Hammock stand thoughts...

[Sweeper]

I was out planting some things and cleaning up the yard today and decided to put up my Pawley's Island type hammock stand. As has been well documented here on HF, these stands will not work very well with either a gathered-end or Bridge style camping hammock. I had an idle thought that if I bought a second stand and cannibalized a couple of the uprights, it would probably give me a more decent width between the tie-off points. I haven't done the math just yet, but was curious to see if anyone else had tried that.

Now, spending over $200 for a hammock stand is not really a great idea from the wife's perspective, but on the other hand she likes that idea better than a DIY stand from the "pretty" perspective. Since my trees in the yard are massive here in Charleston (150+ year old oak trees) and too far apart, this is probably going to be my best bet until the Loquat tree I just planted today (strategically 15' from one of the oak trees ) grows enough to hang from.

Thoughts or comments?

Sweeper

[zukiguy]

It will cost you way more than $200 but I'd suspect the wife would be happy with a new pergola in the back yard. It might also provide a slightly shaded spot to hang under.

Any chance there's a choice spot for one of these near that big oak tree? If not, I'm sure you can find a design that will have posts separated by a convenient hanging distance. It's basically just a big goofy trellis so most any wife will be thrilled. Add a floor of pavers and some plants and it can be her (your) little getaway.

I lucked out since there's two palms (not the best for hanging I know) in my yard just the right distance apart. Unfortunately they're not in the best spot and my yard is so full of other junk (pool, shed, swing set, screen porch) that there's no location for any other structure. I was seriously eyeballing one of the uprights on the kids swing but I think my weight would cause it to lean quite a bit if not topple.

[Sweeper]

Ha - we've had a couple of discussions about the pergola idea....I'm a decent enough carpenter, but that's one project that I wouldn't tackle, so I'd have to pay a professional to do it! I think I'll have to stick with the pieces parts frankenstand, lol....

[zukiguy]

You can do it....
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home...ergola/3352816

[whayneneal]

I found a Byer of Maine Vario Hammock Stand on Ebay for $106 including shipping. It works great. I haven't been to Charleston in a long, long time, but I sure like that place.

[creativeKayt]

You could use the oak tree and then do a simpler tri-pod like stand with guy line anchor at the other end. It would be much cheaper and easy to put away when you pull the hammock down.

Take pics of what you eventually go with.

[theoracle09]

Pics are a must! I'm also starting to look at ways to hang tree-less around the house. I'm interested in which avenue you end up going down.

[Ramblinrev]

Sink a post socket in the ground and make a slide in pole for it. Sink the socket just flush with the lawn and you can mow over it once you pull the post out. 3" steel pole should be plenty strong enough if you anchor the socket properly. The other end is your oak tree.

[Sweeper]

So I have to report back that I went ahead and purchased the 2nd Pawley's Island stand this afternoon with the plan of using the extra sections out of it to extend and raise the basic stand. As I suspected, the results were, well, less than satisfactory. To sum it up, adding two 3' sections made the total length of the arms almost 20' apart and raised the height to about 4' off of the ground. I grabbed my BB that had slings on it and proceeded to hang. This not surprisingly, made me wind up with my butt on the ground in about a second. Given the new width of the bars, I needed at least 2-3' more of height to get any kind of a hang at all. A non-starter.

Figuring I had nothing to lose, I grabbed one more section and added it to one end, such that now there were four sections on one end and three on the other...this succeeded in getting the hammock off of the ground, but causes the balance point to change, which then had me pulling the entire stand over with me still in it. Good thing the wife wasn't home to laugh at me. The dog certainly did.

Bottom line, taking two Pawley's Island type stands and trying to build a Frankenstand with it WITHOUT bending the arms upward will not work. As I really wasn't interested in ruining a good stand that I could take back and get my money returned for, I opted to end the test here.

I'll be building a 2x4 stand tomorrow. I'll have to spend some time and make it "pretty" for the wife to look at when it's up.

[Sweeper]

Sink a post socket in the ground and make a slide in pole for it. Sink the socket just flush with the lawn and you can mow over it once you pull the post out. 3" steel pole should be plenty strong enough if you anchor the socket properly. The other end is your oak tree.

Rev, I've thought about doing that too, but I also like the idea of being able to move it around when needed. If the wife nixes the idea of the 2x4 stand, I may fall back to that.

Sweeper