Suspended tent-hammock sleeps 5-8

Hammock-tent-makers Tentstile have a new 5-8 person model -- string it up between a couple-three massive trees and it becomes a treetop aerie, far above the madding crowd of critters and hikers.

Tentsile combines the comfort and versatility of a hammock with the usable space and security of a tent. The ultra portable structure uniquely employs tension forces to provide separation from wildlife, including insects, snakes and other predators but also from sand storms, earth tremors, cold or wet ground, debris or contamination.

Tentstile (via Neatorama)

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Hakuin

tres cool! is that Shelob peeking out of the undergrowth?
http://twitter.com/blackhound ehrich blackhound

How many sandstorms are you going to run into in a forest with trees large enough to hold this thing?
- http://twitter.com/GideonTJones Gideon Jones
  
  I really like the comment about keeping you off the “cold ground” too. We have a couple hammock tents, and it’s actually quite a bit colder than sleeping on the ground due to the open air circulating right under your ass. Which is nice at times, terrible at others. We pretty much only use em in the summer and sometimes the fall for that reason.
  
  And I gotta say, the idea of sleeping with 5-8 people in one, even a large one like this, seems terrible. It’s one thing sleeping smooshed together, spoon-style with my wife, but having people over in the other corner of the tent causing swaying and dipping every time they move? No.
  - http://twitter.com/mulveyr mulveyr
    
    Yep. I have a camping hammock, and this is the sort of thing that would seem like a good idea only to someone who has never used one.
    
    There’s a reason that there’s such a huge secondary market in insulating blankets for hammock campers…
    - http://twitter.com/GideonTJones Gideon Jones
      
      Yeah. I really can’t see people actually using this for camping or backpacking. At least not enjoying it. It basically takes everything good about hammocks and ditches it, and all the bad stuff about them and makes it worse…
      
      Maybe a temporary backyard fort/treehouse sorta thing for the kids though. I think I would have loved that back in the day.
      - Kevin Slattery
        
        All you naysayers are going to have to eat your words when you’re in your ground level tents during the coming zombie apocalypse – unless you’re too busy eating BRAIIIIIIINNNNSSSSSSSSS.
  - Hanglyman
    
    Was thinking the same thing about cold ground. In cold weather, you’d freeze your ass off in that thing. On the other hand, it looks like it would be great for jungles- hot weather, wet ground, and plenty of trees to hang it from.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2OL2ASFGRIIXW4PQJS3VEJECXQ M

That looks like a blast!
bcsizemo

I think it’d be easier and faster to drive stakes into the ground than get those ropes attached high enough to those trees.
http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Mari Lwyd

Earth tremors?

You mean the same earth that the trees are growing in?
- hymenopterid
  
  Also good for the ones in that Kevin Bacon movie. I forget the name.
  - Snig
    
    Tremors.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    The one where he had to avoid being torn to pieces by Meryl Streep?
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  This is a big problem when I camp in open pit mines or construction sites.
- travtastic
  
  Anyway, wouldn’t hanging from giant lever arms without counterweights make it worse?
agdtinman

And one person rolls over, and wakes up 7 other people. Maybe more useful for cuddle-puddles?
bardfinn

Tentsile has hammocks /in the tent/ (in each of the wings), so the air on the bottom of your hammock is air from inside the tent.

If you’re using a hammock in a cold environment with blankets instead of a rated sleeping bag, you’re doing something wrong (I speak from experience).

There are definitely wilderness areas where it is mandatory to be 20ft off the ground. Bears, moose, cougar, wolves, coyote, etcetera.

There’s also plenty of sandstorm/dust storm in the pine woods of East Texas.
- http://twitter.com/GideonTJones Gideon Jones
  
  The ground insulates better than open air, whether it’s air flowing around you outside the tent or flowing around you inside the tent. We use bags with our’s, and a hammock is just always gonna be significantly colder than a tent on the ground.
  
  And it’s most certainly not mandatory to be off the ground in wilderness areas. I live in Montana, literally within eyeshot of one of the country’s largest wilderness areas. I’ve spent a huge amount of time there and in several others, and it’s extraordinarily rare to see anyone else using hammocks.
  
  Not really sure what use you think it’d be anyways, given that the only two animals on that list that are even slightly likely to attack you can climb higher than you can place a hammock.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    I’d suggest that the NPS build flets (or telain), but the liability issues would kill that idea.
  - tw1515tw
    
    Hammocks are surprisingly cold on your backside.
    
    One approach is to have a Karrimat or an inflatable mattress under you, and then have a space blanket under that. There needs to be something between you and the space blanket for the reflective properties to work – hence the Karrimat. You can also use the reflective sheets designed for car windscreens.
    The main issue is cooking – you can’t cook inside a hammock. If there’s 5-8 people, cooking and staying warm/dry while doing it will be a challenge.
    
    And imagine if someone wants to go to the toilet in the middle of the night.
- Mark Dow
  
  I’ve met black bears that would enjoy swinging this like a jumprope, just to see what falls out. They are quite adept at steering clear of people on the ground.
winkybb

Looks kind of like everyone would be sleeping in a big pile. Not necessarily all that comfortable.

