1st post & 1st setup!

Good evening, the snow quit here in upstate NY long enough for me to get out back and do a test setup of my Hammock Bliss Sky Bed and unigear tarp. This was my 1st time setting up a hammock and tarp and there is def room for improvement, was just trying to get a feel for how these items work together and was dying to feel what a real hammock is like! I welcome any tips, tricks, suggestions to help me improve my setups.

I think i need to pick trees that are wider apart, these trees were about 13' and my tarp is longer than that, so it is bunched up. I removed the stock suspension ropes and made my own amsteel CL's and i bought an adjustable amsteel ridgeline that i installed with the CL's.

I was pleasantly surprised how comfortable and roomy it is in this hammock, i'm looking forward to actually overnighting once the weather here warms up as i haven't looked at any quilts yet.

Welcome to HF. You'll get that kit and setup figured out the more time you spend in it. Good looking GSP pup. It's hard to beat a bird dog.

Hi MJM-NY. First off the best advice that I can give you is to watch Shug's videos on youtube. Secondly, perhaps you can turn that tarp into a diamond configuration to shorten the distance needed between the trees. The best thing that you have done is to actually get out and hand in order to start figuring things out. Wish you the best of luck

i had to look up GSP dog! I actually did the dog DNA test on her and was surprised. I knew she is 50% beagle as i saw the mother. This is her lineage:

i have seen a couple of Shug's videos, i'll subscribe to his channel and watch some more. I have seen tarps turned on the diagonal, i just wasn't sure which way was the most optimal.

Welcome! Nice setup for first try. The pup definitely seems satisfied with it!

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Welcome to the Forum! You're going to find a real wealth of information and friendly members willing to give share their own experience. Everybody has their own preferences when it comes to hanging. The only way to learn yours is to keep getting out there!

You've already learned at least one thing on your own. The longer your tarp is, the further apart the trees must be. A long tarp may limit your hang options a bit.

Your profile says that your tarp is a Unigear 300x400mm. I suspect you meant 300x400cm. 400mm is less than 16 inches. 400cm is a little over 13 feet.

From what I've seen here on the forum, a 13-foot tarp is a bit longer than most folks use for backcountry hanging. It's certainly feasible of course, but it's a little bit overkill for your hammock in my opinion. The Hammock Bliss Sky Bed is less than 10.5 feet long. So you're hanging with a 13 foot tarp over a 10.5 foot hammock.

There's a lot of discussion regarding tarp length on this forum. Here are just a few threads:
Tarp Length
Tarp Length vs Hammock Length
Q: tarp length and hammock length
Tarp Length
How small a tarp can I get by with?

There are dozens more.

When you read these (and other) threads, you'll learn that there really is no "right" tarp length. As long as it keeps you dry and meets your other needs, go with what works for you. But most folks will tend to lean toward getting "just enough" tarp to keep them dry and meet their other needs. Otherwise they are just carrying excess weight and constraining their hanging options.

That doesn't mean you should immediately dump your tarp and buy a shorter one. Yours is perfectly functional and high end tarps can be expensive. The forum is also filled with folks who jumped to a high end tarp, only to see them on the "For Sale" thread short time later because they decided it wasn't quite right for them. I recommend that you get out there with what you have. Learn what you like about it and what you don't. Experiment with different ways of setting it up. Learn tree distance. Learn how high/low to set it up. etc. etc. The more experience you gain, the more likely you'll pick the right replacement tarp once you're ready to make the jump to something else.

thanks for the info on the tarp, i will def turn it on it's diagonal and see how that works out. thanks for all the links, i will def check them out. You're correct it's cm not mm! The info and help from everyone already is amazing!

Hey!
Enjoy being new and discovering all the hammock related knowledge ahead of you.
You did good.
Shug

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shug

Hey!
Enjoy being new and discovering all the hammock related knowledge ahead of you.
You did good.
Shug

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:thumbup: I'm enjoying your videos, very entertaining and informative!!

