Specs for hangs

The AT Community folks in Cheshire Mass are developing an overnight site in town for AT hikers. They are thinking of including some posts that would work for hammocks. They would like to know the optimal distance between posts for a successful hang, and approximately how tall these posts should be. Also, would it be helpful to have some eye bolts attached to the posts to make hangs easier, or just leave them plain? Posts would be round and 6” or so in diameter. Feel free to PM me if you’d like.

Cosmo

Good question(s), and "thank you" to Cheshire.

I think you'll cover most, if not all, hammocks if you space them 13 to 14 feet apart.

For height I'd say up to seven and a half feet tall from the ground up.
A lot of hammockers will hang the foot end higher than the head end, me being one who does. I put my foot end higher than six feet up, and my head end a foot or two lower. There are many ways to hang a hammock though.

No, I don't think eye bolts would be necessary at all. In fact, they might even be a hindrance.
I think most hangers, if not all, will have their own suspension and straps of some sort to go around the post(s), be they tree-huggers, or just some kind of full length strap/daisy chain.
With various suspensions, hammock lengths, and size/weight of people using hammocks, the users will set their suspension on the post at various heights depending on what they require, based on those variables and more. So unless the eye bolt were in the "perfect" spot for a certain hammock/suspension/hanger combo, it would likely not be used and/or just not work.

u.w. / willin'

Thanks for thinking of hangers when designing a campground.

u.w. has covered pretty much everything correctly. I'll only add that you need to make sure the posts are very well anchored into the ground. The lateral force exerted by a hammock is fairly significant. Trees stand up to forces like this all the time, but posts usually aren't set deep enough or solidly enough unless you make a special effort. Have an engineer calculate the forces involved to make sure you don't put in something that will fail when it has someone hanging off it.

10' apart and 5' high works for eno hammock. Eye bolt at that point means no strap is necessary.

As noted above, hammocks can put a tremendous load pulling inward on the posts. I've actually broken and uprooted smaller (6" ish) trees on a couple occasions by pitching my hammock too flat so the inward pull was likely well over a ton. Unless they're set into concrete, I doubt any two posts buried in the ground would hold up to a wide range of hammock users over time. If not set in concrete, I would strongly recommend either a guy cable from the top of the pole to counter the inward pull of the hammock, or run a board or pole between the tops of the two poles to hold the poles apart.

Being a taller guy, I would like to see poles at least 7' tall and 13-14' apart. Eno hammocks may fit between poles spaced at 10', because they are only 9' long. But, Eno hammock are too short of many if not most people to get a good lay in. Many hammocks are 11'. I'd love a 12' hammock and may make one to use in the near future.

I'd consider several post configured to be 15 feet apart. Some folks have 11 and 12 foot long hammocks, then the suspension. Most hammockers have some straps and such to make up for longer spans.

Thanks for the replies, folks. Never would have thought of putting the posts that far apart, so we'll work for a 13-14ft separation. I was thinking that a horizontal timber between the posts would help with the "uprooting" problem, but a span that long would require a fairly substantial piece of wood, just to keep it from sagging. If we were to use an inward facing diagonal brace, how high up the post could it go w/o getting in the way? 4ft? How much space between the diagonal braces measured at ground level would be needed? 10ft?

Cosmo

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Originally Posted by nsherry61

As noted above, hammocks can put a tremendous load pulling inward on the posts. I've actually broken and uprooted smaller (6" ish) trees on a couple occasions by pitching my hammock too flat so the inward pull was likely well over a ton. Unless they're set into concrete, I doubt any two posts buried in the ground would hold up to a wide range of hammock users over time. If not set in concrete, I would strongly recommend either a guy cable from the top of the pole to counter the inward pull of the hammock, or run a board or pole between the tops of the two poles to hold the poles apart.

Being a taller guy, I would like to see poles at least 7' tall and 13-14' apart. Eno hammocks may fit between poles spaced at 10', because they are only 9' long. But, Eno hammock are too short of many if not most people to get a good lay in. Many hammocks are 11'. I'd love a 12' hammock and may make one to use in the near future.

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I'd say 15' apart minimum. Like someone above said, with the hammock suspension system (for instance, whoopies) added to the length of the tree strap (or the distance from the post to the Marlin spike hitch on the tree strap) at each end of the hammock, you'd barely have enough room to accommodate an eleven foot hammock.

if I were designing the hanging area, I'd put one post in the middle surrounded by a circle of posts with top beams connecting the center post to the outside posts. From above, it'd look like a wagon wheel or, if the outside posts were at an ever increasing radius from the center, it would look like a spiral. That way you could accommodate those with a 9' ENO or a 12' custom length. An added benefit of a wagon wheel or spiral configuration would be that you could have, say, eight hammocks hanging and only need nine vertical posts.

Hammockers might object to be forced to stay in only one area but, hey, I'd be thankful that someone thought of putting in posts.

One final thought . . . I have obtained used utility poles from the power company when they replace them for age or rot or getting abused from motor vehicle accidents. National Grid or whoever the power company is, has no use for a 12' pole but that length would be ideal for a hammocking area (4' or 5' in the ground and 7' or 8' above grade). Maybe, if you reached out to the power company's public relations office, they'd get behind the idea and donate one of their auger trucks on a Saturday morning for an hour or so and dig all the post holes.

Thanks for thinking of us hammockers!

I hope this link works:
Illustration - Hammock Camping: The Basics
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/top...ink_source=app

If the link doesn’t work, I suggest you post a similar thread on Hammock Forums. A zany guy named Shug is an Uber hammocker, knows a ton, has a great YouTube channel, and is very responsive to newbie questions.

- 13-15 feet between poles for most backpacking hammocks. ENO hammocks are not representative of the cottage market hammocks that are much more popular amongst hammockers.
- I used 12 foot 4x4 posts buried 4 feet into the ground in my back yard and it was fine. But I’d recommend 6x6 posts and bury them deeper with an auger.
- if there’s no roof, you’ll need to account for tarp suspension hanging as well.
- there’s an AT shelter somewhere that is hammock friendly. It looks like a pole barn with a roof and gravel floor IIRC. I’ll try to find the link to that one - perhaps you could reach out to that hostel owner and get some recommendations.

Thanks for reaching out though!


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I don't hammock, but it's probably worth it to align the posts with the prevailing winds, yes?

Derek Hansen has a plan for this in his book "The Ultimate Hang 2" (I got mine from Amazon). He calls it a "Radial Hammock Village".

His plan calls for seven 4"x4"x10' posts set in concrete in a 3' hole, one in the middle surrounded by the other 6, all 12' 6" apart from each other that could hold up to 12 hammockers.

I can't speak to the strength of this arrangement, maybe it needs larger posts set deeper, or some sort of brace across the tops, but it's a good way to set a dozen hammocks up in a 25' circle.

So wonderful of you to do this for the AT Community. I would have loved to have stayed in town after Ice Cream, Tim Hortons and Dollar General on my thru hike, rather than climbing up GreyLock. Don’t re-invent the wheel when figuring out a quality hammock site. Contact Uncle Johnny’s Hostel In Erwin Tn. They offered the only Hammock Camping Spot I took advantage of during a town stay. It was covered so no need for the Tarp and spaced conveniently for my fellow Hammockers. If you can model and build on their concept, you will make many hikers happy.

Have a qualified engineer design this. The forces involved are quite high. You will want your posts deep in concrete lined holes, and tall enough to have adequate drop from post to the butt part of the hammock. An alternative would be well designed hammock stands big enough for at least 11' hammocks plus suspensions. Probably be costly for something that lasts.

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Originally Posted by Feral Bill

. . . An alternative would be well designed hammock stands . . . Probably be costly . . .

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That's a most interesting idea. More limited in hang height and tarp options. Less aesthetically pleasing. More versatile for hang location. I'll bet the cost for stands is also likely to be less than the cost of labor and supplies for fixed posts. Maybe a few stands and a few posts would be a good option?

As to an earlier question regarding the spacing of knee braces, good hammock stands may provide some insight into that.

Good luck.

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Originally Posted by Mike Goodman

10' apart and 5' high works for eno hammock. Eye bolt at that point means no strap is necessary.

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Thats too close for most hammocks. 15’ is best. This allows for tarps to be hung overhead.


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Yes, a tarp needs to cover the ends of the hammocks with some overhang at each end as well. A 10' square tarp hung in diamond orientation* produces a 14' 2" diagonal. If you like to use a nice "V" suspension for your tarp (so the hammock strap can go through the "V"), and you can see that even 15' is short.

Of course, you don't have to use a V, and you don't have to cater to those with 10' square tarps. But it just shows you how some hammock/tarp combos need 15-18'.

As mentioned upthread, you might want to post this question to hammockforums dot net.

*since hanging a 10' tarp square will only provide 5" coverage per side for an 11' hammock hung at the optimal 30-degree angle. (IIRC)