Hammock Stand: First use and Crash!

[SkyGazer]

After completing my Turtledog stands yesterday I tried sleeping in my hammock in my apartment last night. Because I had it set it all up in my apartment, there wasn't as much room as I would have liked for spreading out the legs of the stand. Anyway, at some time I decided to try sleeping on my side. So, as maneuvered to my side, I must have jostled the stand too much. The next think I know I am on the ground and both stands have fallen over. The one on my head end fell over the the hammock and the foot end off to the side. At some point I must have grabbed the pole between the stands as the pole ended up with a bend in it.

So here are some post-crash thoughts.

I need to cover the bolts, the edges and corners on top of the stands and the ends of the poles to make sure that if these parts come down on my face or or on the hammock again it will prevent any serious damage. Luckily there was no damage from this fall except for a bent pole, which can be straightened out.

When outside, I am going to stake the stands so that they can not fall inwards towards the hammock. I hope I do not have a crash landing again, but if I do, I want to avoid those stands falling on me if possible.

Thought I would post this experience so that others can learn from it without experiencing their own crash.

SkyGazer

[nc_robin]

Great ideas. I've had several crashes as well... all as a result of getting out of the hammock in the middle of the night. Two things have helped me: 1) I have the modification with the angle cuts and putting clamps on the places where the legs join has helped keep the legs spread (I use two clamps per stand, clamping two longer legs together and then shorter leg to longer legs). 2) I kind of lift myself out of the hammock leveraging myself between my feet on the floor and my hand pushing up on a trunk right next to the hammock so I don't pull the stands over by pulling on the edge of the fabric. I'm going to look into covering bolts and edges, hadn't thought of that. Thanks!

[jbritely]

I've crashed too in my Turtle dog. I redrilled the third legs to increase the angle a bit. The spacing between stands seems important so that when you put weight on the ridge pole it pulls straight down.

[SkyGazer]

I have been thinking about how to cover the top of the stands without adding a lot of weight, and I've decided that using bubble wrap between two non-tear material layers might work the best. This will add protection with hardly any extra weight. Any suggestions?