A particular difficulty I've had with the most common technique for a marlinspike hitch -- making a loop in the working end and pulling another loop through from the standing end -- is that the resulting knot is very loose, requiring significant tightening after placing the toggle, which often moves several inches down the line from where it was initially tied, making it difficult to precisely position the toggle along the length of rope / webbing, which in turn makes it difficult to precisely adjust the position of a hammock along its suspension.
There are two other common techniques for tying a marlinspike hitch, both of which involve placing the toggle along the rope where you wish to locate the knot, and then tying the hitch around the toggle in-place, which minimizes the amount of "shifting" in the knot during tightening.
This YouTube video demonstrates both of those techniques, which are also useful for placing a toggle in the line for a PCT bear hang.
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