Comments on: Suspended tent-hammock sleeps 5-8

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 01:06:00 +0000

Yes there are critters that can climb but in general they tend to forage on the ground.

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:44:00 +0000

Well apparently neither do you, because the line from the film is “I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!” :)

By: Justin Hopper

Justin Hopper — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:36:00 +0000

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

By: travtastic

travtastic — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:26:00 +0000

By: travtastic

travtastic — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:06:00 +0000

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.

By: travtastic

travtastic — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:04:00 +0000

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.

By: travtastic

travtastic — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:59:00 +0000

Anyway, wouldn’t hanging from giant lever arms without counterweights make it worse?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:42:00 +0000

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.

By: Geoff Bousquet

Geoff Bousquet — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:46:00 +0000

oh look! a pinata for bears. Seriously cool though.

By: Cefeida

Cefeida — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:55:00 +0000

Snakes and ants and spiders can climb everything.

By: amelia

amelia — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:31:00 +0000

But attracted by noise many zombies would stand under the trees of your hammock. never get down.

By: amelia

amelia — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:30:00 +0000

I do not think you know of the film…..

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:59:00 +0000

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.

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:56:00 +0000

This is a big problem when I camp in open pit mines or construction sites.

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:55:00 +0000

Plus you can’t always be sure to find more than just saplings or enough big trees near each other to do this.

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:54:00 +0000

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.

By: winkybb

winkybb — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:29:00 +0000

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.

By: Two Wolves

Two Wolves — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:28:00 +0000

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

By: stuck411

stuck411 — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:25:00 +0000

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.

By: Lobster

Lobster — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:55:00 +0000

Looks like a slingshot.

Does it work like a slingshot?

By: Garrett Bernstein

Garrett Bernstein — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:49:00 +0000

Oh look, a Pinata for bears!

By: Daniel Earwicker

Daniel Earwicker — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:25:00 +0000

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.

By: Noctilucent Studios

Noctilucent Studios — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:05:00 +0000

3 is the magic number when it comes to tent partners.

By: awjt

awjt — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:14:00 +0000

“goddamn?” You keep using this word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

By: squeeziecat

squeeziecat — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:38:00 +0000

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.

By: AA

AA — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:21:00 +0000

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!”)

By: ocker3

ocker3 — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:04:00 +0000

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.

By: tw1515tw

tw1515tw — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 07:52:00 +0000

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.

By: Mark Neumayer

Mark Neumayer — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 07:39:00 +0000

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.

By: t3kna2007

t3kna2007 — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:40:00 +0000

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.)