What a learning curve for me with with the 90* Hammocktent Gamma!

[BillyBob58]

Learning curves can be a pain! I believe this has been a bigger struggle than I had with my 1st hammock/ HH Super Shelter and later with my first bridge hammock! But I will get it, unless I decide it is not worth the effort.

So I got this used Gamma a few days ago. It got here quickly, and I was really excited to give it a try. I'm not sure what my excuse is for trying one of these hammocks, considering I am for the most part more than adequately comfortable in my Claytor No Net, my HH UL Explorer(though calf ridge can sometimes be a problem) and my Bridge hammocks. And I already have well worked out systems for insulating these, and tarp coverage is no issue at all. I think I wanted to try one of these because it might give me all of the guaranteed leg comfort of a bridge hammock with perhaps more shoulder room then they have, and no spreader bars.

The other thing is that it has occurred to me I might prefer to be able to totally switch to a pad and just do away with a need for under quilts and their potential problems altogether. And it seemed as though this type of hammock might have even more comfort with a pad than my bridge hammocks do. My bridge hammocks are just fine with a CCF pad, but not quite as good with an inflatable pad, as it raises the center of gravity. So I was curious if these 90* would be any better with an inflatable. So I had to try one out.

So when it got here quickly, I wasted no time going out into the hot backyard to give it a try. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered the first idiosyncrasy of this hammock: for some reason, it seems to require a good 2 feet higher placement on a tree or pole than any of my other hammocks. This reminds me of when I got a Warbonnet ridge runner, which required a greater distance between anchor points then any other Hammock I had. Two or 3 feet more. I was never able to get that to work on my old hammock stand which was not quite long enough and flexed. So I was unable to do near as much testing as that hammock deserved. The only way for me to test was to go to the woods. But then I built a new hammock stand, long enough for the WBRR at last! Plenty High and long enough for any hammock I had. But even when I decreased the length of this stand, and narrowed the A frame for more height, I could not get this 90* at a reasonable height. I was hanging just a few inches off the ground. I was almost high enough with the A frame really narrowed, but that quickly tipped over on me with the side ways swing these hammocks are known for! How irritating!

I had a spare 10 foot fence top rail on hand. So I cut it up into 4 sections and purchased some sleeves planning to extend the height. But when I went to add them on, I had a big surprise and it would not work. I won't go into why right now but maybe if I do some drilling(PITA) I can get to work. Maybe. Right now the easiest way for me to get it to work is to spend at least $24 on 2 or more new fence posts , but I don't want to do that(for this one hammock) if I can avoid it.

So yesterday, it was off to the woods. I found a likely spot, trees about an 8 or 9 feet apart. I wanted close together to minimize the height of the straps. Literally as soon as my pack came off of my back, I observed a small cloud approaching my spot and dropping rain.(20% chance of rain). But I have a HH Diamond shaped tarp with me, and rush to get it pitched. Can you guess what problem I had now? All of my tarps are 11 feet long, and my trees are maybe 9 feet apart. I am unable to get this worked out before the rain reaches me, so with one end attached to a tree, I stand there holding the tarp so that it covers my self and my pack and the new hammock which is already a out of the pack.

So the rain finally passes, I get the tarp pitched in some sort of bizarre fashion in case the rain comes back, and proceed to try and hang the hammock. No trouble now being high enough off the ground. But I quickly discover a new problem, one I knew about but I had no idea it would be this difficult. Turns out I did not have the right side loop pulled quite as high as the left side. So, instead of sliding down into the foot end of the hammock, I am rolling down sideways into the right side of the hammock. I get out and attempt to lower the left side. You wouldn't think that would be that hard. I did it several times and never got it right before the alarm on my phone went off reminding me I had to go pick my grandson up from school. And by now I'm soaked in sweat anyway. I avoid laying in my hammocks when real sweaty as much as possible to minimize having to wash them frequently. Regardless, it was time to go, and I had failed to achieve a usable hang. Figured I would try again today, but I just ended up hanging a few inches off the ground from the stand. Sigh. I haven't had that difficulty getting the two ends level enough when using the stand. I don't know what was going on trying this on the trees yesterday. A line level on the RL would be handy, but the net attachment pulls the RL down in the middle. Sigh.

