We haven't talked about this for a while, so I figured I'd update it. I was looking at either a Speer hammock or the Trease Dome 1.
I ended up buying a hammock kit from Ed Speer (
www.speerhammocks.com
) and then made it myself (well, actually my mom did the sewing part). It was pretty easy, and it comes with great directions. I treated it with permethrin (a bug killer) and used it to spend the night 85' up in a tree while in Panama. A platform had been lashed to the two of the trunks of the tree we were in. Two other climbers also spent the night up there with me, one in a Crazy Crib, the other in a Dryad. Bugs weren't a problem for any of us, but none of us really slept well. For me, I think that mostly it was just getting used to the newness of being in the hammock. The other two were on opposite sides of the platform and apparently kept waking each other up whenever they changed postions. I think the Speer hammock has a lot of potential, and it is easy to rig in the tree.
Now, about the Trease...
I had really high hopes for the Trease when I first learned about it and ordered it. It was well made and looked like it would be reasonably easy to set up. I was wrong. I set it up 3 or 4 times and I was able to gradually get the setup time down to 1 hour 15 minutes. I don't think that setup time would decrease much more with more practice. Having struggled with setting and readjusting the floor tensioner and hanging straps numerous times during each setup at chest height, I simply can't envision being able to rig it while hanging in a tree. Or, at least, I don't think it would be worth the extensive time it would take. I'd be happy to be more specific if someone wants more info about the setup.
MUCH more troubling to me were the business practices of Tim Steiner from Trease. He started out very nice and helpful, but once he realized that I wasn't going to keep it, his attitude quickly changed. He began pressuring me to either keep it or sell it to one of you, and he tried to change his return policy so that I wouldn't get very much money back (so that I'd just keep it, instead). I ended up returning it just before Christmas; I still haven't gotten any amount back and had to file a complaint with my credit card company. Just thought I'd share my bad experience. Patrick
