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  1. #1
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    Suspension Length - Your Thoughts?

    So I'm not really a new hanger but I still have a LOT to learn and so I'm asking for your thoughts on this.

    First, I live in PA and hike/hang exclusively (so far) in the east.

    I have an 11' netless and I use Dutch's spider/poly 15' tree straps that I use a Becket hitch to attach to my continuous loops. It's pretty simple. The weight is ok.

    My question is whether I need 15' tree straps or can I get away with shorter? I find that most of the time I have a large amount of strap laying on the ground and then it just takes time to wind it all back up when I'm breaking camp. HOWEVER, I know that sometimes I could possibly get into bigger trees and possibly some longer hangs...so I don't want to put myself into a bad situation (i.e. having to sleep on the ground) because I've shortened my tree straps to 10' or so.

    If I did shorten my straps, are there contingencies I could take to add insurance? For example, I've read about dog bones....I know they are basically bigger continuous loops so could I carry a set of them along and add them to my suspension, if needed but leave in my pack if not needed?

    Or am I just being a baby and you'll tell me to suck it up and carry the extra webbing or go back to the ground?

    Thanks for your sage advice and guidance.

  2. #2
    FLTurtle's Avatar
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    Yep, ran into the same thing. Here in Florida, I mostly hang on pine and palm trees and 10 ft straps will work just fine. Every now and then, I come across an oak tree that will eat up a lot of strap. So, I got 15 ft spider/poly straps, which are light but still...bulky. I've thought about using a 10 and 15 ft, but in the end I just ended up with the 15 footers and coil up the excess. I do find the longer strap helpful if the trees are further apart. I'm tall enough on my tippy toes plus longish arms to push the straps higher up on the tree for less than ideal situations.

    So, while I found a solution for bigger trees, I forgot about the 35' length for tarp CRL and those same bigger trees.

  3. #3
    Senior Member
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    Suck it up and carry the extra webbing or go back to the ground!

    Seriously, I, like you (with 15' straps), often end up with a bunch of webbing past the BBs. I've been tempted to shorten them to 12' or so, not because of weight but all that excess hanging off the suspension. I'd be hesitant to go to 10' just because. (I'm soooooo reluctant to cut a perfectly good piece of webbing!)

    One option is to go around the tree an extra time.

    Dog bones are lengths of cord, usually the same amsteel your CLs a made from, with a spliced loop on either end. Yup, they could be added to the CLs with a Lark's Head or you could splice hooks on one end (Dutch's Whoopie Hook, WB's FishHook, etc.) to make it easier to detach them.

  4. #4
    cougarmeat's Avatar
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    The dog bone extension is a good idea. We have a wide range of tree circumferences in the PNW so “enough length” has been an issue for me. I bought ENO XL Atlas daisy chain a while back, thinking I’d just use that. But when ENO made the strap longer, they just made the part that goes around the tree longer instead of adding more loops at the end. The result was, if you need to use it on a small tree, you might have to wrap the anchor around the tree twice. That makes it a little more difficult when you need to make a minor adjustment sliding the anchor point higher or lower on the tree. One solution is just to wrap around the tree with the loop end. If the dimensions work, there will be enough loop/tail left over to clip in.

    I feel your pain on cutting the webbing. So I contracted that out by buying two sets of webbing (I’m planning on transitioning from daisy chain back to webbing), each length a different color so I’m sure to grab with length I want.

    Because I have two empty sacks - the stuff sack for the hammock and the stuff sack for the straps, I just stuff any excess in them. I’ve learned that the only way I can keep track of those bags - when empty - is to keep them binered to the suspension. So I have the hammock stuff sack at one end and the strap stuff sack at the other end and they hold the excess strap material. If I don’t want to use the hammock stuff sack, there was also the tarp stuff sack. But this year I’m moving everything to snake skins.
    In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.

  5. #5
    Senior Member cmoulder's Avatar
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    I've used 10', 12' and 15', and 12' seems to always be enough for me, so that's my standard (also mostly east/northeast). I also carry a 3' dog bone and have used it only once the past couple of years, which was in WA, Copper Ridge in North Cascades NP.
    Five Basic Principles of Going Lighter (not me... the great Cam Honan of OZ)
    “If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.” ~ Gen. George S Patton

  6. #6
    Senior Member
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    Like Cougarmeat.... I'm in the PNW as well so it's either WAY too much strap or BARELY enough on a regular basis. Not liking the weight and, mainly, bulk of long straps I do shorter daisy chain huggers then run actual suspension length with a UCR to my CL. I was able to chop the majority of my strap down but still have the cordage for wider hangs that is much lighter and incredibly less bulky than straps alone.

  7. #7
    Yarome - out of curiosity, how long are your huggers that cover your needs for such a large range of tree sizes?

    I like the simplicity of my 15 ft straps that I Becket to my continuous loops, but I'm always looking to avoid bulk. Storage space on my motorcycle is extremely limited...on purpose.

    Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

  8. #8
    Senior Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by rodentface View Post
    Yarome - out of curiosity, how long are your huggers that cover your needs for such a large range of tree sizes?
    Depends. I have 2 each... 4', 8' and 10'. I'll mix and match depending on where I'm headed. Ie., might take along a single 4' as an extension with a pair of 8's or an 8 and a 10. There's a little wiggle room if a strap is a little short using the UCR as a strap extension.

  9. #9
    Senior Member MikekiM's Avatar
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    I am in the NE.. carry 12' straps for years. Never came up short and always have a bunch hanging from the becket hitch. I carry dog bones to extend the reach if needed, but never had to. All it will take is one fat gran-daddy of a tree to eat up the length of the strap in no time.
    Yes, my pack weighs 70lbs, but it's all light weight gear....
    Bob's brother-in-law

  10. #10
    Senior Member
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    I'm a gram weinie. I carry six foot straps and three foot 7/64th dogbones with a whoopie suspension.

    Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

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