Oh well, even though I still wonder why I am bothering, I'll keep working on it. I'll probably get it worked out, I usually do. And I have already noticed, even without a pad, no calf ridge or knee extension or shoulder squeeze. So that is good and as expected. But it is still uncertain if I'll see enough benefits to all of this to make it worthwhile to replace my other hammocks. But repositioning without a pad is a real biotch. And side position(without a pad) is very strange indeed, as it collapses ad almost forces me into fetal. But still, comfy.

Certainly it it right now it seems about 100 times more difficult to set up, but I know that will get easier. However, still got the whole tarp issue to deal with. Might even end up having to get a new tarp if I'm going to use this new style hammock.

By the way, don't be shy about giving me tips! I figured I knew everything there was to know about hammocks and how to hang them hey! Turns out I still got some stuff to learn!

[GregfromHolland]

Funny, I find the 90degree hammock the easiest to set up.
It does require the treehuggers to be higher. And it does require a tarp with the right dimensions.
I use a 10x12 tarp and use the short side from tree to tree. 9x12 would be better, maybe even 8x12.

If you hang the hammock level and high enough you should be good and ready to take place on your personal cloud. No more searching for the sweet spot. It's there!

Good luck on your next attempt

Tapatalk

[OlTrailDog]

One thing I have discovered is no hammock vendor, as yet, includes a dose of common sense with their hammocks, so lets noodle this a bit.

If you read the instructions or looked at Luke's videos you know that having the SRL level is important for precisely the reasons you mention.

If the net attachment is pulling, or even able to pull down the SRL since it is elastic cord, something is vastly wrong. Notwithstanding there is bug net tension adjustment with sliders on each side of the bug net shock cord.

If you know you only have an 11 foot hammock is it any wonder that it actually doesn't fit across a 8 or 9 foot tree distance well? You asked and I gave you a several options that folks successfully use for a tarp, including a simple 9x12 or 10x12 tarp. Bottom line, no tarp that is longer than the ridge line for any hammock should be expected to perform satisfactorily.

The indoor hammock stand that I use nightly has a ridge line height of 6' and is 12' long (3 four foot aluminum military netting poles). If this is 2' higher than for other hammocks, I would have to hang the ridge line at 4' for my GE. Not the case. You asked and I let you know the solution is that it is best to have the suspension much tighter than for a GE or Bridge in order to mitigate the design differences. PS: For those who like to experiment, I have also thought about lengthening the SRL which would decrease the SRL to hammock bottom height. One of these days I will look into that, but doing so would also change the tarp dimension requirements.

I would rather invest the $24 into a set of aluminum military netting poles. The prices vary greatly, but a prudent shopper can do okay for the 9 poles needed. They are lighter, stronger, and more compact than fence posts. Plus, they have other uses too, e.g. my short wave receiver antennae.

This reminds me of the night that I thought the diamond shaped tarp would be fine and I would fore go the hassle of setting up the HG winter palace over the WBRR. During the night a thunder boomer beat some common sense into me as I lay in the hammock with the Winter Palace stretched over the top and me holding it with my hands and feet splayed out. My dog took shelter under neath the hammock. Of course like any normal person would do, I blamed the problem on the WBRR and promptly sold it.

[BillyBob58]

Funny, I find the 90degree hammock the easiest to set up.
It does require the treehuggers to be higher. And it does require a tarp with the right dimensions.
I use a 10x12 tarp and use the short side from tree to tree. 9x12 would be better, maybe even 8x12.

If you hang the hammock level and high enough you should be good and ready to take place on your personal cloud. No more searching for the sweet spot. It's there!

Good luck on your next attempt

Tapatalk

I know, and I was kind of expecting easier, or at least as easy. What is my problem?

I thought the shorter distance required between trees would be a blessing, but that is somewhat cancelled by the higher hang spot required, plus a shorter distance will not work with my tarps! Though I could turn my JRB side ways for only a 10 RL foot span, plus a few inches for cordage. But even my HH diamond is 11 ft on it's RL. Still, even 11 ft is not very far by hammock suspension standards. Still, I am going to have to be connected pretty high at 11 ft between trees.

