hanging a hammock?

I am up in the northern Illinois too and haven't had any issues hanging my hammocks at IL and WI parks. When I don't have a second tree nearby I take one of my spare boards for leveling and rig it up. 2X8 that is probably 6 ft tall. Plant one end in the ground and lean it away from the hammock a little. Tie the hammock to the top then run a rope back to my bumper or any other stationary object to anchor it. I used a sign post for the site 25 feet away the last time. Then I run a rope out each side and stake it to keep it stationary. I can send you a pic if you want. It doesn't take long and it used all stuff I already had with.

We were fussed at in a Florida State Park. A couple of days into our trip my wife was at the camper, and the ranger came by and told her that "you can't encroach on the vegatation." My wife looked at him and said "What". He got said it again, my wife couldn't figure out what he meant. He got frustrated and started pointing at the hammock. My wife said "do you mean I need to take my hammock down?". He said yes.

We laugh about it all the time. We didn't mean to cause trouble, but it was really funny to use encroaching on the vegetation as a way of saying no hammocks. He had been trying to track us down for 3 days, he could have just left a note asking us to take down the hammock.

I've seen some people rig up and A-frame on each end of the hammock with a rope going back to an anchor in the ground. That would be portable, and not take up much room.

Mr. Camper wrote:
Good luck finding a park that will allow you to hang something from a tree.

Florida State Parks started this policy about 5 years ago:" •Hammock use and any other associated lines may be attached to trees that are minimum of 12 inches in diameter measured at chest height and using a minimum of 2 inch wide flat web straps. Some parks may provide hammock posts instead of trees."

Now all they to do is equip everyone with tape measures to insure that the proper width of strap is being used.

so far i've seen plenty of places with clotheslines on trees, i tie my dogs to tree trunks on tie-outs.

i wasn't planning on screwing anything into the tree, just rope around it, wouldn't even really leave a mark


i like the TV hitch idea, seems it would be a lot better than putting something on the TT. i considered a hammock stand, but that would mean more "stuff" to pack. ill look into them further. thanks for the tips as always!

Best portable hammock.

We traveled through Yellowstone and Jackson Hole last year. If we couldnt find 2 trees we put the bike rack in the truck's receiver and put the other end to a tree.

Lowe's sells GREAT hammock stands. the break down into 3 tubes, and just snap together.

Good luck finding a park that will allow you to hang something from a tree.

A properly fabricated device attached to the A-frame or bumper should work.

Or

A steel pad you could put under a tire or stabilizer jack with a post welded to it to attach the hammock to. It would need triangle gussets at the pad and post to support the weight and add side to side stability.

This would be too weak but something like this
http://thediyoutlet.com/products/16-x6-steel-telescoping-tailgating-flagpoles-tire-stand?gclid=CPCGmoypx8YCFcGRHwod6kkCWA