Our first try....not so good

[Bubba]

First of all, I love the initial set up. Having 3 hammocks lined up with view of the back yard is great.

As others have said, less sag would defintiely help. Sturctural ridgelines are more of a benefit if the distance between attachment points is far and you are unable to raise them higher. In your case I don't think a structural ridgeline will help until you are able to get the suspension angle closer to 30 degrees. The rafters are higher at the house side so I was wondering if that may be affecting things. If the end of the hammock closest to the house is higher it might be shifting you. It may help to explain why you felt better facing the house. I know some people find it more comfortable when the foot end is higher than the head end.

With regards to the UQ, if you can tighten the UQ suspension so that when the hammock is empty it actually lifts the hammock up, that may give you more tension to stay snugly in place. If you were shifting because of the uneven ends, maybe that helps explain some of the UQ issues as well.

When I hung from the rafters in my basement, I had to hang 4 feet in the air to attain a better hang angle. The problem with fixed height and length is all you can do is raise the hammock. Is there a way to create some lower anchor points on the side of the house? Using the vertical beams and a wall anchor would get you the proper height although it looks like you only have two beams in the picture. Just brain storming is all

[gargoyle]

Looks like extreme sag to me. Flatten it out some by either tying to the columns on one end or turning the hammocks to hang from the rafters at an angle. This would allow for more adjustability in getting the 30* suspension angle.

The extreme sag will make quilt fitting harder, I think once you get the hammock flattened out to a more normal sag, your quilt will fit and seal better. Snugging up the quilts suspension will help too, IF your shockcord is up to the task. If not, better s.c. will help.
A proper structural ridgeline will also help with the sag issue. Shoot for a r.l. that is 83% of your total hammock length. (example, a 120" hammock will have a ~100" r.l.)
Hanging in a urban area can be tough with car noise, neighbor noise often waking me up. Try ear plugs to muffle the noise.
Nice location you have there.

[JerryW]

Try turning the hammocks 90 degrees and hanging with the side of the hammock facing the yard. You could spread your anchor points to use most of the 22'. That should get you closer to 30 degrees.

Another thought, once you find a comfortable hang angle, screw some 3/8" screw eyes into the bottom of the rafters to hang from. That will lower your setup a few more inches.

Don't give up, keep playing with it! Once you find that sweet spot, you'll never get anything done around the house.


Jerry

[Bubba]

If you left the one end on the house side rafter and secured the other end very close to one of the posts, that would get rid of the sag.

[OutandBack]

I see what your saying and I'll see what I can do with the hang this evening once the temp drops down a bit. I understand what your saying...I just can't take up the entire porch because our table, chairs & grill are there and we use them daily. I also have to have room for 3 hammocks. My husband doesn't want to try the hammock camping just yet, but he also doesn't like to be left out...if you know what I mean. So my intent was to have room for 3 hanging, while leaving our daily space on the porch intact. For my son and I it was more practice so that I can give him that "wilderness experience" when we're ready. I'm still shooting to have this learning curve down by this fall so that I can get him out there.

The rafters are 16" apart....so I'm thinking perhaps just adding a couple more between foot and head end (and hopefully still missing the two ceiling fans with the straps) perhaps it would help. Am I along the right idea here? When I first hung them, I was thinking at first that having too far apart made the hammock too tight on the sides.

That's exactly what I would do. We have similar decks. JUst going slightly diag should give you the distance required to decrease the sag in the hammocks a bit.



I've gone a little more diag in my photo than you need to fit 3 hammocks in.

[Doctari]

From your pictures (#5) I'd guess that you were more comfortable hanging with your head to the right in the picture. "Head end" is usually lower than "Foot end" for most of us.

As to CBS (Cold Butt Syndrome) I don't think many of us got it right the first time, so don't give up. AND, you are half way there, you got son's quilt right, so go from there.

I've spent one night hung as you did & did OK (great actually), but that was after 200 nights in the hammock & not my first night, so I had a bit of a head start on you. As stated by the others above, you need to reduce the sag. Looks, well as best I can tell from photos, that if you leave the ridgeline as is, but get it tight, problem solved. OR at least on it's way to being solved.

A disclaimer that is in the VERY tiny print when you become a hammocker is: There is a great deal of "Fiddle factor" in getting comfortable in a hammock.

[wetware1967]

hang the head end near the house on one rafter, the foot close to the outside edge of the porch, 9 rafters to the left. Hang the 2nd hammock two rafters over from the first, that should be enough room, though you may prefer a third. This will give you about 16 feet between ends which should be enough. If your willing to spend a few dollars buy four padeyes at your nearest marine supply, and use those to hang your hammocks so you can take them down and rehang fairly quickly.
In south america, and many of the islands many families live in a single room, swinging from hammocks at night. then disconnecting one end and hanging both ends from the same hook during the day, allowing the room to be used during the day. You may have to move a couple of things around a little. but still very doable.

[beep]

A disclaimer that is in the VERY tiny print when you become a hammocker is: There is a great deal of "Fiddle factor" in getting comfortable in a hammock.

AND, the good news is that once you've had a bit of practice to get your gear hanging choices "dialed in", the process becomes less fiddly and more automatic. You'll look back and chuckle at your early concerns.

[Deadphans]

actually, that sounds like it would work well, hang the other way. you need your feet slightly higher than the head, and if the roof is on a slant (looks like it is) the hammock closest to the house will be naturally higher overall, you may be able to set them up where the closest to the house will be higher than the other one, so you can look over. yes, youll need to look over them, but you can still share a view.

i just think you need to get some distance between your attachment points. with that steep of a hang, ill bet your UQ is drooping in the middle and not staying tight overall, causing it to move more than it should if it all was tight.

These two things are exactly what I was going to suggest. Definitely buy or make some form of adjustment for your suspension. This way you can face them out the backyard and have your feet higher than your head. As for the UQ drooping with limited space there is not much you can do...unless you were to rig something up where it hugs tight to your hammock.

[DivaB]

Thanks everyone!! I couldn't bring myself to try again last night (sorry), but I spent a lot of time today rehanging the hammocks (pretty much taking up the entire darn porch) but we are heading out to try it tonight. It is too late to take pictures, I'll take some tomorrow and let everyone know how it goes. The sides of the hammocks feel tighter than I think they should, and we're a little higher than I'm willing to fall but we shall see how it goes.

I sure do appreciate everyone here...you all are a wonderful group! I have hung them the same as they were, but with more rafters between them so they are hung at more of a diagonal thus giving more distance between the foot and head end. I also hung the head end (house side) higher than the foot end, perhaps a bit much, but trying to compensate for the slant of the roof. Fingers crossed!