Still, if not in a hurry and hot and sweaty and getting rained on like the other day, I'll get it figured out while out in the woods. The biggest problem is my recently built stand. It is unusable unless I mod it to make the legs longer. And right now, an easy way to do that is NOT jumping out at me. Other than buying some more top rails to add to the legs. I did not use fence top rails to construct the legs, but rather I used some left over posts from a trampoline. They are, I feel, even stronger than fence top rails, but are about a millimeter or 2 less diameter than the fence rail. And it gives me an adjustable top bar height of 6 feet or a bit more, but not enough unless I narrow the leg spread by enough to make it unstable for use with this hammock and the way it swings. So when I cut up an old spare top rail into segments for extension, and bought some top rail sleeves to join them together, having forgot my legs were a smidgen smaller diameter than fence post, I found the sleeves just slide right down over the legs to the ground. I am pondering a couple of different ways around this other than just replacing the legs after buying some actual fence post that will fit the sleeves. I can think of a couple of ways, but it all involves some more cutting and drilling, and I have been too lazy so far.

Thanks for sharing your view that it is one of the easiest to set up. Hard for me to imagine when comparing to my Claytor No Net which is also a no RL, and I can have that up on my stand or trees and be hanging comfortably in maybe 2 minutes. But I'll get it!

[BillyBob58]

One thing I have discovered is no hammock vendor, as yet, includes a dose of common sense with their hammocks, so lets noodle this a bit.

If you read the instructions or looked at Luke's videos you know that having the SRL level is important for precisely the reasons you mention.

If the net attachment is pulling, or even able to pull down the SRL since it is elastic cord, something is vastly wrong. Notwithstanding there is bug net tension adjustment with sliders on each side of the bug net shock cord.

If you know you only have an 11 foot hammock is it any wonder that it actually doesn't fit across a 8 or 9 foot tree distance well? You asked and I gave you a several options that folks successfully use for a tarp, including a simple 9x12 or 10x12 tarp. Bottom line, no tarp that is longer than the ridge line for any hammock should be expected to perform satisfactorily.

Oh, without question, it is absolutely NOT a wonder that an 11 foot tarp does not work with 9 feet between the trees! Of course not! It is absolutely expected not to work, of course! I was not perplexed, I was just listing all the little things that went wrong on my little day hike for the purpose of having trees to hang from. I happened to have the little HH diamond tarp in my pack, and there was only a 20% chance of widely scattered showers. But amazingly, I found the 20% area just a minute or 2 after I took my pack off and started pulling stuff out! I had not even thought about hanging the tarp, until I saw the narrow band of rain approaching. Then I quickly started trying to pitch it, for the moment forgetting that I had just purposely picked 2 trees close together! DUH! And by the time I had 1 end attached and was just realizing my error as I tried to attache to the other tree, the rain was on me! LOL! But all ended well as I just stood there holding the tarp over everything until the slightly heavy rain passed in a few minutes. Then I managed to get the tarp pitched despite the trees being too close, in case the rain came back. It wasn't pretty, and I wouldn't want to spend the night in a storm like that, but it was better than nothing. The rain did not return. In retrospect, I would have been better off that my with my large rectangular JRB 10X11, hung so that the 10 ft wa on a RL. Would have been a little closer. But I did not have that with me.

The indoor hammock stand that I use nightly has a ridge line height of 6' and is 12' long (3 four foot aluminum military netting poles). If this is 2' higher than for other hammocks, I would have to hang the ridge line at 4' for my GE. Not the case. You asked and I let you know the solution is that it is best to have the suspension much tighter than for a GE or Bridge in order to mitigate the design differences. PS: For those who like to experiment, I have also thought about lengthening the SRL which would decrease the SRL to hammock bottom height. One of these days I will look into that, but doing so would also change the tarp dimension requirements.............

Hence my surprise at my problem. My RL/top bar (height adjustable by the amount of spread on the legs) is 13 ft long and anywhere from chin height to right about the top of my head, and I am 6"1". I have been wrapping the webbing in such a fashion that I am not coming right off of the end of the top rail at 13 feet, but the webbing- while attached to the end, is actually coming down off the top rail at closer to a 12 foot spread. This is way more than high enough for all my other hammocks. Though I have tightened the straps as much as I am physically able with the supplied suspension and Becket hitch, I end up a few inches off the ground. I am surprised. I have thought about adding a biner and cinch buckle set up to try and get it tighter. As you had already advised me to have it much tighter than for a GE or bridge, so I have been trying to get it tight and considering ways to get it tighter. But do you not worry about that being too tight? Tight enough to damage something? Luke specifically advises in the directions to shoot for the 30 degrees. By pulling real tight on the webbing strap through the loop on the hammock RL, then a Becket hitch, I am already tighter than 30* for sure. But still maybe 3" above the ground once I am in.

