I've been experimenting for about a year now with different types of hammock styles, lays, suspension systems, and construction methods. Nothing done permanent just throwing stuff together trying to figure out a perfect set-up for how I like to hang and what is most comfortable for me. Often done on site at my camp sites.
About two months ago I hit upon a way to hang a bridge style from three trees with one at the foot and two at the head and skipped the spreader bars hooking the two head ends to the two separate trees to keep the head end spread and just letting the foot end wrap around my legs and cocoon them without a spreader bar down there. Was the best and most comfortable up to that point but was still lacking in that my chest and buttocks still sunk too much and weren't fully supported and it still squeezed in on my shoulders a little bit.
Been working on improvements on the idea in CAD and built my first prototype and tried it out this weekend and spent Friday and Saturday nights sleeping in the v1.0 prototype set-up on my own place. The prototype is not sewn together but is rather zip-tied every half inch or so along the edges using the same 2" fold over with the rope in its loop and a zip-tie through both layers of fabric and around the rope in its fabric loop set slightly loose so the rope can still move just like it would if a sewn in loop was used (quick way to prototype a bridge type set-up and doubles as a torture test on the fabric and clearly shows any over-stressed points):
Test Pattern v1.0.GIFEdge Rope Channel.GIFTest Pattern v1.0 Primary Cut.GIF2610-182602.jpg2610-182613.jpg2610-182632.jpg2610-182642.jpg2610-182651.jpg2610-182716.jpg
Test fabric used was a cheap $10 canvas drop cloth that already had been well worn and had a few torn edges and such but had enough good in the middle to cut out my test pattern. Test rope was some cheapest of the cheap hardware stuff that was like $8 for a 100-ft. roll and is basically the same thing as para-cord only in a big 3/8+ diameter, same stretchy white fiber core covered by braided outside covering. Had to pre-stretch the stuff to the tune of like 4-ft. stretching out to 5-ft. before it finally tightened up but once it did it worked well enough for a prototype test at my own place.
My idea was to position my broad shoulders and upper chest at the widest and least constricted point where the single spreader bar would sit in a two tree suspension set-up or in a 3-4 tree suspension set-up as used is held open by the primary suspension lines in their triangle configuration. And then the mass of my buttocks (I've got a lot of muscle mass in my upper legs and hips more then the average male and have trouble getting pants that fit right because I've usually got multiple inches to spare around the waste by the time I get a large enough size so that it isn't skin tight around my upper leg muscles) is supported by the aggressive bridge curves. Thus the idea being to provide the most support exactly where it is need on the two points that normally sag and sink even in a normal bridge hammock set-up and to have my wide shoulders that I don't like getting squeezed from the sides right at the widest point where I get the most shoulder room and to a certain extent some elbow room as well. And then to have my head supported by the upper triangle section with its single top point so that I can tighten up that point to raise my head like a pillow or lower it as desired to get my lay exactly like I want it.
Well, it worked out great for improved supporting my chest and buttocks and not having them sag and sink and the no squeeze on the shoulders with plenty of shoulder room worked out great as well. But I had a problem with the head triangle which wanted to pull my head up way too much unless I really loosed up the support at the top and letting the entire head triangle area sag way down which is not what I wanted since I wanted the hammock to fully wrap around me so I started cutting zip-ties starting at the top point support of the head triangle and working back up each side of the triangle. Got almost no release in the tension that was holding my head up too much until I got to the mid-point on each side of the head triangles sides and then the tension released very quickly with the cutting of just a couple ties on each side. So it was the middle of the head triangle sides that were creating too much tension and pulling my head up too much in the triangle not the tip of the triangle which I could still pull up to touch the rope junction point at the top tip without pulling my head back up too high again. Realized I had created basically a mini-gathered end like upwards tension pull in the center of those triangle sides and modified my pattern accordingly to provide 8" of extra material length to relieve those unintended tension points by cutting an outward bow shape rather then a straight line:
Test Pattern v1.1.GIFTest Pattern v1.1 Primary Cut.GIF
Couldn't find another piece of appropriate junk material to make a v1.1 prototype today. Will have to pick up another cheapo drop cloth tomorrow. If that alteration to the cut pattern fixes the head triangle issue I had with the v1.0 then along with some doubling fabric reinforcements in some higher stress points that showed up in the test I should be able to work towards and actual permanently sewn version. Got a nice 58" x 3-yard piece of heavy hemp canvas and some 1/2" diameter 2,000-lb test quality Manila rope I've collected that should work perfectly for an all natural high strength built to last hammock. Obviously won't be light weight but when your going into the back country with horses weight isn't as big of a deal and you pack by the pound not by the ounce.
P.S. = Those pictures of the hammock are after I cut some of the zip ties in the head triangle to relieve the tension that was holding my head up too much in the upper triangle and after I had spent two nights sleeping in it to test it out. The black background are CAD screen captures that have been cropped.
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