Tensa Outdoor Tensa4 User manual

Tensa4 Hammock Stand
User Guide
Setting up...................................................................................................1
Adjustment ...............................................................................................5
Anchoring..................................................................................................6
Pitching a tarp ...........................................................................................7
Tips and tricks ...........................................................................................8
Don'ts.........................................................................................................9

Tensa4 is a highly portable hammock stand, suitable for outdoors or inside, on flat or
sloping ground, whether for travel, recreation,or full-time use as a bed. It accommodates
gathered-end hammocks up t0 12 feet long, with a ~30° sag and the foot end higher than
the head, for laying flat on the diagonal. You can also adjust it to hang bridge and
transverse style hammocks. It requires at least one anchor point to set up, ideally two.
Tensa Outdoor rates Tensa4 for users up to 350 pounds, itself weighing 12-14 pounds with
accessories,packing to 20 inches long and less than 6 inches around.
Pre-Columbian petroglyphs at the Puerco Pueblo ruins in the Arizona desert seem to depict hammocks hung from poles
leaning apart.Hammocks are known to have been indigenous bedding only in distant tropical climes.
Tensa4 Hammock Stand User Guide
Copyright © 2022 Tensa Outdoor
All rights reserved
Version 1.6, February 2022
See http://tensaoutdoor.com/support/ for revisions in PDF format.

Setting up
1. Check to assure your stand is complete,identifying the following:
2. Extend and join the eight telescoping sections to make four 7-segment poles.
Four 4-segment tubing sections,and four
3-segment sections
Four ball-loop connectors
Two ground anchors,one screw for soft
ground, and one nail type for hard
Four lines: orange baseline, black ridgeline,and
two black & orange guylines

3. Arrange the four poles in a figure-8, laying the orange baseline between one pair of
corners (the feet), and the black ridgeline between the other (the apexes).
4. Join the poles and lines at the corners as shown, inspecting loops for damage or
excessive wear:
2
Thread ball loop through one foot
Pass loop through webbing loop
Pull loop over ball to secure
…then through the other

5. Put the stand’s feet near their
final place, spreading the baseline
by about your body length, laying
the apexes together in a V shape.
If on a slope, assure that the feet
are level.
A good place provides for a foot-
end anchor a body length or more
away in the direction the V points.
See Anchoring on page 6 for
detailed notes.
6. Attach the black end of a guyline
to the bottom (foot end) apex,
passing the pole connector line
through one of the upper daisy-
chain loops to leave a tail of loops
inside the stand. These will be your hammock suspension.See step 10 for a peek at
the end result.
7. Secure the orange end loop of the guyline to the anchor.
8. Lift the top (head end) apex to erect the stand.Unwrap any lines from around poles
so they run cleanly across the corners. Set the stand ridgeline to maximum length.
3

Adjust the guyline length or feet position so the stand leans away from the anchor,
with the head end lower than the foot.
9. Attach and anchor the head end guyline. Its main purpose is to prevent the stand
collapsing toward the foot side.Do not tighten it, now or ever. Leave it slack so the
head end apex is free to move at least several inches. This allows both manual and
dynamic adjustments, and avoids overloading the poles.
10. Hang the hammock from carabiners in the daisy-chain suspension. Hammocks
shorter than 12ʹ(3.7M) need enough suspension to make up the difference with 12.
Thus, a 10ʹhammock will need about 1’ of suspension per side.If your hammock has
a ridgeline (cord between gathered ends),you may remove the stand’s ridgeline to
simplify adjustments.
4

Pole, guyline, and hammock connection detail.
Adjustment
“There’sgonnabea littlebitoftweaking,butonceit’sset,it’sset.”— Sean “Shug” Emery
Test and adjust the hang. Start by sitting in the hammock, always keeping your body
weight centered on the lower (head) side of the baseline. It is normal for the ridgeline to
sag a bit when you sit,but not when you recline. Take heart: setting up the first time
typically takes much longer than later, once the line lengths are set and you develop a
feel.
Problem
Remedies
Seat is too low
• Shorten baseline.
• Shorten hammock suspension.
Seat is too high
• Verify that head end guyline is slack.
• Lengthen hammock suspension.
• Widen baseline.
Ridgeline sags when reclining
• Lengthen hammock suspension.
• Increase stand tilt.
• If hammock has integral ridgeline
(cord between gathered ends),
remove stand ridgeline.
• If hammock has no ridgeline, shorten
stand ridgeline.
Problem
5

Anchoring
The foot end anchor must bear at least half of your body weight. Suitable anchors include
the bases of well-rooted shrubs,vehicles,large rocks or chinks in rock features,the hinge
pins of doors, handrails or other architectural features, shoes closed behind strong closet
or built-in cabinet doors, the frame of a bed atop which the stand is erected,etc. A truly
portable anchor for places with zero other opportunities is one or more collapsible water
vessels placed directly under the foot apex.
Use ground anchors when there are no suitable alternatives on site.Select the anchor for
the critical foot end based on the ground conditions,using the other for the less critical
head end. Anchors hold best placed as far away from the stand as the guylines allow, soil
conditions permitting.
Screw anchors are usually the best choice for soft to
medium-hard ground.If you hit an obstacle, you
can sometimes use the Tensa Boomstake to make a
pilot hole for the screw to enter more easily.
Tensa Boomstakes are best for ground too hard for
screw anchors, able to be pounded through softer
rock. In softer ground where the stake alone might
pull out, add the boom to make the stake act more
Head or feet touch poles
• Widen baseline.
• Shorten hammock suspension
overall, or lengthen on contact end,
shorten on non-contact end .
• If head touches, reduce stand tilt.
• If feet touch, increase stand tilt.
• Verify that stand feet are level.
• Cross poles so those nearest head
and feet are outboard.
Stand tips toward foot end
• Increase stand tilt to shift body
weight further toward head end.
• Shorten head end guyline enough to
prevent tip, but not make taut when
hammock empty.
Remedies
Problem
6

