I purchased one of the Grand Trunk Skeeter Beater Pro hammocks when they were on sale for 39.99 last weekend. What a great hammock for 40 bucks!
Today I set up the SBP in the backyard to test it out and see about setting up a ridgeline mod. I have not been a ridgeline user in other hammocks, so I was a little unsure this was the route I wanted to go. I used some Atlas straps for set-up today, because the USPS is holding hostage my Dutchware order of whoopies, loops and tree straps... Anyway, the hammock comes ready to hang, just on the heavy side for suspension.
Once in the hammock I could understand all the comments about "a ton of netting." Not a bad thing, there is just a lot of netting to get moved up out of your face. I was mainly concerned with how I could accomplish this with my tarp in place. I used the two pieces of shock cord that came supplied with the hammock to tie off below my tarp and run through the attach netting eyelets. However, I wasn't able to spread the net as the tabs were designed, due to the tarp. Here's my solution: two old archery arrows with nocks on both ends. Works like a charm! Lightweight and cut to 20" tip to tip so they fit in my pack or even within my Z-lite pad nicely. Best of all, I don't have to mess with a ridgeline.
Here are some pics... One arrow is 25" in the pic, but I ended up cutting it down to 20" also. You could easily clothes pen any saggy netting to the arrow if you wanted, but this does pretty good opening up the inside. I added a couple short loops of the shock cord to the tabs, this helps keep the arrow from sliding up or down the long shock cord runs.
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