Kammok Mantis UlL All-in-One Hammock Tent Review

Kammok’s Mantis Ultralight All-in-One Hammock Tent (“Mantis UL”) is a  complete hammock shelter system that includes a hammock with an optional full-length zippered bugnet, integrated ridgeline, tarp, hammock suspension, and stakes that pack up together into a roll-top stuff sack for a total weight of 2 pounds, 3 ounces. The only thing you’ll need to add is your insulation, a top quilt, and a pad or underquilt, to have a complete sleep system.

• Kammok also offers a non-UL Mantis system which is about 9 ounces heavier and has a significantly greater weight limit of 500 pounds. It is also less expensive than the Mantis Ultralight version.

Specs at a Glance

• Total Weight: Manufacturer’s stated weight: 2 lbs, 3 oz. SectionHiker tested weight: 2 lbs, 2.6 ounces.
  • Removable bugnet: 5.3 oz
  • Mantis UL body without bugnet (with continuous loops & 2 Mini Kanga Carabiners): 10.9oz
  • Tarp: 11.3 oz with 6 guylines with LineLoc tensioners and 2 ridgeline knotless hooks
  • 2 X Python 10 Ultralight Straps: 2.9 oz
  • 2 X partial-shock-cord wing guylines with LineLocs and knotless hooks: 0.4 oz each (0.8 oz total)
  • 6 X DAC J-Stakes: 2.3 oz total
  • Stuff sack (permanently attached to the hammock): 1.5 oz
• Hammock Fabric: 20D nylon diamond ripstop with DWR and mesh bugnet
• Hammock Dimensions: 120″ x 56″
• Tarp Fabric: 15D nylon diamond ripstop nylon with PU/Silicone DWR
• Tarp Dimensions: 136″long x 88″ wide (tapering down to 72″ wide at foot end)
• Ridgeline length: 115″
• Weight Capacity: 300 lbs
• Sleep Capacity: 1 person

The total weight includes the hammock, bugnet, ridgeline, suspension, tarp with guylines, wing guyouts, 6 stakes, permanently attached stuff sack, and carabiners, and is the real-life weight you can expect to carry using the Mantis UL system as intended. Kammok advertises a trail weight of 1 pound, 15.5 ounces, but this doesn’t include any stakes, the stuff sack (which is permanently attached), or the side wing guyouts. It’s always good practice when you see a trail weight advertised to find out exactly what’s being included and what’s being left out, especially when comparing the specs of multiple shelters.

Hammock Suspension

The Python UL 10 straps have a daisy chain for the hammock to clip into securely, are 10 feet long, and feature 2 rows of narrow (2 cm wide) webbing 2 inches apart, connected with small cross pieces of webbing to save weight while still distributing weight over a broader area of the tree to comply with Leave No Trace principles. The Mantis UL uses carabiners to attach to them.

Removable Bugnet

One of the major benefits of the Mantis UL is its modularity, specifically, the ability to completely remove the bugnet and have an open hammock or add the Winter Barrier in colder weather. The bugnet attaches to the hammock with four zipper sliders: two at each end which meet on the sides, closer to the head end than the foot end to make it easier to open from a lying-down position.

This also means that, whenever the hammock is zipped shut, the zipper sliders are always in the exact same place, which is convenient for locating them in the dark. The hammock body and bugnet zipper sliders share a color scheme to take the guesswork out of orienting the pieces correctly; the head end is orange, and the foot end is gray. The small gap where the zipper ends meet at the head and foot ends are covered by a flap that snaps around the ridgeline.

Side Wings

A nice thing about enclosed hammocks is that they offer the gear-loss prevention of a tent. Your quilt and the small essentials you bring into the hammock with you won’t fall out onto the ground when you get in and out of your hammock in the middle of the night as they can in an open
hammock.

The Mantis UL bugnet has wings that are guyed out on either side to open up the living area in the hammock and create a pair of gear shelves with pockets that can fit a headlamp, camera or phone. The shelves are a convenient place to stow a hat or an extra layer. The guyouts, which are made of elastic cord attached to static guyline on a LineLoc adjuster, help hold these gear pockets in place as you get in and out of the hammock and also prevent excessive sway in the night while still being forgiving of the dynamic movement inherent to a hammock system. They attach to small webbing loops on the bugnet with the same knotless hooks found on the ridgeline.

This makes it easy to switch the guyouts over to the Winter Barrier. The hooks kind of “click” tightly onto the loops but I could imagine them coming off while packing up, thus losing the guylines. Granted, it hasn’t happened to me yet, but I feel that tying the lines onto the loops would be more secure, and is a simple mod to do yourself. The loops at the other end of the guyouts slip over the same stakes you used for the nearest tarp corners.