I would rather invest the $24 into a set of aluminum military netting poles. The prices vary greatly, but a prudent shopper can do okay for the 9 poles needed. They are lighter, stronger, and more compact than fence posts. Plus, they have other uses too, e.g. my short wave receiver antennae.

This reminds me of the night that I thought the diamond shaped tarp would be fine and I would fore go the hassle of setting up the HG winter palace over the WBRR. During the night a thunder boomer beat some common sense into me as I lay in the hammock with the Winter Palace stretched over the top and me holding it with my hands and feet splayed out. My dog took shelter under neath the hammock. Of course like any normal person would do, I blamed the problem on the WBRR and promptly sold it.

HA! "as I lay in the hammock with the Winter Palace stretched over the top and me holding it with my hands and feet splayed out."! Not just me, eh? LOL! Thanks, I feel better! Where did you buy aluminum military netting poles? Guess I can google it. What diameter are those? I have some L shaped brackets that my poles fit into.

[BillyBob58]

World's greatest dufus checking in. I am embarrassed that I missed this solution, but I did. The top bar on my stand is a fence top rail plus some extenders held in place/reinforced with sleeves. I had added 2 extenders of 2-3 feet each to get a length of 15 feet, which is the minimum spread that is suggested for the WBRR bridge. Well, I was quick to remove the final extender getting it down to 13 ft. Right after I wrote my last post, a light bulb went off in my head: there is another extender I can remove, getting me down to a 10 ft top bar. Why this obvious step had not already jumped out at me, I have no idea.

Anyway, I did so and now I am good to go. Not exactly chair height, but between 1 and 2 ft above ground, so good enough. Feels a lot better.

Also, I put a biner through one loop, and ran the strap through the biner and seemed to be able to tighten up a bit better.

I have had no issues getting the hammock RL level enough so that I stay centered, when using on the stand. The only problem I had with that was yesterday out in the woods. I was obviously doing something wrong. I may take a tiny line level to make that quicker to eyeball next time. I may have had too many years of just routinely eyeballing my GE hammocks to have the foot end obviously higher than the head end.

Even with no pad, I have had no knee extension, surprisingly. Nor calf ridge, as expected. It matches bridge comfort when flat on my back, but with more shoulder room for those that bridges bother in that respect. I can hardly stand the thought of adding an inflatable pad in this heat. So I have mostly been going sans pad. That is indeed supposed to be one of the advantages of this hammock over the Amok: a pad is not required, not for support or warmth, as a quilt can be added into the pad pocket as an inner quilt. Though apparently it is needed for maximum comfort, as OldDog has confirmed to me. But too hot for a pad right now, so I am just experimenting without one.

Get in and just lie flat on my back, no problems. At least as comfy as my other hammocks, more comfy than most. At least that is my first impression. But I would like it so much better with a net that I could get out of the way.

With no pad(maybe next Monday, forecast high is only 83), it gets pretty weird for side sleeping. First of all, I feel very paranoid about trying to reposition. There is no place to grab hold of, and the hammock's bottom moves when I move, which feels really strange, and I fear poking a hole in this light fabric while trying to get re-positioned. This is a totally different feel from all end suspended hammocks.

Then, once I am on my side, it tends to collapse length wise, tending to force me into fetal. Although, the hammock will assume the shape according to my position. If I push my legs out, then the hammock will stay straight or full length. ( I am just giving a report here on my first impressions and experience with this very new style type of hammock for me. All opinions subject to change). Though the hammock tends to shorten a LOT when I go to my side, and seems to want for me to go fetal, I must admit that- even with no pad to give it some shape, it is still comfy. Strange, but comfy. It forms a ridge under my waist, sort of the opposite of many GE hammocks with their so called side torque. Rather than a tendency- a tiny bit or a lot - for my head and feet to be higher than my waist which is a tad closer to the ground(side torque), this is almost opposite, with a ridge supporting my waist. But, pretty comfy. Maybe real comfy, at least as comfy- if not more- than my other hammocks on side or fetal? Not sure yet, but comfy.

However, since one of the reasons I wanted to try this set up was because it seemed possibly advantageous to actually be able to replace an UQ with an inflatable pad with no loss of comfort. I.E., ready for ground on those deep wilderness trips far from a trail-head, far fewer concerns with damp or wind, there are not going to be any mystery gaps or drafts develop, etc, all potential benefits, if comfort is not sacrificed. So since that is one of the reasons I wanted to look into this style hammock, I will be happy to see some temps where I can stand to start using a pad.

