Cannot loosen Warbonnet suspension buckles

[Lizardcobra]

I always have a very hard time loosening the straps when taking down the hammock. Usually the buckles do not budge at all, even when the hammock is pulled to take up all available slack.

I have had some luck with rotating the carabineers so that the strapa just slide out of them.

This last Time I hung it, I ended up having to cut the loop in one of the straps with a pocket knife. No amount of pulling, pushing, and twisting, even using four people to pull out more slack, could get it to budge.

What is the trick? Are you just supposed to not tighten it that much? Do you have to leave some slack when tightening the webbing straps? Usually I just pull it as tight as it will go.

[TallPaul]

If you have the newer straps and buckles, watch this.

https://youtu.be/lBvgGC6v8nE

If your buckle does not have the little cord on it, you have the older style.
Watch this....

https://youtu.be/YgqbxZLV4RU

And you shouldn’t be pulling the straps so tight. The hammock should be hung to the trees at a 30 degree angle.

http://theultimatehang.com/2012/06/2...mmock-camping/

[TrailSlug]

You should try the new Warbonnet buckles or make this mod to yours.
https://youtu.be/lBvgGC6v8nE

Otherwise Brandon explains how to do this in this video around the 1:35 mark.
https://youtu.be/YgqbxZLV4RU

Wow Paul your fast.

[OneClick]

Something strange is going on there. To my knowledge there's no way to "tighten" them; they just squeeze together themselves and hold the webbing. To loosen I just give them some slack by pulling the hammock a little like you mentioned.

If you're referring to "tightening" by pulling the free end so the suspension is tight, you don't want to do that! You want each side to be around 30°.

[TallPaul]

You should try the new Warbonnet buckles or make this mod to yours.
https://youtu.be/lBvgGC6v8nE

Otherwise Brandon explains how to do this in this video around the 1:35 mark.
https://youtu.be/YgqbxZLV4RU

Wow Paul your fast.

Good to see we are consistent in our answers

[jcksparow]

Do you have to leave some slack when tightening the webbing straps? Usually I just pull it as tight as it will go.

Just reading this gave me a powerful sensation of anxiety.

Not trying the shame the OP or anything. We were all noobs at some point.

[hutzelbein]

What is the trick? Are you just supposed to not tighten it that much? Do you have to leave some slack when tightening the webbing straps? Usually I just pull it as tight as it will go.

Yes! You definitely do have to leave some slack! Most hammocks are not designed to be hung with a 0° angle, but rather an angle somewhere between 20° and 45°. If you have pulled the suspension as tight as possible, it's actually surprising that you were able to loosen the cinch buckles at all.

Which hammock do you have? Warbonnet has instructions for all their hammocks on their video page.

[bluesam3]

For some maths as to where your problem is coming from, consider the vertical forces involved: your weight is essentially the only thing pulling down, and the tree straps are the only thing pulling up. The downward force, then, is equal to your weight W. Since you aren't falling, the upwards force must also be equal to W.

Now, let X be the angle that your suspension straps make to the horizontal. We have a right-angled triangle with an angle X, opposite side of length W, and the total force F that the tree straps have to provide is the hypotenuse. Applying some trigonometry, we have F = W/sin(X).

Notice that with X something reasonable like 30 degrees, the total force on each strap is equal to your weight (NB: you'll get twice your weight if you stick the numbers into the above formula, but you've got two suspension straps that spread the weight between them).

Now, the next question is just how small you managed to get X. You can't get it down to zero (because that would put literally infinite force on the suspension), but we can estimate what it is: the stretch on polyester webbing is roughly 1% for every 1000N applied in the range that we're interested in (up to ~100,000N). I'll first assume that by "pulling it tight", you mean "knocking the slack out of it, but not actually putting a massive amount of tension on".

In that case, with W/sin(X) force on the webbing, its length extends by W/(1000sin(X))%. But also, the resulting angle X (assuming essentially zero angle initially) is the angle of a triangle with hypotenuse 100 + W/(1000sin(X)) and adjacent side 100. That means that we have cos(X) = 100/(100 + (W/1000sin(X))). Assuming that you weigh about 600N (on the low side of average for an adult, but it doesn't matter that much), we can solve that for X precisely, but it's awful (multiply the result by 180/pi to get it in degrees), so we'll just approximate it to X ~= 13 degrees. That means that the total force on each of your buckles is W/(2sin(13)), which is about 2.25 times your body weight.

