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  1. #11
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Long beach, NY not cali
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    Dutch Wide 11', H.H.
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    Superfly, Noah 12'
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    Cant find any specs on your cordage
    But I will say para cord is not your opinion either as that is also high stretch
    Its imperative to use a cordage with minimal stretch
    I use zig it or lash it for ridgeline and 1.2 z line for my tie outs

    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

  2. #12
    Senior Member JollyRoger70's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Laurinburg, NC
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    WBRR
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    SLD Winter Hvn
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    206
    I have the same tarp; I use a zing-it ridgeline with Nama claws, which hold fairly consistently, tightening with loop aliens. I have shock cord tied into the guy lines, and shock cord on the doors. The main thing that keeps it out of my face is the external pole mod, above the ridgeline
    .


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  3. #13
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2020
    Location
    Little Rock, AR
    Hammock
    1.0 HyperD DIY
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    Dutchware DCF
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    DIY down
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    329
    I can’t help much with the ridgeline or flapping issues, since I’m still figuring that stuff out myself. But for knots, I’ve used the taut line for the RL, but I’ve gotten to like Andrew Skurka’s “McCarthy hitch” better. It seems to hold better for me and it easier for me to adjust.

    For tie outs, I prefer using either a marlinspike hitch or a clove hitch, depending on which stakes I’m using. I find them MUCH faster than a taut line hitch.

  4. #14
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Location
    old dirt
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    444
    aah, i like troubleshooting

    welcome to the forum first of all. you got some good advice already, but some of it conflicting so let me try see if i can clarify some things.

    - height: you hang your hammock aiming for about 30degree suspension angle, hopefully, and you're probably already aware of the extreme "mechanical advantage" when you produce shallower angles (closer to horizontal). this applies for the tarp as well. long story short, try to attach your tarp on the tree at the same height or higher than the hammock, not lower, and don't pull the ridgeline tight from the start, but let it sag and follow the hammock suspension, and it will get taut as you gently tighten the corner tieouts.

    there's a pic of exactly what i mean in the first post of this thread: https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...evitating+tarp

    many people attach the tarp expecting the ridgeline to stay nearly straight and horizontal (which it cannot and will not), in effect the dyneema ridgeline became fashionable. if you hang your tarp like that, dyneema is indeed the only viable option without going to very thick stuff. if you hang it parallel to your hammock suspension as i suggest, then some stretch is actually an advantage, and will help keep the tarp nice and taut even in windy conditions; to give you an idea, i'm using 2mm paracord for a ridgeline (this is rated for 100lbs/45kg or so, if you thought regular paracord is stretchy, this is even more so, but it's perfectly fine at the very low loads it withstands when used like this); this will also reduce the load on the ridgeline and trees a lot, and will allow you to simply attach your ridgeline directly to your main hammock treestraps, which is my preferred way of doing it (why not use them if they're there anyway)

    - over or under ridgeline: the tarp you linked has a bit of cat cut to it on the ridgeline; hang it under the ridgeline, so it can take the shape it was designed to when tightened, if you hang it over the RL, some parts of it will not be allowed to take tension, as the cat cut and ridgeline might not want to fall on the same curve.

    - knots: the rolling hitch is nice to know for historical value, so is the prusik. there are better ones out there, especially for use with slippery new synthetic lines. one of my favourites is the blake hitch, i describe in a thread here how i use it as part of a soft shackle to create a very handy, one handed tensioner system (i prefer the tensioner to be at the tarp, not at the stakes). the same method works great to tighten the ridgeline, and the blake is also a nice solution to position the tarp on the ridgeline (instead of the more common prusik). another favourite of mine is the VT, which i use in much the same way. here's a short clip showing it in action, in case you might be curious (a bit hard to describe it in text)



    - cat cuts: it has been said already, but if you want the tarp really nice and taut, it would have to be quite aggressively cat cut, otherwise fabric just doesn't work like that (and if you force it to look nice and taut, it will be by over-stressing it), so perhaps worth considering expectations too here (hard to say though, without some pics of the setup)

    in short, my (rather non conventional) advice would be: hang it high, pull it low, embrace stretch. and enjoy some modern knots.