[OlTrailDog]

Have you thought about using a non-insulated pad for the warm season, e.g. an inflatable non-insulated pad? These kind of pads are usually dirt cheap. Just make sure it is the vertical tube variety. Under insulation is a requirement under most circumstances, but perhaps this would be the ticket for the hot weather you are experiencing.

[BillyBob58]

Have you thought about using a non-insulated pad for the warm season, e.g. an inflatable non-insulated pad? These kind of pads are usually dirt cheap. Just make sure it is the vertical tube variety. Under insulation is a requirement under most circumstances, but perhaps this would be the ticket for the hot weather you are experiencing.

I had not thought of that, but that is a good idea!

[OlTrailDog]

Or maybe even a thinly insulated hammock like the Thermarest pro lite series. I don't know if they come in wide widths, but they use to be my go to sleeping pads before the advent of the inflatable well insulated ones available now days.

[BillyBob58]

So yesterday I had a rather opposite result from the day or 2 before, day hiking into the woods to use thus new fangled hammock.

First and foremost, it was a wonderful day, very comfortable. It was heavy cloudcover, not letting any sun rays in, but also not a rain drop in sight. High was 71, normal 87! I did not break a sweat at all!

I picked some trees about 12 ft apart. I had to use my hiking poles to elevate the straps just a bit higher than I could reach.

This time, I had no significant problems getting the line level enough for me to lay level without rolling down into 1 side or the other. I don't know what my problem was the other day. Probably in too big of a hurry, fighting surprise rain, battling a tarp too long for the chosen trees, and hot and sweaty. Anyway, I had no issue this time, just as I have had no issue being level on the stand.

I laid in it for a while with no pad. Really, in most ways, about as comfy as any hammock can be when I lay on my back. It actually feels very much like my bridge hammocks except more wide open in the shoulders. And I know the shoulders are a major issue with most folks, kind of a minor thing with me. Still, nice. No knee extension, zero calf ridge. ( I know some folks have had some knee extension, but for some reason I am not getting any, go figure)

Plenty of length for my 6'1". At first I thought it was going to be too short, but I have figured out how to get positioned in it now so that I have an inch or 2 to spare on the head end and a couple of inches on the foot end.

Side positioning is unique. The hammock's length is determined by the length of your body. Your legs determine the length of the bottom half. Unless I make sure to keep my legs stretched out, I will end up in fetal and the hammock length will collapse to the length of my body in fetal. This feels really odd, but still is pretty comfy. Also comfy with legs straight.

Still a biotch to get repositioned in the hammock with no pad. There is nothing to grab onto or nothing stable to push of of, can't grab the edges due to the net. It is sort of like being in a HH botton entry as far as the net, you can't reach out, although I can leave it wide open on the foot end. If I ever get a new one of these, I will get it without the net and just make a net designed to drape over it when needed. Here is a pic from inside with no pad:


Here is a pic looking out the side towards the suspension and it's tree:


Here is a view from inside with a partially inflated Neo Air All Season.This pad's tubes run side to side rather than the optimum head to foot. Still seems to work pretty good. Sure was warm:


You can see that the bottom is flattened out a good bit compared to no pad. And with the pad, it is much easier to move around. And it feels mighty warm on my back. I'm not sure, but I think surprisingly it feels like there is a hint more knee extension with the pad, especially when pumped up more. Is that possible? I thought it might be the opposite.

Oh well, very different and a lot to get used to. But, very comfy in most positions, with or without the pad. Will this repace my other hammocks? I'm not at all sure yet. But it does seem that this is probably my best hammock to use with an inflatable pad, though maybe not so much with a CCF pad. The pad situation is also very strange. The good = it won't increase center of gravity, because the pad pocket hangs loose beneath the rest of the hammock. Bad news: if the pad is not thick enough to fill the pad pocket, you might not be in firm contact with the pad, reducing warmth. And a CCF pad will almost certainly not be thick enough, needing something else to go with it. A CCF pad works perfectly with my bridge hammocks. Pros and cons I suppose, as usual.

I wonder how much insulation is lost when a pad is not fully inflated? Is it proportional to the decrease in pad height or thickness? Anyone know?