Assuming instead that you pulled it tight - say, you put your bodyweight's worth of tension into it - the adjacent side of that last triangle is now (100 + W/1000), so our final formula is cos(X) = (100 + W/1000)/(100 + W/(1000sin(X)). Making the same assumption as above, the exact form is just as bad, but it's roughly 12 degrees, so the total force on your buckles is about 2.4 times your bodyweight.

That 2-and-a-bit times your own bodyweight is the force that's driving the buckles together and making them hard to release.

[Shug]

I always have a very hard time loosening the straps when taking down the hammock. Usually the buckles do not budge at all, even when the hammock is pulled to take up all available slack.

I have had some luck with rotating the carabineers so that the strapa just slide out of them.

This last Time I hung it, I ended up having to cut the loop in one of the straps with a pocket knife. No amount of pulling, pushing, and twisting, even using four people to pull out more slack, could get it to budge.

What is the trick? Are you just supposed to not tighten it that much? Do you have to leave some slack when tightening the webbing straps? Usually I just pull it as tight as it will go.

Watch the video below at 1:24 in to see some buckle info.
Note the suspension hang angle.


From Warbonnet:
Blackbird, Blackbird XLC, Traveler hammock Setup:
The following describes a detailed setup method that should result in maximum comfort (vs. simply hanging between 2 trees and getting inside, which works also.)
Find 2 trees that are ideally 13-17′ apart. Hang the hammock so that “once occupied” the foot end is about 16′′ higher than the head end, and by “end” I mean the end of the fabric, not the attachment point on the tree itself. Since the foot end needs to be significantly higher, the easiest way to achieve this is often to just position the hammock much closer to the foot tree AND attach the webbing to the foot tree at head height or above. Having the head end farther away from it’s tree means it will sink more when you get in and that is usually what you want.
The BB/XLC/Traveler is designed to be laid in “off-center” so that your head is very close to the head end of the hammock while your feet are alot farther away from the foot end. This allows the fabric under your legs to spread out properly when laying on the diagonal. To do this you’ll want to lay so that your eyes are aprox. even with the farthest side tieout (BB or XLC) so that one tieout is even with your eyes and the other is chest level. Once you are laying in this correct spot you will then determine if you want the head/foot end higher or lower. Most people will want it setup so that when your eyes are even with the tieout that you are basically level/horizontal from hips to shoulders, so if your upper body seems too inclined or declined simply move the webbing up or down the tree trunk to adjust.
*Here is a picture that shows much of what I have just described, the person is much closer to the head end than they are to the foot end, but since the foot end is set much higher, the person is very level from hips to shoulders rather than the torso being “inclined”. The hammock is much closer to the foot tree, and also note the upward angle of the suspension straps, you want to shoot for the suspension running upward at roughly 30 deg angle for any hammock.
You will want to avoid ever pulling the suspension “tight” so there is little to no slack left, doing this will result in the suspension stretching more and the hammock height dropping by a foot or more once weighted, It can also over-stress your suspension. You generally will raise a hammock not by tightening the suspension but by raising it on the tree. A simple test can be done once you are in the hammock... if the ridgeline seems like it is guitar-string tight (see Blackbird setup video to see me doing this test) then the hammock is probably set too tight . If the ridgeline droops (while you’re laying down) then the hammock is too loose. Tightening the suspension tightens up the ridgeline and loosening the suspension loosens the ridgeline.
When using any webbing/buckle suspension, make sure that the buckles and webbing are aligned correctly. Webbing/buckles can sometimes get twisted up in the stuffsac and if you hang the hammock without ever looking at or adjusting one end you may not notice, so be sure that even if no length adjustment is needed that you give a glance to make sure they are aligned properly before using the hammock. If the hammock is weighted with the buckles turned sideways it can damage the webbing and/or potentially lead to failure of the webbing.

[SilvrSurfr]

Ahh, the ENO method of suspending a hammock! ENO users make the suspension tight, preferably as close to a 0* hang angle as possible. I've seen people doing this in the woods, have considered explaining the 30* hang angle to them, but decided against it since I've never actually seen an ENO user spend more than about 15 minutes in the hammock.

Definitely start using the 30* hang angle - I don't think there's any hammock suspension that works well under the tension you've described. Whoopie slings can't be adjusted at all under tension (ask me how I know).