Hammock tents that suspend campers up above the cold, unforgiving terrain certainly have their appeal, but the sleeping positions they demand mightn’t be everyone’s idea of a good night’s rest. In search of something more closely resembling home sweet home, Derek Tillotson has come up with a new design that incorporates arcs similar to a suspension bridge to create a flat platform for sleeping and resting.
Tillotson isn’t the first outdoor enthusiast to be struck by the room for improvement in comfort levels of a typical hammock tent. We’ve seen a few companies try to cultivate more even sleeping surfaces through asymmetric designs and ropes that attach to the sides rather than the hammock’s ends, but the Haven Tent stays true to the basic tenets of suspending your sleeping quarters between two trees.
With a single ridge-line anchored to two trees at either end, the tent uses a combination of spreader bars placed inside and structural arcs to create an open and even resting surface suspended above the ground. The arcs mirror those you might see on a suspension bridge like the Golden Gate Bridge, and also lead to low sidewalls that can help occupants of the Haven Tent enjoy the views of their remote surroundings.
Included as part of the tent is an inflatable air mattress made from nylon, which can be blown up in 60 seconds thanks to an integrated foot pump. Built to accommodate users up to 6 ft 6 in tall (198 cm), the pad nestles neatly inside the 23-inch-wide (58-cm) enclosure, which offers a total weight capacity of 280 lb (227 kg).
Other benefits of the low sidewall design include making it easier to hop in and out of the hammock and also more space to hang belongings from the ridge line above. A rainfly and bug net have been designed to easily zip onto the Haven Tent for protection from the elements, though these will add an extra 14 oz (400 g) and 5 oz (100 g), respectively, to the sleeping system’s weight of 4 lb 11 oz (2.125 kg).
Tillotson has taken to Kickstarter to get his Haven Tent into production where things are ticking along just nicely at the time of writing, with more than US$22,000 in pledges taking him past his funding goal of $10,000. Early pledges are available at $285 and will have a Haven Tent with rainfly and bug net sent your way in December this year if the rest of the campaign runs as planned.
Haven Tent hammock offers campers a hanging flat bed [New Atlas]