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
No, hears why. The 30 degrees is with you lying in the hammock. Unless you have a friend to measure, starting at 30 degrees in an empty hammock is useless. Even with a friend, your gonna be chasing your tail trying to get the correct angle. Here’s what I do. I look for a span that is as close to 15 feet as I can. I find this is the best for hanging a gathered end hammock. Then I set the straps, the height depends on the hammock, but a good place to start would be eye level for a stiffer hammock, like a double layer Blackbird XLC, and around a foot above my head for a stretchy one, like a 1.6 single layer Darien (I’m 6’1”). I also make sure the foot end is around six inches higher than the head. Next I look at the ridgeline. If it’s got a bit of sag to it (not too tight, not too loose), then I’m nearly home free. Get in, check out the lay, make a few adjustments and your done. After doing this a few times, it becomes second nature. It also helps to have a brightly colored ridgeline (I use yellow 2.2mm zing-it), and make sure the ridgeline length is 109.5” (assuming you have an 11’ hammock). You’d be surprised how off some of them are.
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IF YOU HAVE A STURCTURAL RIDGE LINE - then you don’t have to worry about the 30 degrees as much because your ridgeline keeps the sag and absorbs force that would be imparted to the hammock fabric. Rex Clifton’s calculation puts his sag at about 83% of hammock length - as much a rule of thumb as the 30 degree hang angle. So they are all a bit related - often you will see 83% of physical hammock length for the hung hammock length. Sometimes hammock calculators use 86%. The idea is it is a zone of comfort, not an absolute number. The 30 degrees comes in because it results in a minimum additional force on the hammock material.
For example, if you weigh 200 lbs., an angle of 30 degrees will put about 200 lbs force on the hammock and suspension. But if your angle is 20 degrees, that force can jump up to 300 lbs for 200 lbs. in the hammock. So if the hammock is rated at 250 lbs, you can easy exceed that rating by ignoring the 30 degree recommendation.
If you have a structural ridgeline on your hammock, it will keep that extra force from exerting its destructive force on the hammock but do know it will be “felt” by the suspension and anchor - like if it’s an indoor hang using a 2 x 4 behind sheet rock.
In short - the 30-ish degree angle is the kindest angle for your hammock, suspension, anchor - even if your ridgeline keeps the 83% sag.
Last edited by cougarmeat; 11-30-2020 at 18:13.
In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.
Ridgeline makes it much easier to get a great setup. If I am in a hurry (rain, tired, hungry, whatever) I will just synch both ends tight-ish with the straps on the tree at about head height. By the time I get in and factoring in the stretch/settling of the straps, knots, and hammock, it usually comes in about right and is always comfortable.
I think this is one of the reasons I like hammocks. It's akin to photography and music. Hammock suspensions have "rules and guidelines" that can be understood, then if needed, broken and continually evolve to suit your comfort to make it your own.
Hang failures by trial and error taught me more than my comfortable nights sleep!
So true and really true almost everything in life. This kind of thing always makes me think about the tradition guild system and the whole apprentice/master system. You teach the apprentices to just follow the rules. Sometimes (often?) blindly. And that works. But the true master emerges when he just ignores the rules and still gets good or even better results using his own method(s). Of course you'll have some masters that won't allow their apprentices these "transgressions" and just stick to "but we've always done it that way" and many (most?) apprentices never truly master their craft and just keep to the way they learned it.
The thing about there “rules” is they aren’t random. They’ve been developed over years of trial and error. That doesn’t mean they can’t be improved upon - they came about by “breaking” a previous rule. But I think that before breaking a rule, a person should at least try it and understand how it came to be - not just ignore it because “you’re not the boss of me”. It took many, many, many lessons in my work history where, new to a job, I’d see lots of things people were doing “wrong”. But then, after a few months on the job, I’d start to see why things were done the way they were. Often there were elements, important elements, I hadn’t even considered.
In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.
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
I took a friend hammock camping last summer. We both setup our hammocks, etc - he said he wanted to figure it out. After I was done and relaxed a bit I checked out his setup. He had everything up - tarp, hammock, UQ, and was lying in the hammock. I asked him how it felt and he said it was amazing. I saw lots of ‘rules’ broken but I said that’s awesome and started the fire.
Remember the point is to have fun and enjoy yourself. If you do everything correctly but don’t do that, then what’s the point?
Yah but … you know those videos where someone used a masonry pillar as an anchor for their hammock. …. who care’s about physics, just a bunch of rules.
I guess the key here is Tpatter checked out his friend’s setup. I”m sure if he saw something “off” that would be dangerous, he would have said something. There is absolutely a wide road of setups and many times “the most efficient” isn’t the goal.
In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.
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