Hammock stand for when you only have one tree. Do they Work?

**pedro** · 03-14-2008, 16:06

Thanks for that link, Nickleanddime. I had read about the scouts doing that with the t-posts, but haden't seen those photos. I wanted to see if I could do the same thing with lighter weight supports. As it turns out, the ski poles that I have are slightly lighter than my trekking poles, and much more rigid! The only real downside that I see is that I'll need to do a bit of engineering/fabrication to make them collapsable. I do believe that it is very doable, though, and an extremely small weight penalty for some cheap tree insurance.

**CajunHiker** · 03-14-2008, 17:05

It just so happens that I'm taking my new HH out for it's maiden voyage tomorrow night with the scouts. I'm hoping that I won't have to ground pitch. I'm also taking a pair of old ski poles as a backup plan.

**pedro** · 03-14-2008, 18:33

Good luck with that. I would suggest, from my very limited experience, that you take along one of those ground screw anchors, just in case. The big stakes worked for me, but as I stated before, I'm pretty light.

**CajunHiker** · 03-14-2008, 23:08

Yep, I've got one of those stakes. We're also doing a bike hike, so I may be able to rig something with my bike. I've also got a spare tire mounted bike carrier I might could use.

**warbonnetguy** · 03-15-2008, 07:55

i just got some 9" snow stakes, haven't tried them for anything yet, but they look like they have some good holding power. the yard screws are great if you can get them in the ground.

i'm pretty sure you could hold a support pole with regular stakes if you equalize a few of them and the ground isn't too soft.

has anybody actually hung from a ski pole, was it both poles combined for one support? doesn't seem like it would be tall enough, did you use a ridgeline?

**pedro** · 03-15-2008, 09:43

Yes, I have hung from a pair of ski poles crossed on one end of my rig. I did not use a ridge line, but that could sure be done. I don't think that there would be much benefit, because I found that if I rigged my hammock very tight, and then put a load on it, my butt would be about 6" off of the ground. This speaks to your question about the poles being too short, if you rigged the hammock much looser(more loose?) you would probably touch down. I also found that if the tops of the poles are canted away from the hammock, as load is applied, that intersection will rise if anything, helping the effort(this is probably obvious).

Pedro

**warbonnetguy** · 03-15-2008, 09:57

yeah, i just read the other page. that is awesome, did you try it with one pole? you can keep it from leaning (risk staff trick) by using 2 independent guylines. the less stretch in your guyline, the better, this is probably obvious as well.

i have a portable hammock stand like this with stronger poles, that's cool the ski poles worked, i'm going to the woods to do some testing today, i'll have to grab my fiancee's poles and try it out.

just a thought, if you can find some big stable rocks, you might be able to elevate the poles several inches. this might be easier with a single pole though.

anyway, great discovery, this makes me think i might be able to downsize the 2 1/8" aluminum tube i am using for my stand.

**pedro** · 03-15-2008, 10:26

I'm going to be trying one pole soon. Theoretically, I could wind up with a treeless system. My big challenge ,though, is soil composition. My wife and I just got back from our first hammock camping trip, down in the U.S.Virgin Islands. We were fortunate enough to get a spot in the national park where there were two trees the right distance apart, and one of them had a crotch in it. This allowed us to do a side-by-side hang that worked pretty well. Unfortunately, the availability of trees the right distance apart is spotty, you don't have alot of choice as to your campsight, and the ground is volcanic rock! Very tough to get a stake in. There are plenty of mangroves to tie off to, however.

Needless to say, we were rock stars amongst the ground dwellers!

**warbonnetguy** · 03-15-2008, 22:28

i went out to the medicine bow nf today, i was trying to test my tarp in wind, and there weren't too many good options out in the open (where the wind was) i had forgotten the ski poles, but ended up finding 2 sturdy dead branches and doing the same with them. just crossed them at about tie height, and used 4 msr ground hog stakes in somewhat frozen soil. worked great.

**pedro** · 03-16-2008, 15:35

It looks like one ski pole per end works! Here's how:

On each pole, remove the handle ( bit of a grunt, then it slips off).

Slip a 5/16 eye bolt w/fender washer & neoprene washer into top of pole.

Rig three lines to stakes.

Run ridgeline, take up slack.

Hang hammock, lay in it, takeup additional slack in ridgeline.

Plastic 12" tent stakes break, Coleman 12" angle stakes band if the ground is too soft/wet, Home Depot construction plastic stakes hold well but are heavy/bulky. I am going to try MSR groundhog stakes.

The ground is very wet and soft right now, as we just had more rain last night, so I'm going to do an extended test hang this evening. I will keep y'all posted.

-Pedro