Insulation

The Mantis requires both top and bottom insulation–best served by a top quilt and underquilt. You can’t use peapod-style insulation (like we reviewed here and here) when the bugnet or winter barrier are attached, but you can if you zip them off, leaving an open hammock for the peapod to wrap around. A sleeping pad can also be used underneath you, but there is no dedicated pad sleeve on the Mantis UL to keep it from sliding around.

Like all of Kammok’s hammocks, the Mantis UL has grosgrain loops around its perimeter to which Kammok underquilts (like the Kammok Firebelly, reviewed here) can be snapped. These loops help keep the underquilt snug to the hammock bottom and prevent sagging and drafts. Kammok doesn’t currently make an underquilt for below-freezing temperatures, so I stack underquilts, using their Firebelly against the hammock body and rigging up another underquilt below it with a more traditional shock cord suspension.

Ease of Setup/ Breakdown

The Mantis UL is very quick and easy to set up, with a number of features that take the fiddling and guesswork out of setup. For the tarp, wrap the ridgelines around two trees, clip the knotless hooks and tension the LineLocs. Stake out the four corners, and tension those LineLocs. For the hammock, wrap the Python UL straps around the same trees as the tarp, and clip the carabiners into the daisy chain loops. Then slip the side wing guyout loops over the same stakes you used for the head-end of the tarp. That’s it.

To have such a quick setup, you have to stow your tarp guylines properly when packing up. They are very prone to tangling when stowed, as they are textured (due to the reflective tracer), have a pre-tied stake loop, and use LineLoc hardware.

I found even when I used a simple coil wrapped around the middle, I would inevitably find the coil had slipped and created knots when I unpacked, which quintupled my setup time. The best way to prevent this is to coil the lines in a figure-eight, looping them around your thumb and pinky, wrap the last foot or so around the middle, and tie it off with a slippery half-hitch. Especially when it’s raining in the morning, I like to pack up as quickly as possible, but spending the extra couple minutes here to coil the guylines properly will be worth it when you pull into camp in the evening, as your setup time will be drastically reduced.

Features in Use

The Mantis UL hammock body is 120 inches by 56 inches, which is plenty for me to get a flat diagonal lay. The backs of my knees are comfortably supported with no hyperextension. The integrated fixed-length ridgeline and the gear wings create a feeling of spaciousness inside the hammock. The fact that the gear wings are guyed out also provides stability to the hammock, limiting excessive sway when I turn from my back to my side in the night.

The tarp, as described above, is quick and easy to set up. There are Hypalon grommets at each guyout point to accept trekking pole tips to raise the sides of the tarp in “porch mode”–a tarp set up with one side in a horizontal canopy that maximizes rain coverage as well as visibility. I would love it if the tarp had at least ridgeline pockets to stow the cordage, as I think this would go a long way in preventing tangling, but proper coiling helps too.

The Python UL 10 straps are easy for a beginner to use with little chance of error. Clipping a carabiner into a daisy chain is about as simple as suspensions can get, and also feels very secure.

The DAC stakes are strong and grip well in a variety of ground conditions. They have a cord loop for easy pulling and a slightly rounded head which doesn’t dig into your palm when pushing them into the ground. They have survived being pounded into frozen ground with a rock without any distortion.

Packability

All of the Mantis UL’s components fit easily into its attached roll-top stow bag, which has a separate inner pocket for the tarp to keep it neatly apart from the hammock. As is featured on all Kammok tarps, the stuff sack incorporates an external pocket for the tarp stakes.

I’ve come to really like this feature and miss it when I’m using another shelter. It’s just so convenient having the stakes right there with your shelter for pitching but kept securely away from the shelter fabric to prevent damage to it. I like the DAC stakes that come with the kit so it works for me; if you were to switch out stakes you’ll have to bring a separate stake sack as the external pocket is custom-fitted to the included stakes.

The carabiners on the Mantis UL system include one that comes out the bottom of the stuff sack at one end of the hammock, and another that comes attached to the other end of the hammock. This means less small, loose parts to keep track of and potentially lose—the carabiners, stuff sack, and hammock are all connected into one unit; only the tarp, Python straps, and stakes are separate pieces.

Recommendation

The Kammok Mantis Ultralight All-in-One Hammock Tent offers a readily available (can be purchased at REI), one-and-done hammocking system that is easy for new hammockers to use while still offering features, materials, and light weight that can be appreciated by a more experienced hanger. On one trip this past fall, I lent the Mantis UL to my hiking buddy who had never hammock-camped before and its quick setup and comfort sold him on hammocking. The feature set shows a lot of attention to small details that make for intuitive and reliable use in the field.

Disclosure: Kammok provided SectionHiker with a Mantis UL for an honest review.

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