I’ve never found hammocks to be confortable in any case. I don’t like sleeping on my back (keep snoring myself awake), and no other position is really viable.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=813974026 Chück Smîth

Having grown up in a very swampy part of South Louisiana, I think this is a wonderful thing.
schmaltastic

Yeah. 5-8 people, a couple punds of Crisco. Good times…
teapot

They talked about these in the last Tank Riot mailbag:
http://junglehammock.com/

It goes without saying: WANT!
That Evening Sun

I’m not going to be the one to climb 20+ feet up in a tree to tie that thing off. No thanks.
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  Plus you can’t always be sure to find more than just saplings or enough big trees near each other to do this.
t3kna2007

When I’m sleeping out in the cold (ahem, IIRC, I live in the south now and cold is rare and valuable), even if it’s an exposed windy spot like a saddle between two peaks, as long as I’m properly bagged and layered up, my coldest side is the side toward the ground, so this seems like a win, temperature-wise, for cutting down heat loss due to conduction. However, anything that takes a lot of time to set up/administer never seems worth it when camping. This might be fun to set up and leave up in your back yard, though, or on a multi-day trip where you drive to the camp site.

(Also: is that Fay Wray/Jessica Lange/Naomi Watts in there? Sacrificial Scooby-snack for King Kong.)
- winkybb
  
  One reason your ground-touching side is cold is because the insulation underneath you is squashed flat. That’s why Therma-rests and foam pads are useful. I think this tent hammock thing would be cold. Your bag would be compressed underneath you (just like on the ground) and therefore much less effective as insulation.
- travtastic
  
  Up in the air like that, you might as well stay warm by having a fan aimed directly at you. The first rule of staying warm is to keep away from the wind.
Mark Neumayer

The number of people a tent sleeps is always a theoretically possible but realistically improbable number. My wife, son and I use a “six person” tent when we camp and find it to be just right for the three of us.
- ocker3
  
  If you look at the diagrams, sleeping six means six people can lie down in it, alternating head to toe. So if you sleep in the same spot every night, no rolling around, and you’re happy to get out of the tent in a specific order, and you don’t have any gear to stow, and you have a number of people who don’t mind sleeping with their face 5-6 inches from the sloping tent well, then yes, six people Can sleep in a tent rated for six :D
  
  In Pathfinders, we always used to divide by two, as every person usually had a pack about as big as they were which we normally wanted to keep away from the rain/ants.
- travtastic
  
  One realization that new campers come to very quickly: tent occupancy ratings are (lies and) advetised using floor area, when most tents are angled inwards severely.
AA

Snakes (that can go up trees) will travel down the thick wire with the green cover, because they think it’s a branch and anyway there’s something big and warm sleeping at the end of it which is worth the risk (!)
(Snakes in a tent….”I have had it with these goddamn snakes in this goddamn tent!”)
- awjt
  
  “goddamn?” You keep using this word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
  - http://twitter.com/tobiosnmakky amelia
    
    I do not think you know of the film…..
    - penguinchris
      
      Well apparently neither do you, because the line from the film is “I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!” :)
squeeziecat

unless there are baffles inside that keep everyone from sliding into a big pile at the bottom, no-one is going to have a good sleep in that thing. forget about spooning. or forking, for that matter.
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  I was thinking the same thing. The last thing I want after hiking all day is to be pig piled into a big stink ball with my fellow hikers. I’m always glad to have my solo tent.
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

3 is the magic number when it comes to tent partners.
http://twitter.com/Rickenhacker Daniel Earwicker

To me this sums up the camping experience in general. Experienced tent owners look at this and say “That looks impractical and uncomfortable – why would anyone put themselves through that?” That’s how I feel about all tents.
- travtastic
  
  :(
http://profiles.google.com/virtual.garrett Garrett Bernstein

Oh look, a Pinata for bears!
Lobster

Looks like a slingshot.

Does it work like a slingshot?
stuck411

This would be ideal if you were living through a zombie apocalypse like ‘The Walking Dead’. Zombies can’t climb trees.

Otherwise I can only see this useful in the hottest of tropical forests, but for two people at most.
- http://twitter.com/tobiosnmakky amelia
  
  But attracted by noise many zombies would stand under the trees of your hammock. never get down.
http://www.fark.com/ Two Wolves

Is the burro to lug it about standard or an option?
SomeGuyNamedMark

The best place for a hammock is where they originated, tropical areas. I’d definitely want a hammock for any place where night time meant a steady parade of ants, spiders, snakes, etc marching around. In most places though it isn’t that comfortable or necessary.
- Cefeida
  
  Snakes and ants and spiders can climb everything.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    One of the few pleasant things that I can say about the fauna in Palm Springs is that our scorpions can’t climb smooth vertical surfaces. Sorry, Arizona.
  - SomeGuyNamedMark
    
    Yes there are critters that can climb but in general they tend to forage on the ground.
http://www.facebook.com/geoff.bousquet Geoff Bousquet

oh look! a pinata for bears. Seriously cool though.
http://www.facebook.com/doonze Justin Hopper

This is Total Zombie land 101!!!! This is a must for the end days. However be bery, bery quit. 100 zombie just standing under you for weeks looking up isn’t a much beter option then zombie’s in the tent. Course, I guess you could throw the least liked member of the party down to em and make a break for it. You could even go back later and get the tent…. incentive NOT to be the least liked member of the party….ever. A$$holes beware…LOL