Your first setup looks great! Good angles. Know that the wider apart the trees are the higher you have to hang the suspension straps to keep that angle. I’m not sure the advice of a diamond/diagonal tarp hang is correct. If I remember, the hypotenuse of a triangle is the longest side. By going opposite corner to opposite corning your tarp will be longer because the diagonal is longer than either the length or width. IMHO

If you are tall (everyone is tall to me) you can handle the extra tree distance and get the hammock supports at the right height. Here’s a link for a hammock calculator that gives recommended height for a given hammock length and tree distance: http://theultimatehang.com/hammock-hang-calculator/

Keeping in mind we are dealing with approximates, here are some numbers to keep in mind … usually the hammock is hung so that the ends are about 83% to 86% of the actually physical length. Looks like your Sky Bed is 10.5 ft. That puts the ends somewhere between 8.5 ft and 9 ft apart - That would be a starting point. If you hang at about (everything said in this post is “about”) 30 degrees, then ends will end up around there.

If you extend your index figure out and thumb up, the diagonal line between them is about 30 degrees.

Starting there, you can shorten or lengthen the suspension and see how it feels. Once you find that comfort spot - usually a range rather than a specific point - you can measure the distance between the hammock ends when you get out of the hammock. Though that distance might change a little when you are in the hammock, when you set it up, you are out of it, you so you want to duplicate that distance when you are out of the hammock.

The above is how you’d set it up if your hammock didn’t already have a ridge line that controls how far apart the end are. But the Sky Bed says it has a built in bug net and that usually means there’s a built in ridge line that 1) limits how far apart the hammock ends are and 2) holds the net up so it doesn’t fall on your face.

If the hammock already has a ridge line, you want to hang at an angle so that line is just slightly loose or snug - not guitar string tight.

Yes, the tarp is a bit larger than it needs to be - but that’s not “wrong”. It means 1) you will have an interesting time setting it up if it’s windy (snake skins are sleeves the tarp goes in and make it easier to set up in the wind because you only expose a little of the tarp at a time when rigging it up), 2) you will have great coverage both in your hammock and outside the hammock but still under the tarp.

There is more to read about “porch mode” and other styles but it looks like you are off to a great start.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cougarmeat

Your first setup looks great! Good angles. Know that the wider apart the trees are the higher you have to hang the suspension straps to keep that angle. I’m not sure the advice of a diamond/diagonal tarp hang is correct. If I remember, the hypotenuse of a triangle is the longest side. By going opposite corner to opposite corning your tarp will be longer because the diagonal is longer than either the length or width. IMHO

If you are tall (everyone is tall to me) you can handle the extra tree distance and get the hammock supports at the right height. Here’s a link for a hammock calculator that gives recommended height for a given hammock length and tree distance: http://theultimatehang.com/hammock-hang-calculator/

Keeping in mind we are dealing with approximates, here are some numbers to keep in mind … usually the hammock is hung so that the ends are about 83% to 86% of the actually physical length. Looks like your Sky Bed is 10.5 ft. That puts the ends somewhere between 8.5 ft and 9 ft apart - That would be a starting point. If you hang at about (everything said in this post is “about”) 30 degrees, then ends will end up around there.

If you extend your index figure out and thumb up, the diagonal line between them is about 30 degrees.

Starting there, you can shorten or lengthen the suspension and see how it feels. Once you find that comfort spot - usually a range rather than a specific point - you can measure the distance between the hammock ends when you get out of the hammock. Though that distance might change a little when you are in the hammock, when you set it up, you are out of it, you so you want to duplicate that distance when you are out of the hammock.

The above is how you’d set it up if your hammock didn’t already have a ridge line that controls how far apart the end are. But the Sky Bed says it has a built in bug net and that usually means there’s a built in ridge line that 1) limits how far apart the hammock ends are and 2) holds the net up so it doesn’t fall on your face.

If the hammock already has a ridge line, you want to hang at an angle so that line is just slightly loose or snug - not guitar string tight.

Yes, the tarp is a bit larger than it needs to be - but that’s not “wrong”. It means 1) you will have an interesting time setting it up if it’s windy (snake skins are sleeves the tarp goes in and make it easier to set up in the wind because you only expose a little of the tarp at a time when rigging it up), 2) you will have great coverage both in your hammock and outside the hammock but still under the tarp.

There is more to read about “porch mode” and other styles but it looks like you are off to a great start.

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thank you for all those tips and suggestions. The sky bed didn't come with a ridge line, but i installed an amsteel adjustable one when i installed the CL's to replace stock ropes. I'm waiting for my new Superior suspension to come (similar to beetle buckle) and i think that will help my setup go smoother. I'll look up the porch mode for the tarp and see how that works out.

MJM-NY

Welcome.