Bridge hammock "chair trick" 1

So a good year or so ago, WV posted a little blurb in a thread about how he was using a whoopie style loop in one of his bridge hammocks to improve it's ability to act as a chair. Lounging in a bridge has always been a weak point and his brilliant solution to drop an edge down is a great one.

Here's my version of that trick (see attached PDF). It's a bit simpler/dumbed down for mass production minded use, but I also like that it doesn't require you to alter the bridge suspension or require a user to dial it back in which can be harder for folks not used to using a bridge.

It is worked out for my bridges at about an 8" CL but I would imagine would adapt well to Hiker Dad, WV, or Grizz style DIY bridges also with perhaps a slightly different size loop needed. The higher off the ground you like to sleep- the longer the loop you need. You can also use a 12" one and triple it up to get the same basic 4" extension, but doubled have the option to add 6" if you frequently set up in uneven terrain.

A soft shackle works too, but I find the CL a bit easier to manage since most of the time your gear will be in the bridge when you are doing your conversion. You could also make a smaller CL, but many of us likely have an 8" one laying around.

As a side bonus: When not using it for "chair mode" the CL can be handy to girth hitch to your grab loop on your backpack and then clip it into the biner at the apex for storage or to hang your shoes on the RL overnight.

simple elegant fix

Nice! I like it.

Well, here it is five years after Bill's post, and I'm seeing it for the first time. :lol:

It's nice to be credited for this, and even better to see the idea expanded and improved on. A bit of trivia: the first time I changed the lengths of the head end triangle suspension I did it by wrapping one of the suspension lines around a carabiner a number of times to shorten it. It happened that the way I was hanging my hammock at that time was high enough that the other edge was tight under my thighs, so I wanted to lengthen the other suspension leg. I solved that by measuring how much 4 wraps would shorten a line, and I made one suspension leg that much longer. For level sleep, I kept the carabiner on the longer leg, thus making it the same as the other. For chair mode, I unwrapped the carabiner (thus lengthening one line) and put it on the other one (shortening it). The good thing about this method was that it was easy to return to my pre-sets (only requiring the ability to count wraps), and there was room to experiment with different sitting angles. The bad thing was it required a piece of hardware, the additional carabiner. (I was already using carabiners to connect the end suspensions and the ridgeline to the main suspension.) To reduce the risk of inciting a gram-weenie revolt, I switched to using whoopies for the head end suspension triangle. Adopters, note: two whoopies the same length, one of which is designed to be shortened and the other to be lengthened, are entirely different animals. You'll need to decide whether you want to sit facing left or right. The same is true for the carabiner method. I think you could get this finer calibration with Bill's loop, too, but adjustment would be a bit fiddly. Keep it simple. I once experimented with a single suspension loop with three butterfly knots .... :rolleyes:

First time I tried the chair trick, I was completely blown away! Its so simple, so elegant and is sooooo comfortable- absolute genius! Thanks for sharing!

that's pretty neat. Like it!