Review: Grand Trunk Parachute Nylon Double Hammock

Review: Grand Trunk Hammock

We spend our weeks working hard and our weekends scaling mountains, exploring forests, and otherwise causing a ruckus in mother nature. It's rare that we have time to just do nothing. We shouldn't neglect the importance of nothingness, though. The American Psychological Association's research shows that relaxing in nature (specifically while looking at trees) can actually make you smarter! We're not making this up. Go stare at trees for a while.

Relaxing with Carl, RI's kitty mascot.

At Rugged Innovations, one of our favorite methods of tree-staring involves putting up the hammock on a sunny afternoon and kicking back with a glass of wine. There's something about being suspended in the air surrounded by nature that brings a sense of total relaxation.

For just such occasions, we have the Grand Trunk Double Hammock. This hammock blows your grandpa's woven cotton hammock out of the water. No contest. First of all, the entire thing is made out of parachute grade nylon that will not degrade like the cotton hammocks of the past. My kids will be using my Grand Trunk Double Hammock long after I've bought the farm. It just feels solid.

Our research indicates it comfortably fits two people and a cat.  It's got the largest portable hammock bed space on the market and it's rated to 400 lbs. You could throw a party in there. The entire Grand Trunk hammock fits into an attached carrying bag that is roughly the size of a football. It's great for space conscious camping in dry weather, because all you need is the hammock and a sleeping bag. The attached carrying bag hangs off the side of the hammock once it's set up, which is great for holding sunglasses, camera, cell phone, or in our case, two bottles of Pinot Noir... It's a free country.


Grand Trunk also carries a pretty wide variety of other hammock and camping gear, like super lightweight hammocks, hammocks with sleeping bags built in, mosquito netting covers for hammocks - you name it. The Grand Trunk Double Hammock ($64.99 on their site) comes with the hammock, attached carrying case, high tensile hanging ropes, two nautical-grade carabiners, and the promise of a tranquil weekend.

Relax,

Ariel Castro
Rugged Innovations

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the Parachute Nylon Double Hammock for free from Grand Trunk as coordinated by Deep Creek PR an Outdoor Retailer Public Relations Company in consideration for review publication.

Black Diamond X4 cams are finally on sale!

Today, Black Diamond announced that their coveted X4 cam devices are finally on sale on their website!

These highly-anticipated climbing cams are supposed to be perfect for micro crack trad climbing and placing in small features. The Black Diamond Camalot X4's thin, low-profile design is touted to be second to none for placing in small pockets, thin features, or otherwise un-placeable rock.

You can check out our previous write-up of the cams for some initial impressions and other analysis here.

I can't wait to see what the climbing community thinks of these. Let us know what you think. You can order the cams at the Amazon link below. They start at $69.25 on Amazon .

Review: Marmot Limelight 3P Tent

Review: Marmot Limelight 3P Tent

Marmot Limelight 3P Tent

The Rugged Innovations team takes to the woods bi-weekly to hunt Bigfoot and re-apply our campfire musk (it's an aphrodisiac). We picked up a Marmot Limelight 3P ($278.95 on Amazon) tent for the trip and went to Boca Lake in California. I'm going to spoil this whole review right now: we didn't find any sasquatches. 

The Marmot Limelight 3P is really easy to put up. If you've looked at new tents by North Face, REI, and other outdoor manufacturers lately you'll notice they're going towards more complicated tents with more features, more poles, and more crap. The Marmot Limelight 3P cuts the frills. You won't find arched doorways and flying buttresses here. It's a rock-solid tent with rock-solid features. 

The tent package includes a footprint, tent, and rainfly that all go up quickly. There's a lot of gear in the package so it can be challenging to roll back into the bag. The poles are sturdy. One minor annoyance is that the two cross poles are permanently connected in the middle. It can make tear-down a bit complicated - once you unclip the poles, you have to take apart a 30-foot aluminum crucifix, one end at a time. Speaking of poles, I really like that the poles clip to the tent. Lots of tents make you slide the poles through a sleeve. These poles just clip right onto the top of the tent. It's quick and easy. The entire setup takes 10 minutes. 

Stakes -- totally unrugged. 

Unless you're me. I must channel some kind of pent-up white collar rage when putting in tent stakes because I bent FOUR of them trying to hammer them into the hardpacked clay with the butt of my hatchet. What are the stakes made out of? Pudding? Holy crap. Good thing it comes with eight stakes or my tent would've hitched a thermal and been in the troposphere by nightfall. I recommend buying some heavier-duty stakes if you're camping somewhere with hard topsoil. 

The innards of the Marmot Limelight 3P are comfortable and spacious for two people. Three people would fit but would be very snug. This Tauntaun will keep you cozy all night, Luke. As you can see in the picture above, it is extremely well-ventilated. The ventilation is great for hot summer camping and for preventing condensation in the morning. If you choose to attach the rainfly it provides little vestibules to protect gear that you don't want to keep in the tent (wet boots, wet dogs, etc). The rainfly has a window in the side so you can spend all night looking at... darkness? It's a pointless feature. I wish the window were on the top for stargazing.

The Marmot Limelight 3P Tent At a Glance:

The Hot: 

• Light, airy, well-ventilated
• Very easy to pitch
• Sturdy in weather
• Footprint included
• Great looking!

The Not:

• Flimsy stakes
• A bit expensive
• Difficult to pack up into carrying bag

The Bottom Line: 

The Marmot Limelight 3P tent ($278.95 on Amazon) is a great investment for a weekend camper. It's one of the easiest tents to pitch we've ever seen. It's a car trip or day trip kind of tent -- backpackers will want to choose something lighter and smaller when packed. It looks great and has every feature that you will want in a weekend camping tent... and probably a few you wouldn't have thought of. While it's a bit pricier than alternatives, I am definitely happy with the product and feel like I've gotten my money's worth.

Be safe.

Ariel Castro
Rugged Innovations

p.s. After writing this review, I was contacted by a Marmot rep, who mailed me a new set of tent stakes for free. I must say, I am impressed with their customer service!