Viewing 23 posts - 1 through 23 (of 23 total)
  • Talk to me about hammocks
  • Jolsa
    Full Member

    Anyone got one? More importantly does anyone sleep in one instead of a bed? (that’s every night not the occasional outdoor trip). Read (albeit on hammock websites) that it’s meant to be better support for your body and mean a better nights sleep. Quite like the idea of ditching the bed and hooking up a hammock with a couple of karabiners…or am I just strange?

    Keva
    Free Member

    a bit strange I’d say. Alright for lounging around in but don’t think I could sleep in one every night. You’ve just reminded me to hook mine up in the garden, haven’t taken it out yet this year.

    have you got one or are you thinking of getting one ?

    Kev

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    I’m interested too for garden based relaxation rather than nocturnal habitation (FFS talk english)

    I mean I want one to lounge about in during this scorching hot summer we’re having rather than replacing my bed with one.

    Any recommended sites / types, and how do people hook them up? I don’t really want a stand and dont have trees in the right locations. Wall hooks? Tripod arrangements for one end and a tree the other?

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    Jolsa
    Full Member

    It just got me thinking as Aldi are selling one for £30 this Thursday (I’d always liked the look of the FatBoy hammocks but couldn’t justify spending the money).

    Anyway, reading a bit more it sounds that they’re apparently a good thing to sleep in (as opposed to a bed) as you don’t get the pressure points with a bed which causes the body to shift about during the night. Again, this is from hammock websites
    http://www.hammock-hammocks.com/guides-Sleeping.htm
    so just wanted to see if anyone here had any personal experience of doing it.

    theotherjonv – Eden’s shop have fixings http://www.edenproject.com/shop/Hammocks.aspx

    Keva
    Free Member

    I bought a mayan hammock whilst in Guatemala, whilst I haven’t slept in it, it is very comfy. If you are going to sleep in it I’d recommend getting a good quality one.

    Kev

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    Cheers for the link; most hammock shops have fixings, what I’m really after is advice on how people fix them in parctice. Our garden has big trees down one side which I can use for one end of the fixing, but the other end would be free floating.

    Stoner
    Free Member

    how are you supposed to shag in a hammock though?

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    carefully.

    On the plus side – no wet patch, although it might hang down through the webbing in an unsavoury way.

    Jolsa
    Full Member

    >how are you supposed to shag in a hammock though?

    from the Eden site:
    “In Brazil, hammocks are still used as beds, as they always have been. This is the reason that they are as wide and comfortable as a bed!”

    from Wiki:
    “Brazil population 2009 estimate: 191,241,714”

    The answer to your question: Brazilian style!

    alpin
    Free Member

    i bought one from field & trek a few years back. used it occassionally to sleep in during the day when riding from london-munich. didn’t use it at night.

    i am now thinking whether to buy another to use for my transalp trip at the end of july. it would mean not having to carry my sleeping matt which although relatively small and lightweight still takes up lots of room. my only worry would be finding myself somewhere without decent tree coverage.

    Pippin
    Free Member

    I love my hammocks.

    I have a proper camping one with mossi-net for nights out and a lounge in the garden job too.

    Both have karabiners at either end and I use long tapes to tie around trees, wall anchors etc and then back to the biners. Using the tapes I can tension the hammocks as I want to have them flatter (my preference) or bendier. Check out DD hammocks for tips.

    Where there are limited suspension points I have seen people using bipods at either end (two stout sticks tied together. The tapes can then be used to tension down to a ground anchor.

    I always sleep so well in hammocks.

    The downside for instead of a bed use is that, it is indeed, difficult to shag in a hammock. Although not impossible 😉

    neilnevill
    Free Member

    fixings need to be solid. I got a double hammock last year and hang it in the conservatory using wall anchors and karabiners. I wanted to be able to move it outside so put some anchors in the garage wall and put what I thought was a very solid post up for the other end (4″ square 8 foot wood post bolted to concrete stub fence post, concreted 2 feet deep in the ground) Girlfriend clambered in as I adjusted ropes to get the height right and…..concrete stub post shatters and bends lower GF to ground! ooops. I now have to dig the concrete post out and replace it with an rsj. Poo.

    they are comfy to lounge in though.

    we slept in it overnight once, in the conservatroy in autumn so not a cold place. Found we needed lots of insulation under us though or the exposure to the air/thin hammock left us feeling cold.

    think I got the hammock from a website called hammock heaven or something liek that. Double hammocks are good as the width allows you to lie across them and get a ‘flatter’ position.

    jedi
    Full Member

    i got a double hammock from parachute silk.i sleep in it over night at herts shore

    nicko74
    Full Member

    One word of warning though, don’t go for a banana hammock. It’s really not what I was expecting, and while I do sleep in mine, it doesn’t give me all the support I hoped for…

    jedi
    Full Member

    banana?

    D0NK
    Full Member

    Hehe, on hols last year I spent a lot of time in/on a big double hammock, dead comfy but a little precarious on entry/exit. Using one as a bed would be a cracking idea with the slight drawback that my Mrs would end up crashing to the floor every morning when I got up. “Morning love, sorry did I wake you?” 🙂

    Would love one for the garden.

    Capt.Kronos
    Free Member

    I lived in one for 4 months several years back (Amazonia and the Carribean)… it was utterly ace! I would have kept using it if it hadn’t rotted through at the chords 🙁 Very comfy, and with the shagging… where there’s a will there’s a way (and the challenge just adds to the fun!)

    Keep thinking of getting a new one.

    jojoA1
    Free Member

    I’ve ‘slept’ in a hammock, I use the inverted commas because very little sleeping went on, and not for the good reasons. It was extremely uncomfortable being in a curved shape all night, you couldn’t turn over easily/at all and it was very cold as there is no insulation beneath you unless you put a karrimat underneath you in the netting. I’d rather sleep on the ground thanks. As for using one as a regular bed, you must be mental. Not for me except for a snooze in the sun in the garden occasionally.

    Jolsa
    Full Member

    As for using one as a regular bed, you must be mental

    Possibly. Bit of fun though. Sounds like if you get a decent hammock – one where you can sleep diagonally and therefore make your back flatter, then it’s meant to be a very comfortable way to sleep.

    Think this mental chap might just try it out and see how he gets on. One Amazonas Barbados nurse!

    guitarmanjon
    Free Member

    Aldi-tastic
    Very tempted, even though i don’t have a garden. I’m sure just putting it up in the flat would be ace though.

    Edit: Looking at the pic in the link…does she come with it?

    alpin
    Free Member

    Pippin…… what hammock do you recommend from that DD site?

    i’ve seen a similar version of the first hammock; http://www.ddhammocks.com/gallery.php?id=2

    but is was a lot more expensive. think it included tarp/roof and mossie netting.

    Jimbikes
    Free Member

    Long term hammock user on bivys – favourite so far has been MOD stretcher hammock – and it was only £12 – I quite fancy a hennessey or DD hammock both look good. A further consideration is ease of entry and exit during beer fueled nights out. Comfort is all in the pitching height balance…

    dyna-ti
    Full Member

    I bought one to take to Glastonbury one yea.
    I put it down beside me and some sod nicked it before id even set it up.
    I really must get another 8)

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