Camping Hammock Review
The decision between using a tent or hammock is a purely personal one.
But, in my opinion, once you have tried a hammock you’ll be hard pressed to want to sleep in a tent again.!
Modern hammocks are, without doubt, both comfortable and spacious.
If you have never tried a hammock or maybe tested one out many years ago you are in for a surprise – they are extremely comfortable, well made and roomy, offering a choice of left or right entry, although not many of the manufacturers are able to offer that ( the hammock I’m reviewing here does though,! )
You will also find a built in mosquito nets to keep you nice and bug free.
Modern technology and materials now mean you can get a high end hammock with all the trimmings in one, super lightweight carry bag.
You don’t need to carry around several bits of kit – a tent, fly sheet, poles and pegs, a mallet, a sleeping mat, a mossi net or a ground sheet – it’s all there in one lightweight carry bag – your survival hammock……
All good manufacturers consider the environment now, and the effect of someone setting up camp with a tent, even for a few days, will leave a footprint of dried and damaged soil and plants – using a hammock will completely eliminate that.
Hammock design has now taken that on board as well, ensuring the methods of securing your hammock to a tree are both safe and will not harm the bark of the tree at all.
Manufacturers supply purpose make tree slings that loop around the tree to secure the hammock, these are easily removed and will leave no trace on the tree.
This is an important point to consider when choosing your camping hammock – I have found that the good quality manufacturers take this seriously and produce quality equipment to go with their hammock system.
Choosing your hammock
There are several good points that favour a hammock over the conventional tent setup –
- off the ground sleeping
- a level bed
- lightweight
- compact
But, of course the downside has always been – what if your not in a forest and have no trees around you.?
Introducing the DD Jungle Camping Hammock
I have been looking for a system that can offer the best of both worlds – a tent, for hiking across open ground and a hammock for woods, and I think I have found the solution.
The DD Jungle Hammock. This hammock system offers you a comfortable conventional hammock as well as easily being used as a bivvy for setting up camp in the open fields.
I really like this hammock – it only weighs in at 1800 grams,
Weight breakdown:
Hammock + Whoopie Slings = 510g
Mosquito Net = 490g
Waterproof Layer = 370g
Poles = 210g
Tree Huggers, Karabiners, Elastic + Bag = 220g
that’s less than two bags of sugar!
The whole kit goes into the supplied custom waterproof carry bag that measures 42cm x 16cm x 16cm – that is tiny compared to carrying a tent, you also get a couple of straps to keep everything in place.
I found this size of carry bag easily fits onto a rucksack – mine is a 60ltr Mod and the width is perfect.
So how does it work and what makes this a good choice of camping hammock..?
Having tried a few hammocks back in the old days I was very surprised at how far technology has improved and this All New Modular Camping System from DD Hammocks. it really is the bees knees.!
I have divided it up into 3 main sections:
1. the main hammock – this include the lightweight tree suspension kit/slings – DD call these a “whoopie sling suspension kit”.
2. a removable mosquito net.
3. a custom waterproof tarp layer – this can be used in three ways – 1/ left off completely: 2/ below as a bivvy ground sheet: 3/ above the hammock as a compact rain/sun tarp.
* there are also full width “spreader poles” – these give the hammock width and give a very spacious sleeping area – you can leave these off if you want.
I tend to do very little ‘lightweight’ hiking as I prefer to have as many creature comforts with me as possible.! This means having a hammock that does everything right yet it is light and compact to carry is a big bonus for me – it means I can carry more luxuries.!!
Now I am not tall, measuring in as a British Standard Englishman of 5’8″ but the hammock has tons of room inside – enough for anyone upto 6’5″ and weighing 125kg [ that’s nearly 20 stone ]
You also have some fiberglass poles that spring together and are fed through the mossi net which act as spreader bars – these make a huge difference to the width of the hammock and are a brilliant design.
Conclusions:
All in all it’s hard to fault this excellent bit of survival kit. If you’ve always fancied the idea of using a hammock instead of a tent then you won’t go far wrong in choosing this one.
DD Hammocks also make a variety of other hammocks to suit different survival and camping scenarios, but for pure quality and versatility I would go for the Jungle Hammock every time – theres also a DD Jungle Hammock with 2 Base Layers – this is identical to the standard jungle hammock but with an additional base layer for added insulation.
The 2 Base Layer hammock adds weight in your pack, at just over the 2kg as opposed to the 1.8kg for the Standard DD Jungle Hammock – but neither is better or worse than the other really, it’s just personal preference – lighter weight to carry or a bit more insulation – your choice really….
You can add to this hammock setup to make things even more comfortable, namely:
Theres also a rather nice 3m x 3m – Lightweight Tarp that goes over the whole hammock setup – with a purpose sown in ridge line.
It’s a super tough coated polyester with a good 3000PU water resistance and as you can see in the photo, has lots of solid attachment points so this will gives very usable dry ‘camp’ area below and around your hammock position.
It’s also perfect for a normal ground sheet or a basha for some low level stealth camping.
I think it’s priced very competitively at under £40 inc VAT & delivery, especially considering the quality and the added ridgeline fixings.
I hope you have enjoyed my Best Camping Hammock Review – Happy Prepping Folks..
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