First night in a hammock

[PlusOne]

On my hammock, the ridge line is just over an eighth of an inch in diameter and is just looped over the continuous loops at each end. It's purely there to make sure the spacing between the head end and foot end is the same every time you set your hammock. There should be only moderate tension in it when you sit in your hammock. Take a peak at Shug's videos, they do a good job explaining them.

My two cents on pillows.... I find that when sleeping in my hammock, a thin folded polar fleece kids blanket it the most comfortable pillow. It's soft, and insulates my head, neck and shoulders when it's cold. I know now is not the time for social interaction, but see if you can borrow a longer hammock for a night to feel the difference. My first "OMG" night was in a borrowed Warbonnet Blackbird.


If it's a penny for your thoughts, but you have to put your two cents in... someone's makin' money.

[bearito]

I honestly don't know anyone else who is into hammock camping (yet) but I'm going to make a longer hammock soon. I'm expecting 8 yards of 1.6oz hyperd for a pair of hammocks for my wife and I and I've got plenty of zing-it and amsteel for the ridgeline and various splicing endeavors. When the social distancing let's up I'll work on getting my friends into it so we can go camping. Camping in a hammock IS social distancing after all. The tarp is one big sneeze guard.

[cougarmeat]

bearito - yes, it’s that the “structural” ridge line is connected to the hammock - usually around the continuous loops at the ends - so that the suspension forces run from the tree, to the ridge line at one end, then crosses the top to the other end of the hammock, to the other tree, Imagine hooking up just the suspension and ridge line without the hammock, then hang the hammock on the ridge line - I’m not saying DO it this way - just trying to give the image that all the forces go through the ridge line and the hammock just hangs on it.

Now if your hang angle is about 30 degrees - another way of thinking is the ends of the hammock are 83 to 86 percent of the total hammock length apart - then there isn’t much force on that ridge line. But if for some reason, you can’t hang at that angle, then the ridge line itself takes any extra force; it is not passed on to the hammock. It’s important to understand this means the ridge line is “coupled” to the suspension itself so the hammock body is not involved.

If your ridge line is made out of Amsteel, LashIt, Dynema, - those super strong “cords”, then it can hold the extra force if you must use a shallow angle.

But mostly you want to duplicate a setup you found most comfortable. So when you find that “just right” distance between the hammock ends - just the right sag for you - you can get out of the hammock and measure the distance between the hammock ends (doesn’t matter if they change a bit when you get out; when you setup again, you’ll want them to be that same “out of the hammock” distance). Then make a cord - could be just a piece of string or light cord - that goes from hammock body end to other end. Attach at least one end so it doesn’t get lost. Next time you set up your hammock, attach your suspension to the trees and set the angle so that string reaches from side to side as it did before. See - you are just using it as a measuring stick. That is a non-structural ridge line. It’s a “ridge line” because you can keep it on the hammock but you have to be sure your hang angle is right so it doesn’t take any force.

The downside to a non-structural ridge line is you can’t mention to any tent campers with you that if their car got stuck you could undo your thin little ridge line and use it to pull them out. The regular 7/64 Amsteel could certainly do it. The smaller 2.2mm stuff can handle a little under 600 lbs. The tiny 1.75mm Amsteel (often used as a ridge line) can handle about 500 lbs (via Simpson Rope website).

Extra - physics or trig: some people think their body weight is the force on the hammock. If they weight 200 lbs. then there is 200 lbs pulling on the hammock. That might be the case if the angles are just right, but their body weight is not the force to be concerned with.

If you imagine a straight line from your hammock end horizontally to the tree, you can “see” a triangle where one side (the base) is the horizontal distance to the tree. The second side is the vertical distance from where that horizontal line meets the tree to where your suspension connects. The third, last, line, is the line from the top of suspension at the tree down to the hammock; the hypotenuse of the triangle.

That hypotenuse is the force pulling on the hammock and suspension. The vertical line is your body weight (gravity downward force). If the length of the hypotenuse is twice as long as the vertical rise - which represents 200 lbs. then you have 400 lbs of force pulling on the hammock. The reason 30% hang angle is so special is that gives about a 1 to 1 ratio of force. 200 lbs in the hammock is about - about mind you - 200 lbs force on the hammock. As that angle gets less than 30 degrees, it’s like the hypotenuse of that imaginary triangle getting longer - more and more force over the vertical 200 lbs. is pulling on the hammock.

