Gear review: Grand Trunk Ultralight Hammock

The Bottom Line: The Grand Trunk Ultralight Hammock works great as a starter hammock for people who want to try hammocking. It's light, weighing around 12 ounces, and it packs down small. It's comfortable and relatively durable. For the price, it's a great deal. There's almost no reason not to try it out.

The Grand Trunk Ultralight Hammock. Photo by Ethan Rambacher.

If you've never tried sleeping in a hammock before, now is your chance. Starting at only $15, the Grand Trunk Ultralight is a cheap and easy way to try it out. I bought it for that reason about two years ago, and I really like it. It's comfortable, easy to set up, and it's lighter than most tents (even if you include a rain fly).

The Ultralight hammock uses one small S-hook at each end for attaching to tree straps. (Note that the hammock does not come with tree straps, so you'll need to buy some.) The S-hooks work fine, but if you prefer carabiners or larger hooks, you can replace them easily. The S-hooks can be opened and pulled off, and then you can clip a carabiner to the cable instead.

The Ultralight is rated for 200 pounds. Although the material is light, the overall construction is high enough quality that I feel confident that it can live up to its rating. I weigh about 165 pounds, and I've never been worried about the hammock ripping or breaking. Of course, for $30, I don't expect that this hammock will last forever; that said, it has held up reasonably well after about a dozen camping trips.

At only $15 from Amazon, the Grand Trunk Ultralight is a great way for newbies to try out hammock camping. It's also a great item to throw in the car for hanging around when bouldering, hiking, car camping, etc. Don't expect it to last decades of hard camping, but for the casual user or beginner camper, it's a great buy.