Straps slipping down a tree???

[MadUncleAndy]

Has anyone ever had straps slip down a tree? I've been at this for several years now, and until today I'd never had it happen either.

Nothing dramatic...just a little scary. I heard a crackling sound and felt a slight shock to the hammock. It was a new hammock settling in, and I'd been fooling with an adjustable ridgeline so I figured it was the CLs or the adjustable ridgeline settling.

Then I heard/felt it again, more dramatically, so I gingerly got out of the hammock and found the webbing had slipped down and started rolling around itself so it was no longer wide along the tree, but kind of bunched up.

A couple odd things about this hang...VERY deep angles,...> 45 degrees. Dyneema (super slippery) straps. The tree was an old oak I've hanged from a ton of times.

[DannyII]

My Dyneema straps stretched a little bit when new. I noticed that they slipped a bit then, but haven't since.

[Phantom Grappler]

Did you have the suspension on one side of tree so that it comes off tree in a straight line? This is prescribed method to reduce stress on straps and reduce chances of hardware damaging strap.
It ain't the way I do it
I don't use hardware and I hope the tree and straps are strong enough for stress I put on them.
I choke the tree a little bit--so that strap is prevented, as much as possible-without going twice around tree, from sliding down the tree.
Good luck
You can wrap strap around tree twice, like a round turn. This also chokes the tree, a little, but it uses too much strap in my opinion.
My suspension slipped, once, and it probably slid down the tree--stuff happens and no one has not had stuff happen--or they have just forgotten it happened.
I do not have strap come off tree in a straight line- I know it adds stress to tree and strap--it does hold tighter.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[scrope]

I noticed that on my last hike that my straps had shifted down on the tree. I noticed this because it tore a bit of bark off the tree which really distressed me as I do my best to LNT. I never felt anything while I was in the hammock but I was in and out of it several times during the night to pee so maybe the weight/lack of weight was causing the strap to move.

If anybody has suggestions as to how to make sure my strap won't move so the tree isn't injured I'd be extremely grateful since I'm worried this might happen again if I don't know what's causing the problem.

[hutzelbein]

When my straps are slipping, I simply put them around the tree twice. Or even three times, if I have the length. So far, this has only happened on thin trees with very smooth bark.

[sqidmark]

I've used shock cord to keep daisy chain tight enough against the tree to prevent sliding. Very little tension is required, just enough to take up the slack. My use of the daisy chain is as a tree belt for double hanging, so different application.

I haven't tried this with plain webbing, but I'm wondering if it could be applied somehow. Tie/larkshead to strap/hugger loop, pull webbing through loop, tie loose shock cord end to webbing (slippery overhand?) at say 3 or 9 o'clock. Perhaps 1/16 shock cord would be enough. Or the shock cord could go all the way around the tree and tie back to the loop.

The 1/8 shock cord used here is way overkill, especially doubled over like shown. As said, this was for a specific purpose, and this particular part of the experiment was abondoned. I eventually went on to using a heavy duty ladder lock buckle in place of the biner and shock cord. But at least the shock cord did what it was supposed to do.

[oldgringo]

Did you have the suspension on one side of tree so that it comes off tree in a straight line? This is prescribed method to reduce stress on straps and reduce chances of hardware damaging strap.
It ain't the way I do it
I don't use hardware and I hope the tree and straps are strong enough for stress I put on them.
I choke the tree a little bit--so that strap is prevented, as much as possible-without going twice around tree, from sliding down the tree.
Good luck
You can wrap strap around tree twice, like a round turn. This also chokes the tree, a little, but it uses too much strap in my opinion.
My suspension slipped, once, and it probably slid down the tree--stuff happens and no one has not had stuff happen--or they have just forgotten it happened.
I do not have strap come off tree in a straight line- I know it adds stress to tree and strap--it does hold tighter.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

*nods* It doesn't take much...just a wee bit.