I found the WB buckles to be a pain to loosen from day one. Yes, you have to take every bit of tension off the suspension. Even then though those triangular "d-rings" seem to kind of jam up and take quite a bit of fiddling to loosen. I just swapped them out with a pair from Dutch. I'm much, much happier. I can loosen up the straps with one hand but they still hold rock solid.
I have not had any problems with the WBRR buckles. In fact I swapped them over to my Luke's 90 degree hammock because I like them so much. However, they can become exceedingly tight and difficult to undo if you reef the suspension tight. Therefore, I tend to pass a bight through instead of the end. Think of it as a quick release pull with the bight. Still not real easy if tight, but I find that pulling on the loose end of the bight preferable to trying to wiggle it loose with the end passed through.
In case anyone misread my post.I never had a slip with the WB buckles.Just had difficulty separating them.That's why I switched over to double descender rings.I do a half hitch on the descender rings because I had a slip once most likely due to not "setting" the strap with a hard tug.I like rings better than anything despite the added oz or so.
Nope, never had that problem and I weigh about 235 lbs. I am really surprised your wife caused it to slip. Are those the original webbing straps or have you replaced them?
“I held a moment in my hand, brilliant as a star, fragile as a flower, a tiny sliver of one hour. I dropped it carelessly, Ah! I didn't know, I held opportunity.” -Hazel Lee
I've had webbing shred like that with the WB buckles. The problem, as mentioned above, is that the webbing is not square with the buckles. If the buckles are turned a bit, or if the webbing is not square in the buckles, they will slip and shred the webbing. I now check buckles carefully before entering the hammock and have not had problems since.
Would larksheading a loop, rather than splicing one onto the WB/AHE buckle help? It would certainly seem to help keep the loop in the right place. It would just be a question if the pieces could be separated easily enough for adjustment.
I've had it happen and it frayed the strap for about 2 feet, where it frayed caused a failure a few nights latter and I wound up on the ground.I tie a back up slippery hitch now, but I make sure that webbing is feeding into the buckles very flat and straight and the knot acts like a stopped. Pgibson is right, because if the buckles are cock-eyed, they will cut the webbing like scissors.
"In your face space coyote"-HJS
I now have 4 sets of these straps and buckles. One from my original 5 year old Blackbird, a newer Traveler, a separate set for my Grand Trunk hammock and another I just bought from another HF member. All work great and never gave a second thought to adjusting or fiddling with them. The two buckles are either lined up or not; I never mess with them...just make sure one isn't completely rotated 90° from the other. I can just look at them and know. That rarely happens though.
I don't understand the loosening thing. Unless there's an elephant sitting in your hammock, it's about as easy as loosening a strap on your backpack. Grab the amsteel/whipped end of the hammock to relieve tension and guide the webbing in that direction.
Bookmarks