Our first try....not so good

**DivaB** · 07-31-2011, 12:25

OK, my son and I tried our first night last night in our hammocks...on our back porch. After 2 hours of sleep we came back in the house. (We promised each other that if one was heading back inside they had to wake the other to let them know.) It was me. My shoulders and butt got cold...and I had to pee, and knew that once I got up, that I wouldn't be able to bring myself to come back outside to the hammock. He was actually warm and doing ok.

First off; we live in town and have very limited yard space due to the pool. So the porch is the only option.

Secondly; hanging vertically from rafters off the porch is a much different hang than horizontally across trees at my parent's house. That in itself presented a problem that we just had to deal with as best as possible.

3rd...I don't know that there is technically a "head end" or a "foot end" of a hammock, but once we switched opposite directions than what I intended us to hang, it laid better....which left us staring into the back of the house and all the clutter that needs cleaned up, rather than out the back yard. This happened to be the shorter height of the porch even though I thought I had things hung as correctly as we could. When we switched ends we didn't have as much pull on our shoulders.

4th My PLUQ kept slipping down below my shoulders and I'll obviously need to fix something there to keep it where I need it. I don't know why my butt got so cold, when my legs and lower back were fine. I have fibromyalgia and arthritis so when the cold sat in, my muscles just "jelled" and I couldn't fiddle fart with the under quilt any longer. I'm glad we weren't in the woods, but I want to get the practices down right so we can get out into the woods. Any suggestions or help? Hopefully I've done the below pictures correctly.

http://s715.photobucket.com/albums/w...%20Hammocking/

Note: I did not hang anything on the same rafters, not even the foot or head end. The strap you are seeing is mule tape. Nothing grand here and all DIY except the actual hammocks. My hammock is in front with the pink ridge line and pink bag....had to add some kind of femininity to it.

I'm thinking that I will just have to save up for a couple of actual good quality whoopie adjustable structural ridge lines so that we have our correct hang no matter what we're hanging from once we get it "dialed in" so to speak; and keeping it "female friendly" so that I don't get too discourage while trying to give my 13 year old this experience.

I'm really trying here gang; so suggestions are much appreciated.

**DivaB** · 07-31-2011, 13:03

Just in case anyone needs it...the porch is 12 x 22, but the actual hang length I have is 11' 8" and I'm using it all.

**SteelerNation** · 07-31-2011, 13:24

First off, let me say that I think that your porch idea is pretty cool, and when you get it dialed in, will really let everyone get comfortable with your hammocks.

Can't really tell from the photos, but it sounds like there is still some height adjustment to be made somewhere since you said that the hammocks lie better one way then the other. I would just keep playing with that, but haven't tried to hang from rafters yet, so don't really have any advice.

For the underquilt, I had a really hard time getting mine just right. I tended to get some sag in the middle, which left me cold as well. From looking at the pictures, maybe that is happening to you as well. The way I solved mine was to attach some shock cords to the sides of the UQ and attach them to the ridge line. That pulled everything up tight against me and works really well for me.

If you're interested, you can see some of the details of how I did this in my hammock and insulation gear talk. The UQ is mostly discussed in Part 2:

I'm certainly no expert and have learned most by watching videos and trial and error. I hope that this helps and keep up the fight

SN

**default** · 07-31-2011, 13:29

from what i see (and i am no expert) you definitely need a tighter suspension. when im in my hammock,(i have hung vertically just had a good bit of distance between strap points)
the ridgeline is usually taught and close to taught when hanging by itself. looks like when you would be in that, youd not be putting any or much pull on it because of the steep angle of the hang. that will help a lot. getting on the diagonal will help too if you werent.

**timabababaluka** · 07-31-2011, 13:36

The structural ridgeline helps a ton and shouldn't require a lot of saving for--as long as you aren't hanging your hammock too tight (10-20 degrees) there isn't really a whole lot of stress put on it. I use a thin braid poly rope that certainly is not rated to take tons of stress, but works fine fore a ridgeline. Add a taughtline or adjustable grip hitch, and your ridgeline can now be fiddled with until you dial it in just right (doesn't have the cool factor of the whoopies, but it DOES have immediacy, which for me often trumps cool

)

At any rate, you can do that till you get your dynaglide.

**brushybill** · 07-31-2011, 13:37

like rev says, the hammocks look to loose, is there a way to hang them side by side? ,diagonally on the porch instead of at right angles, this would give you a longer hanging option, if you can have your hanging points at about 15 feet it would give you a better hang
good luck

**default** · 07-31-2011, 13:49

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.

**DivaB** · 07-31-2011, 14:12

The ridge lines that I have on our hammocks are not for any weight bearing, they are there to hold the bug nets up and our other crap and are adjustable and do pull tighter when weight is in the hammock, and if not, we just adjust. They are not structure ridge lines in any way.

I actually do have shockcord on each side of our PLUQ that we attach to our ridge line once we get in. I made both the same with loops on the side of the PLUQ and running shock cord with mitten clips on the ends to attach to ridgeline on the sides. On mine it was the head end that kept sliding down off my shoulders. I will be playing with that tonight to tighten that end up more without it bunching up a bunch in the process.

Keep the info coming in....I'm digesting it all and will be doing a lot of changes tonight. It takes a darn village doesn't it?

**DivaB** · 07-31-2011, 14:50

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.

Originally Posted by REV

from what i see (and i am no expert) you definitely need a tighter suspension. when im in my hammock,(i have hung vertically just had a good bit of distance between strap points)
the ridgeline is usually taught and close to taught when hanging by itself. looks like when you would be in that, youd not be putting any or much pull on it because of the steep angle of the hang. that will help a lot. getting on the diagonal will help too if you werent.

**JohnSawyer** · 08-01-2011, 02:04

Dakota's ridgeline will certainly hold more than 100lbs, which is more than enough to be structural... Any cord bigger than 1/8" would likely be fine. THe Nylon paracord his is made from may stretch some over time, though...

Definitely try to find a way to get some of that sag out of yours. A tighter hang will help, your suspension lines are 45-degrees or more off the horizontal... 30 is about right. I might be tough to get this on your porch, See if you can get the line around the back side of that big beam on the yard side of the porch, that would help get some length...

What everybody, above said sounds spot-on to me!

John