Home made gear hammock 1st attempt.

[Carbuncle]

Don't know if anyone will be interested, but I had a go at making a gear hammock today, with Mrs carbuncle providing instruction on the sewing machine. One thing I'm not fussed about with hammock camping is leaving my rucksack out under the tarp. I'm a bit paranoid some pikey git will pilfer it during the night. So I figured I could make a mini hammock and hang it off the utility line I run under my tarp for my uco, hanging my coat etc.

The material I used is the 99p/m parachute ripstop from http://fabrics-n-stuff.co.uk . The fact it was cheap was a bonus, I wanted untreated lightweight ripstop, since I'll be dropping wet stuff in it to dry, it'll be under the tarp anyway, and it won't be taking much weight, since a large chunk of my kit will be making up the shelter.

I more or less followed this http://www.uniqueprojects.com/projects/hammock/hammock.htm to make it. I went for 1.7m of material, to give a roughly 1.5m hammock. I'm hoping with the curve this will take up no more than 1.2m on the ridgeline, extending 1/3rd of the way into a 12ft tarp at the foot end, allowing me to sit in the middle. I left the material the width it came (1m ish) cos I'm lazy.

The stuff sack is effectively a mini hammock made from 45cmX15cm of material, folded in half before sewing up the sides and turning inside out. I'm sure there's better ways, but my sewing is so bad it takes the "craft" out of bushcraft, to be honest. If I worked in Knickerworld in Corrie, Seans job would be safe, trust me.

Anyway, here's the end result:
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=3376
I may end up hanging it like this:
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=3377
In its stuffsack:
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=3378

This is just a first attempt, I'm going to make another two.
The good news: It's very light, around 75g in its stuffsack and compact too (19x9x4cm). It seems reasonably strong, it lifted my 8 year old no problem.
The bad news: It could do with being maybe 10% smaller in each direction. I was sizing it on my 70l sack, though as you can see the 35l sack shown was swamped. I'm not bothered about the gram count, it's more length along the ridgeline I want to keep down.
Having tried it with the Osprey - hardly a heavy pack - with the kind of gear you'd still have in it when stowed, I'm not sure hanging it directly under the tarp is a good idea. FWIW I run a ridgeline the full length above the tarp, use prussiks with mini krabs to position the tarp, then hang some paracord between the two biners under the tarp, with butterfly loops to attach stuff to. It was to these I was planning to hang the gear hammock, whether that works, we'll see when I'm next out. Any thoughts to improve it for next time, or better ideas for suspension, gratefully received!

Cheers.

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

:Wow: some how I Imagined the stuffsack would be 2x the size.

I like alot! you could fix a smaller one under the tarp too, to hold a book torch etc.:You_Rock_

Here are your photos as above!

Anyway, here's the end result:

I may end up hanging it like this:

In its stuffsack:

 

[BushTucker]

Hey Carbuncle... Very nice job mate.
It actually looks quite pro and very little difference to my shop bought DD, so well done that man.:You_Rock_

 

[Carbuncle]

It actually looks quite pro and very little difference to my shop bought DD

If only! That's 'cos you can't see the wavy stitching!

This is what I was trying to do: http://www.jacksrbetter.com/JGHPC.htm
But I didn't want Silnylon (even if I could get hold of it - more likely PU coated nylon) because I reckon practically it's going to be used to dump damp kit. Hmm, on the other hand, is that a good idea, hanging something damp above the foot end of the hammock? I really need to get it out to see how things work in practice. All good fun though!

 

[dwardo]

Nice work, you could sew the stuff sack to the side of the hammock like the MK hammocks. Its handy as you dont loose it and also handy when its strung up as you can stick your head torch and phone in it so do you dont loose them.

 

[Carbuncle]

FWIW, and if anyone's thinking of making one, I took it out, and it seems to be about the right size. I think with the Tarp hung straight on it may be a touch long, I think I'll start my next one with 150x85cm of material, rather than 170x100 of this, and attach the stuff sack to the hammock as dwardo suggested.

You can see where the halfway point of the Tarp/Hammock is in the picture below by the mini-krab between the tarp and ridgeline. I could have got the sack deeper in there, but the food was cooking so I was in a rush ;-)

 

[MartinK9]

Great Job there Carbuncle

 

[Singeblister]

nice work and a handy bit of kit