An experiment to bring it home: Hold one end of a rope, maybe 6 to 10 ft long (longer the better but not ridiculous), and have a kid try to pull it from you. Their force is in a direct line from them to you. Hopefully, for this experiment, they won’t be able to move you. Now tie one end of that rope to a tree (have enough rope so the distance from you to the tree is the same as what it was from you to the kid initially). Move away from the tree until the rope is straight. Now have the kid pull on the center of that rope. You will feel a much greater force trying to move you and may even need to take a step - putting slack in the rope - to keep your balance. I’m sorry I’m too lazy to diagram that out, scan it, and upload. It’s sunny out and time to seam seal a tarp

[GreenMaus]

Cougarmeat, you must be an engineer...

Bearito, i also just spent my first night in my hammock! I don't have any trees in my back yard, so i have a set up in my garage. Not as cold, and sheltered from the wind and rain, but i figured it would help me decide if the rest of my set up is good. I've had worse nights ground camping, but I've had many far better. I was in a ~10.5 foot diy gathered end with a ridgeline of about 104 inches, the fabric being 1.6 oz ripstop. I normally am a stomach or side sleeper and hoped that the shape of the hammock would allow bac


Me to be comfortable on my back, but it really didn't. I mostly spent the night on one side (i think i would have to change the diagonal of i wanted to sleep on my other side, you know, head to the left rather than right), and only around 4 am when i was exhausted from no sleep but nice and toasty in my down top quilt did i feel like i could doze on my back.

My neck and shoulders seemed to be giving me the most trouble (which is standard for me on any night), and are still aching a few hours after getting up. Not sure if adjusting my ridgeline length or anything else would help that?

Anyways, you're not alone! I have some tweaking to do myself, i hope we can both get our setups figured out!

[Shug]

Cougarmeat, you must be an engineer...

Bearito, i also just spent my first night in my hammock! I don't have any trees in my back yard, so i have a set up in my garage. Not as cold, and sheltered from the wind and rain, but i figured it would help me decide if the rest of my set up is good. I've had worse nights ground camping, but I've had many far better. I was in a ~10.5 foot diy gathered end with a ridgeline of about 104 inches, the fabric being 1.6 oz ripstop. I normally am a stomach or side sleeper and hoped that the shape of the hammock would allow bac


Me to be comfortable on my back, but it really didn't. I mostly spent the night on one side (i think i would have to change the diagonal of i wanted to sleep on my other side, you know, head to the left rather than right), and only around 4 am when i was exhausted from no sleep but nice and toasty in my down top quilt did i feel like i could doze on my back.

My neck and shoulders seemed to be giving me the most trouble (which is standard for me on any night), and are still aching a few hours after getting up. Not sure if adjusting my ridgeline length or anything else would help that?

Anyways, you're not alone! I have some tweaking to do myself, i hope we can both get our setups figured out!

In time your neck and shoulder should adjust. Try different pillows or airline type wraparound pillows. Usually in a hammock you need less than more.
Enjoy the hammock quest.
Shug

[bearito]

I've made a non-structural ridgeline for the doublenest, and that definitely seemed to make a big improvement in terms of setting up. Tried sleeping out there last night to test it but it started raining before I could get settled in- no tarp yet. I'd been hoping to get away without one to see the super moon. I'll try again tonight, probably with some kind of poly tarp setup for now.

[cougarmeat]

I found it helps if you can spend some non-sleep lounging around time in the hammock - like reading a book, listening to music, etc. It sort of takes the pressure off to big goal of falling peacefully to sleep and allows for more familarity with the hammock environment. Like when your body lies down in the hammock it knows, “this is a friend.” A Gathered End (GE) isn’t for everyone. For some, a bridge Hammock (uses spreader bars and a different feel/support) is just the ticket. But I’ve found the GE more versatile in places it can be setup so it’s worth giving it a couple of chances.