ends. Seems like a good idea.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk