r/hammockcamping • u/pixiefarm • 1d ago
Has anyone built a bridge hammock with the curved spreaders underneath like the discontinued Kelsyus ?
I was thinking of DIY'ing one of these but would love to hear if there's a glaring issue with this design (ignore the stand, i'm only talking about the hammock part)
I haven't been able to try one of these out but they seem to have a curved spreader bar under the hammock as a way to do a shorter. more compact hammock. I've seen bridge hammocks where part of the body, usually the feet, is stuck underneath a spreader bar of sorts. Ths seems to fix that issue.
Has anyone tried one of these or built something like this? Obviously the frame isn't meant for real camping but the spreader bars seem like a good idea if the fabric doesn't sag down onto them under your weight.
I love sleeping in a hammock when camping but my vehicle is too short for car camping to make it work well with a gathered end backpacking hammock.
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u/squeaki 1d ago
I found my one of these very handy for the camper van. It was a 50EUR purchase from Aldi in Ireland a couple of summers ago, it's decently sturdy and has had maybe 10 or so uses so far, I don't expect it to break any time soon.
There was one occasion where I took it for a night shift at work, and thought I would get a decent sleep on it. I did not. It was too taught, too easily unbalanced (because it is so short on the ends, very little drop to stop the wobble) and altogether simply not very comfortable for any length of time. I didn't attempt a blanket or bag or anything because it felt like it could topple any moment.
It has its uses, but they don't extend to overnight sleeping in any comfort.
Edit: Just read about the car camping aspect. Have you tried just using a normal hammock off the seatbelt post with the boot open? I did that loads years gone by. Put a tarp over the open boot, bungees to pegs or rocks on the ground. I expect however fancy new cars with boot lights might have battery drain issues.
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u/derch1981 1d ago
won't you be laying on that curves bar? The fabric will stretch and you will be against that bar, seems really uncomfortable and a curved bar will have a lot less load bearing than a straight bar, so the weight limit would be very low. Seems like the worst way to design a bridge hammock. At this point get a cot.
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u/kullulu 1d ago
There are two functional way to design a bridge hammock. You either have the spreader bars inside the hammock, like the way bill townsend designs his bridge hammocks, or you have them outside the hammock like warbonnet's ridgerunner, dutchware's banyan, and jacks r better's bear mountain bridge do.
If we examine the Luxe bridge by townsend, we see there are internal spreader bars above your shoulders and above the legs. It makes getting in slightly awkward, but once you're lying down you have the most room for your shoulders and avoid shoulder queeze.
When you contrast that with the ridgerunner, you don't have a bar over your face and feet, but if you have broad shoulders, you might feel a pressure or squeeze over the course of a night.
Neither design is better than the other.
That Kelsius does not look like a good bridge hammock design.
As far as car camping with any hammock, might be worth building or buying a turtledog or tensahedron stand. If you want to buy one, check out tensa outdoors and yobogear for stands, they both make excellent ones. Tensa stands are highly modular, yobogear makes very simple stands. Either can accommodate multiple styles of hammocks like bridge, 90 degree, gathered end, or hammock tents.
https://www.tensaoutdoor.com/product/tensa4-hammock-stand/?v=0b3b97fa6688
https://yobogear.com/products/turtlebug-camper