This is the Haven Hammock Tent, it’s essentially a hammock and a tent in one, and unusually it has a completely flat bed for a good nights sleep, as opposed to the curved shape of a traditional hammock.
The patented design of the Haven Hammock Tent has caused quite a stir since it was introduced in 2019 on Kickstarter. The project quickly received full funding, in fact it received almost ten times the original amount that the founders had hoped for. The tents are now in full production across three model lines.
The first hammocks are believed to have been developed by the Native Americans, though there is some archeological evidence that they were in use in other regions. The first hammocks were made from woven tree bark, and they offered protection from snakes, biting ants, and other harmful insects and spiders while people slept.
Hammocks were soon adopted en masse by sailors, as it offered them a far superior sleeping experience below decks on ships that rocked significantly all night long – the hammocks would sway and the occupants would no longer fall out of their bunks.
Explorers and adventurers have long used hammocks as it provided a quick bed anywhere with two anchor points. They’re also lightweight and compact when they’ve been rolled up for transport, far more so than a camp bed/cot or a sleeping roll.
Perhaps the one key shortcoming of the hammock is that it forces people to sleep on their backs, and it curves them into a semi-elliptical curve whether they like it or not. This isn’t too bad for natural back sleepers, but for side and front sleepers it can cause poor sleep quality.
The team at Haven developed a new kind of hammock inspired by suspension bridge design, using suspension arcs, spreader bars, and a structural ridgeline that results in a hammock with a completely flat sleeping platform – suitable for back, side, and front sleepers.
Each tent can be ordered with a standard sleeping pad, a premium pad, or no pad at all if you already have a camping pad/mattress you would like to use. The Haven Tent comes with a weatherproof rainfly, zippered bug netting, a tree-friendly suspension system, and built-in storage pockets – it’s essentially a full-featured tent that you hang up rather than set up on the ground.
A series of accessories are also available, including the RidgeLite – a series of battery operated LEDs that attach to the tent’s ridgeline to provide illumination (shown in pictures above and below).
The standard Haven Tent retails for $339 USD while the Haven Tent XL which is a little larger sells for $365 USD and the Haven Tent Safari sells for $391 USD. There are a number of color options on offer, and all tents come with a one year warranty.
If you’d like to read more or choose your own Haven Tent you can visit the official online store here.
Images provided by Haven Tents
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.