How To Make a Telescoping Hammock Stand For Single End Support or Self Supported DIY like the Kammok Outpost Hammock Stand
- Jan 6
- 5 min read
On the east coast, it's usually easy to find trees to hang your hammock. Sometimes the trees are not spaced apart correctly, or convenient for hammock hanging, or the park doesn't allow you to hang hammocks because it damages the trees when people use strings vs straps. In these cases, an alternative hammock hanging option is needed.
The portable free standing hammock stands I've tried are too short, too low, heavy, or complex. I've successfully hung the hammock from the van roof rack to nearby trees. I wanted a hammock stand that can use a vehicle or other stable object as one side of the stand.
KAMMOCK makes something like this and call it the OUTPOST. It's cool, but I'm not prepared to pay over $500 to hang my hammock. It's a hard price to justify the occasional inconvenience of not being able to hammock, when hanging it on trees is free.
I've also found that connecting anything to a vehicle requires breaking camp to use the vehicle. The option for free-standing ability would be great.
Connecting to a camper van adds another issue. When anyone inside moves, the hammock will move. When someone in the hammock moves, the people sleeping in the van will feel it. Yet another reason to have the free-standing add-on option available.
However, I still like the idea of using a supported hammock stand with a tree or other solid object to make it easier to find the perfect spot to hang your hammock.
MATERIALS
TOP POLE
The top pole is the most difficult part to find to DIY a DIY single-supported or free-standing hammock stand. It needs to be at least 12 feet long, but pack down to a manageable length.
If the hammock is connected at the joints where the top pole is supported, then the force in the top pole is compression along the axis. There's no bending. So the top pole only needs to be strong enough in bending to prevent buckling under compression. That means it doesn't need nearly as much strength as a pole that needs to support a bending load.
I tried painters' poles, but they were not rigid enough. Maybe the carbon fiber painters' poles sold on Amazon would be rigid enough.
Harbor Freight Telescoping Flagpole
This 20 ft telescoping flagpole is very strong and makes an excellent top pole. The ends can extend far past the hammock lashing points.
Carbon Fiber Painter's Pole or Pool Cleaning Pole
This carbon fiber swimming pool cleaning pole is quite rigid and strong and can be used for a top pole. It is important that all the forces are in line with the axis of the pole so that the pole only experiences compression and no bending. The lashing points for the hammock ends should be at the intersection of the legs.
WHERE TO BUY:
Carbon Fiber Tarp Poles
The carbon fiber tarp poles are similar to the CF pool cleaning pole, but they have shorter sections. They compress to a shorter length for more compact storage.
For use as a top pole, two poles would be attached end-to-end to form one long pole. The base sections of this pole are quite large and decrease in diameter along its length. It is a strong, rigid pole. It is important that all the forces are in line with the axis of the pole so that the pole only experiences compression and no bending. The lashing points for the hammock ends should be at the intersection of the legs.
WHERE TO BUY:
LEG POLES
The leg poles need to extend to at least 6 ft in length. These are almost 7 ft long. The base sections are not as large in diameter as the 118" pole. These are plenty strong enough for leg poles.
WHERE TO BUY:
V1 Primitive Lashing
This was the first test. We arrived at the campground at 2am. There were a lot of trees were we camped, but I couldn't find any with the right spacing and clearance for a hammock. I lashed this together as quickly as possible.
I only had 1 4-8ft painter's pole for the bipod end, need to get another so I can raise that higher.
This setup worked great. It was super stable. I slept better than ever before in a hammock, which was largely due to the new insulated hammock I was using. Low 40's weather and I was wearing shorts and a fleece jacket and was toasty. This GRAND TRUNK Evolution Down hammock is also far more comfortable than the regular travel hammocks. It feels roomier and less restricting.
SELF SUPPORTED
The Kammok product top bar is 12ft long, which is a bit short for being able to adjust the hammock. The flagpole extends to 20ft. I'm thinking If I fully extend the flagpole, and put a bipod about 3 ft from each end of the flagpole, add adjustable straps from the end of the flagpole to the bottom of the bipod legs, and straps between the bottoms of the bipod legs from one end to the other, that should stabilize everything, and leaves 14-16ft of adjustablity for hanging the hammock.
If more stability is needed, additional straps can be used going from the bottom of the bipod legs towards the center of the top bar. Position them about 3 feet inwards from where the bipod connects to the top bar. Make sure that they don't interfere with getting in and out of the hammock, or while sleeping in the hammock.
Additionally, tying the bottom of the legs together will help prevent them from spreading.
If more stability is needed, the bipods can be crossbraced as shown. The limitation here is if they will clear the hammock. Depends on how far the bipod legs are spread out.
Tie the center of those long lines to limit movement even more.
That's starting to be a lot of straps/rope that will probably be a mess to setup and take down. It's going to be difficult to keep it untangled.
A tripod design like this will require 2 extra poles, but will be a lot easier to setup. Less straps/rope to get tangled.
One of the legs could also be extended to support a tarp or net higher than the top bar.
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