Agri-supply Hammock Stand

[bwg]

To clarify my concern is that by tightening down and making the suspension almost horizontal the hammock will sag a great deal after you get in regardless of having a structural ridgeline. you may be 20" off the ground before you sit down but once you sit down the hammock will be much closer to the ground. Even with a ridgeline you should hang your hammock at an angle.

In addition, the closer to horizontal you run your suspension the greater the forces become that will pull on the suspension and on the tree (or in this case the stand). By running the lines horizontal you are putting 5 to 6 times the load on the stand and your suspension. Here is a link to a chart that shows the forces applied and how the angle of the suspension greatly effects the loading:

http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/show...792&original=1

Hi GvilleDave

Thanks for posting your thoughts and concerns. The reason I hang the hammock taut with little sag is to pre-tension the hammock stand. This type of stand has many inches of flex, and if one hangs a hammock with sag on this type of stand, then one will certainly touch ground/stand with body weight in hammock.

Hanging the hammock without sag helps to remove some of the hammock stand flex, but a taut pitch does not remove all because I am only tightening the hammock suspension by hand.

Once I enter the hammock, a proper, or more acceptable, angle from horizontal is then produced with the hammock suspension. To help demonstrate this, I have taken two pictures.

Picture 1 shows the hammock and hammock stand without any weight added. Note the near horizontal suspension and ridgeline.

Picture 2 shows the hammock with me hanging -- about 215 lbs. Note the change in suspension angle, also note the flex in the hammock stand. The hammock stand tube is moved inward about 2.5 inches on this one end, and moved a similar amount on the other end for a total of about 5 inches of flex once my body weight is in the hammock. This give in the stand is the reason for initially hanging the hammock with a taut suspension.

Picture 3 shows both images superimposed and a protractor added to help measure the resultant angle which seems to be about 30 degrees from horizontal.

This type of hanging could be problematic for hammocks with a weak ridgeline, but since my homemade hammock uses 1/8 amsteel for the ridgeline, I think it can handle the load well.

[rip waverly]

i get the same thing with the vario stand-- the uprights flex quite a bit naturally when loaded-----i feel the suspension isn't taking the load, but rather compensating for this flex in the stand.