Ok, I'm wanting a hammock stand that can fit in my car, and be cheap. I was searching through previous threads and kept seeing these 2 pole a frames being used with a stake on the outside of the setup. The roblem with those is the stake is taking a lot of force, and in soft or wet ground you can fall. Seeing the pictures got me thinknig of my boyscout days when we would lash poles together to make camp items, and how strong they were. That being said, has anyone tried a tripod on each side of the hammock for a stand.

Maybe instead of lashing poles you get some metal tubing 6 feet long, and put a bolt through all three about a foot from the top. This would allow the poles to pivot, and maybe a rope or chain to keep them from extending out too far. Since it has 3 legs, one leg faces towards the center of the setup, parallel to your ridgeline. That would put all of the force on that one leg, and cause the other two legs to act as a pivot. They will actually force the stand to pivot inward, and dig the inside leg into the ground, firmly anchoring it. Then I would just attach my structural ridgeline to the inward facing pole just above the bolt that attaches the three poles. The point where the poles meet and are bolted together would keep the attachment point from sliding down the pole, so a simple loop around the pole is all that's needed.

The only concern I have is if the structural ridgeline would create tpp much inward force too high on the tripod. Most of the tripod's strength is in downward force, and it could easily handle some lateral force as long as it is also being pulled down. A non-structural ridgeline wouldn't be a problem because the 30* sag (approx) of the hammock would pull down on the tripod keeping it planted.

Any thoughts, suggestions, ridicule, or praise/gifts would be appreciated. I really like the simplicity of the design, and that it requires very little assembly.