  5. #15
    cougarmeat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Bend, OR
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    Another “No” on paracord. Stay away from that stuff. It just stretches to much. It’s like this … when rock climbing you want a stretchy rope. Because if you come off the climb (preferred way of saying “fall”), you’d like some stretch to take up the shock at the end of the rope. But if you are traveling across ice/snow and you fall in a crevasse you won’t be taking the air time you would on a rock climb. So you want a static or “non-dynamic” rope. Also when you try to climb out of a crevasse and are using a stretchy rope, you can “climb in place” for about 10 minutes as the rope just stretches each time you step up (prusiking or jumaring to the top). So it is with a tarp - you don’t want stretch in you lines or you will be constantly retightening things. That said, having some give can be beneficial. So I add some shock-cord to the edge tie outs. It’s not so much to make it taut/pretty as it is to allow the tarp to deflect a bit to spill some wind, then bounce back.

    I’m not saying paracord is evil - it’s just that it is inherently stretchy.
    In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.

  6. #16
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Berlin, VT
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    Quote Originally Posted by nanok View Post
    - over or under ridgeline: the tarp you linked has a bit of cat cut to it on the ridgeline; hang it under the ridgeline, so it can take the shape it was designed to when tightened, if you hang it over the RL, some parts of it will not be allowed to take tension, as the cat cut and ridgeline might not want to fall on the same curve.
    That seems to me to be the main fix. Hanging the tarp below the ridgeline gives it a more 'natural' hang, like you'd get with split lines. I think you'd be able to get much less side flop that way.

  7. #17
    Senior Member
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    Sep 2018
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    old dirt
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    444
    Quote Originally Posted by deadeye View Post
    That seems to me to be the main fix. Hanging the tarp below the ridgeline gives it a more 'natural' hang, like you'd get with split lines. I think you'd be able to get much less side flop that way.
    i agree, but the original post seems to imply that was the starting point, so maybe other things to fix as well. but yeah, all tarps, even plain non domestic--feline-chopped ones will tend towards a bowed, hypar shape, if allowed to, even if just a little bit, and that's when they are at their nicest

  8. #18
    Senior Member
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    Berlin, VT
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    Quote Originally Posted by nanok View Post
    i agree, but the original post seems to imply that was the starting point, so maybe other things to fix as well. but yeah, all tarps, even plain non domestic--feline-chopped ones will tend towards a bowed, hypar shape, if allowed to, even if just a little bit, and that's when they are at their nicest
    Now that I re-read the OP, you're right, looks like he's tried RL above and below.

    Therefore, the only solution is to get a smaller tarp. You're welcome.

  9. #19
    New Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2021
    Location
    west central Illinois
    Posts
    1
    How far apart were your trees? I'm still very new to this game, but in playing around with using a regular rectangular sil nylon tarp for my hammock, I noticed the same thing. I don't have a lot of trees to choose from in the yard but the ones I do have, the distances between them vary a lot. Even with 1/8" amsteel CRL with prusiks and S-biners, staking down to the ground with the guy lines of shock cord, Dutch's ring worms and reflect it cord, it will bow that ridge line down 2 feet or more. That is when I'm trying to use the trees that are 50 or 60 feet apart. If I set it between the trees that are half that distance, I can still stand up under it AND have the tarp like a drum head.

  10. #20
    Senior Member rmcrow2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2021
    Location
    US
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    El Dorado
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    313
    Just occurred to me to ask.

    What angle are your guylines set at?

    To get even distribution of stress across your tarp you need your lines laid out so that the four corners make two lines that cross at the center of your tarp.

    Pic one will never be tight obviously.

    Pic two is more than enough off true for the same effect. But it is much more difficult to see without practice or a multi panel tarp when you are 5° or less off the line.

    Pic three is inline as the pole redirects the stress.

    Your tarp will distribute the stress somewhere if you are not close to correct.

    Trying to correct this problem by adding extra tension causes other problems.

    Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

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