Trease hanging tent

I recently received a Floating Dome 1 from Trease.biz . I have set it up, at waist height level only, a couple of times. It's an interesting concept. The decking is shaped like a triangle, and you attach webbing from the tree to each of the 3 corners of the Trease. After you have it elevated off the ground, you tighten the the ropes by pulling on a small pulling system. The pulling system (the "tensioner") has a locking cam to capture the progress of the rope you pulled. You can get the decking very tight with this system. The tent part uses two poles to raise the canopy of the tent, similar to most lightweight tents these days.
I hope to have pictures to post in the next few days.

Patrick,

Can't wait to see your photos. Does the tent have an insulated bottom for winter use?

I originally posted this in the "poll" listed above. I removed a website I had set up with pictures because after my bad experiences, I don't recommend the product or the company.

Lobo, the last I heard, their plan was to offer an additional piece of material that you could attach underneath the dome and then put an insulation material between the underside of the floor and the additional piece of material.

Speer hammock and Trease

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 while standing on the ground, 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 '03. After repeated attempts to resolve the situation, I had to file a complaint with my credit card company to get my money back in April '04. Just thought I'd share my bad experience. Patrick

I've made and used Speer type hammocks for a couple of years now when I go backpacking. I think they're wonderful! They do take a bit of getting used to, but I really feel very comfortable in it now and sleep a lot better than I used to on the ground. I can set mine up in just a couple of minutes and take it down in no time.

Speer puts out a book "Hammock Camping" that tells you how to make one. There's also a great discussion group over on Yahoo (Hammockcamping) that gives you great ideas. I put some insulation on the bottom of mine and I can now go to at least 30 degrees comfortably.

I haven't slept in it way up in a tree yet 'cos I'm really new to tree climbing, but intend to do it this summer a few times.

Originally posted by docteric
I put some insulation on the bottom of mine and I can now go to at least 30 degrees comfortably.

How do you keep the insulation in? I'll probably add another layer to my hammock - like Risk's Z-hammock.
(For others, click http://www.imrisk.com/zhammock/zhammock.htm ).
Patrick

Patrick, my wife is a hammock camper and recently built insulation systems for herself and for the woman she camps with. They used them a few times this past Fall and are quite pleased.

Although she made a few modifications, her general design idea came from
http://www.hennessyhammock.com/reflector.htm

Basically, it's a large (truck size) windshield sun reflector, with fleece glued to one side (the side closer to your body).

I thought the idea was a bit nutso; figured the reflector would feel hard--like cardboard--underneath me, but after trying it, found it to be pretty comfortable and definitely effective.

If you try this idea, I'll be interested in your results. I will be reading, but will not be permitted to post here in a day or so.

I've used the reflector insulation system for a while - it works pretty well, but slides around a lot. If you have a double layer hammock (like the Risk's one mentioned earlier) it might hold it pretty well.

I quilted some Polarguard to the bottom of mine and it works like a charm. I sewed a piece of 1.1 ounce nylon to the bottom of the hammock, with the insulation between the layers of fabric. Then I put in a series of quilting loops to hold the insulation from shifting. I made mine a little differently, but you could look on Risk's site http://www.imrisk.com/hammock/warmhammock.htm.

This so far seems like the best answer I've found to cold hammocks.