Is this a bad idea?

[heavyhanger]

I just got this particular hammock and wanted to try it with a ridge line. I honestly should say, put the ridge line on, because all of my hammocks have them. It is a length of 7/64 Amsteel with a locked loop on one end and a whoopie sling on the other end. That is the way all of mine are. So standing there putting it on I thought "Why can't I just put it on the carabiner?". I like it that way because I am also trying out not using a lark's head on my CL, but instead living it apart with 2 ends on the carabiner. this seems to leave the hammock more open (although not much) and it seems to give me more comfy sweet spot. Any and All thoughts are welcome.

[rmcrow2]

You're fine.
The point of the ridgeline is to set how far apart a section of your Hammock can be pulled. That sets the tension of the fabric hanging below those points irrespective of tension on the suspension past the ridgeline.



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[Bubba]

Good to go. Also gives a little more room above your head as it's a little higher than if it was on the CL.

[Crazytown3]

I agree with the others, nothing wrong with attaching the ridgeline to the carabiner.

[PopcornFool]

No issues with safety or function. Of course, you'll need to leave your 'biners connected to your hammock all the time or disconnect and reconnect your ridgeline every time. One reason to connect your ridgeline to your CLs is that the ridgeline always remains connected to the hammock no matter what approach you opt to use for your suspension (e.g. 'biners, soft shackles, whoopie hooks, cinch buckles, direct to Becket, etc.).

[heavyhanger]

Thanks for all the feedback. I always leave my carabiners attached to my hammock. I think I have tried just about every typ and combination of suspension you can imagine and I always come back to carabiners. .They are just simple, easy to use, everyone understands how they work so anyone can hang one of my hammocks. I am not an ultralight hiker so I just stick with the looped straps and and biners.

And, yes, the extra height above the hammock is nice as well.

[Phantom Grappler]

Carabiners are cool
Make sure your carabiners are weight rated at least as many pounds as rest of your suspension

Of course each component will not exactly match weight rating of each other part.
Carabiners purchased from our favorite hammock cottage vendors are usually rated around 2000 pounds and some up to 3000 pounds
There is no need to buy and use climbing rated carabiners that might be rated 5000 pounds or more, for ordinary hammock camping. Cliff hammock camping and tree canopy hammock camping, might be advisable to use climbing rated entire suspension, hammock and anything else that is bearing your weight at great heights.
Just avoid carabiners sold in camping section at, Walmart or other similar stores. Their carabiners are notoriously low rated, maybe lower rated than your 5 to 1 and up to 10 to 1 margin of safety

Be careful not to set your carabiners hanging on the gate, or the opening (sideways)
And another thing to watch for on carabiners!
It’s too tempting to “borrow” a carabiner and then forget to put it back where you will really need it!!!

A way around that last caution, is people who like carabiners, usually have 3 or 4 spare carabiners in their pack.

Even though, I love knots, I used to carry 2 carabiners, one got borrowed, loaned or moved by me, now it have just 1 carabiner!

HahahaLol

If anything, carabiners give Ease of Use
A carabiner set sideways can damage not only carabiner, but also damage strap.

Dutch sells a woven strap with loops woven in every 3 inches!
Dutch’s Spyder Daisy Chain
I use it myself. It’s the lightest and most compact daisy chain in the market!

[heavyhanger]

Thanks, for the heads up P.G., it's funny you mention climbing rated biners. I actually use ones rated for climbing. They guys at the climbing store we went to get them at laughed at me when I said there was no way "that little piece of gear would hold my weight". He took one and some strap and shimmied up a rock climbing wall, hooked in, climbed up about 8 more feet and let go. I was sold. They are not that expensive or heavy. I am not a gram counter anyway. I am interested in the spider daisy chains though, I have heard they are very strong.

[nanok]

edit: my short answer, funny enough, i guess is "yup, it is a bad idea. you probably won't die though, but since you asked.. yup"

it's good that you got climbing rated carabinners, you should only use such carabinners imo for anything to do with supporting human weight. the reason is very simple: it's not just the weight rating, but the testing standards are overseen by uiaa. anybody can "test" a carabinner and put a rating on it, the rating might even be honest, but the testing procedure might be flawed, etc. another major reason is QC: obviously nobody can test the finished product they send you, so the QC processes need to be top notch by design, to avoid failures, for climbing carabinners the stakes are high, and the industry is mature already, these things are reliable. in short, climbing carabinners are really cheap these days and not so heavy, don't skimp on that, UIAA certified or i'm not buying, is my rule.

the setup you show above will work, and is "probably fine" on a climbing carabinner with typical hammock loads, but you shouldn't do it, if for no other reason, just because it's a bad habbit. tri-loading carabinners is dangerous practice, in some cases it reduces their strength rating spectacularly, in some cases just very significantly. it's difficult to predict which triangle configuration will be how strong, so the rule is: carabinners are designed to be loaded in line with the spine (the long straight bit opposite the gate), any other setup is dangerous. particularly, the two most unrecommended setups are: perpendicular to the spine (you even have a separate rating for that, if your carabinner is really climbing certified), open gate (rating for that too) and triangle loaded. basically, when the loads attached to the carabinner, once in tension, point to the corners of a triangle, instead of being inline with eachother, you have tri-loading.

again, in your case, you likely won't put enough load on it to break it, but i'd still not leave it like this, just to drive the lesson home. besides, you will find it can be annoying to re-arrange the multiple pieces of string on the carabinner when you unpack (at least i found so when i was using them), it's much neater to attach the ridgeline to the continuous loop or whatever gathers your hammock, which is "where it belongs" (TM) :P.

i prefer softshackles myself, but i do have some climbing carabinners nearby most times, there's times when a rigid connector is what's needed.

[heavyhanger]

nanok,

I appreciate your answer, and it's funny you mention tri loading, as learning about that is what led to my question here. I did some googling and found the term. I did some studying on my set up and this is the conclusion I came to:

I keep my strap angle high enough so that If I lay my four fingers on top of the ridge line, while laying in the hammock, that if I place my thumb under, I can turn a 4 finger length of cord almost completely vertical. This is telling me that there is just not that much of a load on my ridge line. I used the hang calculator to get a rough idea of how much stress I am putting on this set up and came up with something like 320 lbs. on anchor points 14 feet apart.

I tried soft shackles, they just seem to fiddly to me. but I have neuropathy that is beginning to cause dexterity issues.