like a hook into the ground. First insert
the stake through the holes in the end of
the boom tube to make a figure 7. Point
the boom toward the stand, and drive the
stake in at an angle to keep the boom
horizontal.Loop the end of the guyline
over the end of the stake and under the
tang, then twist the guyline around the
boom end as shown right.
The most challenging ground lacks any
cohesion, like loose sand, pea gravel, mud,
or the unstructured fill dirt below many sunbelt-suburban lawns. If possible,excavate or
relocate to find firmer ground. Try using both guylines and anchors on the foot end. If still
insufficient, find a log or fill the carry bag with the loose material,tie the guyline around
the middle, and bury it crosswise a foot or more deep as a “dead man’s anchor.”
Pitching a tarp
Finish all stand adjustments for the
hammock before pitching any tarp.Tarps
up to 11ʹ(3.35M) long fit between the
apexes, their staked guylines tensioning.
For more headroom, set up on a slope
with the head end pointing upslope to
make a roomy vestibule under the foot
end.
Longer tarps call for creativity or the Tarp
Extensions for Tensa4 accessory (sold
separately; shown right) which also
increases headroom.
Never tension a tarp by tightening the
head end guyline.
7

Tips and tricks
Moving and stowing the stand
You can move the stand easily from one place to another with hammock still attached,
either open or collapsed into a column.This is useful for getting farther from or closer to
the party, to adapt to changing light or wind conditions, or to stow the stand away to re-
deploy quickly. You can partially collapse the poles while assembled, to stow by day under
a bed or in a closet, to save space.
Single anchor
We recommend anchoring both sides of the stand to avoid collapses, for instance in
winds with the stand empty, or when you reach for a zipper pull at your feet, but only the
foot guyline is mandatory. If you can’t anchor the head end, hang a counterweight such as
a pack or water vessel from the head apex to stabilize.
Two hammocks, one tree, one Tensa4
Split the stand into two inverted V’s. Hang foot ends of the hammocks from the tree (or
pole, vehicle, etc).Put the open ends of the Vs along the hammock sides, at much the
same shallow angle and width as if setting up normally. Set a ground anchor beneath
each head apex, and secure the feet to the anchor using lines in Vs along the ground to
prevent the feet sliding toward the tree.Hang the head ends from the apexes. Note that
this calls for two additional ball loop connectors or improvised equivalent.
Bridge, spreader-bar, or other tight-pitch hammocks
Set the base to only about 3-4ʹ(1M) so the poles clear any spreader bars underneath, and
the apexes spread wide and low. Omit stand ridgeline.
Transverse hammocks
Also called 90-degree hammocks. Do not lean the stand as for gathered-end hammocks,
but balance it centered with both guylines lightly tensioned.
See-saw
If you want head and foot ends to be interchangeable, say in a social setting where
unsupervised users may not understand the asymmetry, adjust the head guyline length
so when the stand tips footward, the stand leans the same amount as it did headward,
switching orientation.
8

Tensa Solo conversion
Tensa Solo is a hammock stand product sold separately, that uses many of the same
components as Tensa4. Its main advantage is lower weight,pack size,and cost,at the
expense of some reliability since it requires more and stronger ground anchors than
Tensa4. You can convert one Tensa4 economically into four Tensa Solos using Tensa4 to
Tensa Solo Conversion Kits, sold separately, to accommodate larger groups.
Joining multiple Tensa4 stands
Two stands can share a common foot-end pole (seven poles altogether) and anchor. Add
more, up to six hammock berths around a single central anchor using only 4.5 complete
stands’ worth of poles in a sociable“flower,” each hammock a petal.
Don’ts
There is more than one acceptable way to do most things with Tensa4, but a few things
especially to avoid:
•Don’t attach hammock suspension around both poles on either end, as this can bend
the poles inward under load, damaging or destroying them. Hang instead from the
provided carabiners and daisy loops in the guyline tails, or by attaching your
suspension to the pole connectors.
•Don’t tension the head guyline to “pry open” the stand beyond its natural balance point
when the hammock is occupied. This can overload the poles.
9

•Don’t grip, push or pull on the poles while anybody is in the hammock.
•Don’t swing in the hammock enough to collide with the poles.
•Don’t collapse the poles when dirty, as they may jam. Wipe them down as necessary,
optionally applying a light waxy or silicone lubricant. If you disassemble sections
completely for thorough cleaning, remember to leave one as a re-assembly reference.
10
A. B. RICHARDSON & D. FULLER.
HAMOCK STANDS
Patented Aug. 8, 1876.
No. 180,729.
Q
76/75. Fiefta, rods on
a.
Zaz 7zz
f
/224
N.FETERS, Phoro-LTHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON, oc.