Tentsile invented Tree Tents so you can expand your appreciation of trees. Plus, camping suspended off the ground, as any Tentsile fan will know, offers supreme comfort. And setting up a tree tent or hammock isn’t as hard as you might at first expect. As with all tents, it takes time to get to grips with how to perfect their set-up and a Tentsile is no different.
So, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to find that perfect pitch…
Finding Trees!
We’re often asked whether you need ‘three perfect trees’ to pitch a Tentsile, meaning ‘do they have to be in a perfect triangle?’ The answer is, no they don’t!
What you do need however is healthy trees to anchor your tent. So, the first rule is
- make sure that the trees you intend to anchor to are healthy and strong. Visual signs on this are easy to spot. No leaves? Usually, this would indicate a dead tree—do not use! Also, signs of decay, including fungus and mushrooms growing from the trunk, are a clear sign of rotting wood and should be avoided. If in doubt, choose another tree.
- Ground conditions are also important. A healthy tree may not always be rooted in firm ground. Make sure your trees are fully rooted in good, solid ground, and that the tree is strong enough to take the load!
- We recommend that the tree trunk should be no less than 12”/30cm in diameter—this is a good, strong tree.
Alignment
The alignment of your three straps is key for a good night’s sleep - the closer you are to getting the under-floor straps (aka anti-roll straps) and your orange ratchet straps to line up perfectly, the tighter the tent or hammock will be and the better it will feel. Here is a good guide for this.
To help you achieve the best set-up you have two options:
- You can download the ‘Tethered Tents’ app for iOS or Android which has been developed by a genius Tentsile owner. We’ve been out and tested the app ourselves, which works brilliantly at providing you measurements for how long each strap should be to provide the perfect pitch.
It’s really easy to use too. All you have to do is select the model or tree tent or hammock you’re pitching, provide the distances between your trees and input these into the app. Now this doesn’t mean you have to take a measuring tape out into the forest with you, I used my stride to provide me with an approximate metre measurement.
Once you’ve inputted these measurements, the app will tell you how long each strap needs to be from the tree to your tree tent or hammock. Follow these measurements (and again, the don’t need to be absolutely precise) and use your sight line tags to check you have the right angles and you’ll get an almost perfect set-up!
- The other way is to lay out your tree tent or hammock between the trees you have selected as shown in our set-up videos. Once you have each corner pointing in the direction of the corresponding tree you can attach the ratchets and straps to the trees at your desired height and then ratchet the tree tent or hammock so it becomes suspended off the ground.
Once you’ve got some good tension you can check your sight-line tags to inspect whether you’ve got the right angles. If not, all you need to do is either pull more tension though one or two corners, depending on what your sight line tag is telling you, or take out some tension and play with the length of each strap depending on where your sight line tag is pointing.
Just like a spider’s web which always uses three anchoring points to make a perfect spiral web, some of those anchoring lines can be much longer than others, but it always makes a perfect web!
Calibrate
On the underside of every 2, 3, 4+ person tree tent and hammock floor there is our patented Anti-Roll strap system. This system prevents you from rolling into the middle of the tent like a traditional hammock and allows for different weights of people to ensure you all have a comfy night’s sleep and your own individual sleeping bay.
So, once you’ve set your product up, get everyone inside and check to see if your Anti-Roll straps need re-calibrating. Again, this is really to do, you just need to tighten (or loosen depending on your sleeping preferences) the straps to suit your needs.
Watch our video on how to adjust your Anti-Roll straps to ensure you get the best set-up…
Protect the Trees you Use
We love trees, and Tentsile was founded not only to help inspire a love and appreciation of them but to also help protect and save them!
Unlike traditional hammock straps which are thin and can damage the trees they use, our straps are wide, AND all our products come with Tree Protector Wraps included. The wide straps help to spread the load on the surface of the tree trunk so the vertical transportation nutrition just under the bark is left unaffected. The tree wraps also protect the surface bark.
We do, however, recommend that all tents be taken down at least once every three months and moved up or down the trunk by 6-8”/15-20cm so that one area is not stressed too much. It’s also a good opportunity to carry out a safety check on all product components for signs of wear and tear😊.
As always, the team are here to help with any questions or support you need so don’t forget to drop us an email or live chat and say hello!
Comments
The app is fantastic.
Makes tings alot more easy, thanks.