Adjustability of Adjustable Ridgelines

[Old Man Dan]

For anyone using an adjustable ridgeline, such as Dutch's whoopie sling or UCR ridgelines, or similar: what is the range of lengths that your ridgeline can be adjusted to cover? I'm looking for something that will work with an 11' hammock, and can also be adjusted for use with a shorter 104" hammock that I have.

[Speedogomer]

I made my own out of some extra amsteel I had. It takes nothing to splice one together. You can make it any length you want. Mine works for my 11 foot hammock, or my 9 foot hammock.

[Floridahanger]

I don't have the exact measurement, but I like to make my adjustable RL with a mark (black for example) right at the 83% mark. Then make another mark (red for example) at every inch for several inches in front and behind the original mark.

When marking the ASRL, it makes it easier to adjust it until you find the length you like. You can mark this with a green line or you can make a fixed SRL and reuse the ASRL for another hammy. Make it long enough for use with different length hammocks.

[Texas Hanger]

I made mine to adjust from 105" to 125". It gave me the chance to try many different lengths while experimenting with fabrics, widths, and hammock lengths.

I found that most of the time I had it set at 114" for the best comfort.

[gfstanley]

For anyone using an adjustable ridgeline, such as Dutch's whoopie sling or UCR ridgelines, or similar: what is the range of lengths that your ridgeline can be adjusted to cover? I'm looking for something that will work with an 11' hammock, and can also be adjusted for use with a shorter 104" hammock that I have.

To meet the needs for the dimensions you provided, I would suggest an UCR ridgeline that can adjust to a maximum of about 115". That will give the adjustability for your shorter hammock (83% of 104" will be about 86") as well as the 11 hammock (83% of 11' will be about 110").

+1 on Floridahanger's suggestion of marking 83% for each hammock in different colors and then mark 1" increments in a 3rd color.

[MattK]

I think the UCR approach is good.

I started off making mine at 90% (about 120") of my longest hammock just to be safe. That gave me plenty of adjustability on the high end. Being a UCR, I think it can go as short as 20" or something, so it works fine for my 9' pocket hammock.

I used the adjustable one to test the lay of my hammocks, then just made a fixed ridge line since once I find the sweet spot, I don't typically change it.

[Old Man Dan]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I hadn't previously looked into how a UCR is constructed & didn't really understand what made it different from a whoopie sling -- but that does seem like the way to go.

Great suggestion from Floridahanger about marking the ridgeline. I was initially planning on going out with a tape measure and messing around until I found the right length... measuring once and marking the line makes a lot more sense.

[gfortune]

If you end up wanting to try a whoopie style with a long fixed section, I've got a spreadsheet that should take out the guesswork. Let me know if you're interested.

[Old Man Dan]

Sure gfortune, that would be neat. I've been trying to read and watch everything I can find on making whoopies and UCRs, and on the practical differences between them, while I wait for some amsteel and lash-it to arrive. The only conclusion I've been able to reach is that I will just have to try making both and testing them out. Can't have too much rope!

[gfortune]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

The piece you're looking for is the second tab. If you find any errors, feel free to let me know and I haven't used them enough to guarantee they are perfect, but the last dynaglide ridgeline I made was spot on. I'm not sure I've made a dog bone or whoopie off that spreadsheet yet either so double check the calcs if you use those. As a final disclaimer, my tapers and buries are longer than you'll commonly see on the forum. I based my numbers on the recommended fid lengths from Samson with some rounding to make measurements easy. I round up to the nearest 1/4". If you don't agree with my taper and bury lengths, just adjust the length for those columns (D7,E7,J7) and the fixed length will adjust automatically to compensate. Likewise, you can make a larger or smaller eye loop by adjusting the calc in F7 and everything with adjust.

Put in the hammock length and the target percentage of that length for the expected length (83% is common). Target length shown on the right is just a result of that calc. Finally, decide how much +- adjustability you want from the target length (that length is the middle of your adjustability. The 12" I have set will give 24" total adjustment from 98" to 122". This number and the hammock length are the ones you're most likely to change. The calcs below will all adjust automatically.

Now, go down to the line you decided to use. Look at the Total Rope Length column and hack off a piece of line. Starting with the "taper" column on the left, start making marks (with a permanent marker, for example) based on the distances given. For the loop, cut the taper, back up the fixed section about 5-6" (10-11" from the end of the line), run your tool up to the mark for "Loop" and exit the bury with your tool. Grab the taper and pull it back so the second mark ("Loop Bury") matches the "Loop" mark. That should give you a 1" loop. Stitch and move on.

Move down to the next mark which is the end of your long fixed length. That marks the beginning of the adjustment bury. Insert tool and run to the next mark which is the end of the adjustment bury. Exit the line. Since you were smart and already taper'd the other end, ignore me for a moment while I taper.... .... ... .. Insert a bead of some sort on the line so it will be in the loop when you bury the end. If you don't do this, it's possible to collapse your adjustable loop in a way that is very difficult to fix. Now, grab taper and pull it through the bury. Adjustable loop done!

Finally, use the last little bit of marked line and do a backsplice (go back up the line a bit, insert tool, exit nearish the middle of that last 4", grab the taper and pull it all the way through so it inverts on itself). This backsplice will keep the end from pulling through the adjustable bury on accident. As a note, this is what happens if you pull the loop tight without a bead in there.


It might look hard from this, but it's actually pretty easy once you've got it in front of you and the annoying math is already done. You only have to bury the line 3 times and the backsplice almost doesn't count. It ends up looking a lot like a whoopie sling, but the fixed length is quite long where you're trying to minimize it when making a whoopie. In dynaglide, it should weigh around 12g

Oh, one more thing I almost forgot. I didn't include any configuration to account for how you attach the ridgeline to the hammock. If you use a 2" deep carabiner on one end, for example, your "ridgeline" will be 2" longer than expected. I use a larkshead with the eye loop end and a short soft shackle on the other end so I wasn't off by much, but it irked me that I didn't think about it ahead of time