weight rating?

Hiya folks,

been sleeping in a mayan for ~8 months and loving it, and occasionally camp out with my small one person nylon hammock. It says it is rated for 160kg, (350lbs) and I am wondering just what the weight rating refers to.

Is it the fabric, the stitching, the ropes/webbing used to attach? How far can I push that rating, or, is there anything I can do to boost it?

Eventually I will be making my own, and I want to know how they work so I can make mine with a respectable weight limit.


-Shrink

It is referring to how much weight can be in the hammock at a time.

The webbing and the ropes have a much higher weight to bear because the angle of the rope intinsifies the load. So, when you are trying to make your own, make sure your rope and webbing can handle 600 lbs. or more.

http://www.tothewoods.net/HomemadeHammock3.html

Thanks for the link, that will help my DIY efforts.

I know that it measures the total weight allowed in the hammock, the question was more aimed at if that was determined by the supports, the material itsel, or a combo. I am guessing now that it is the supports.

Does that mean I can re-fit an existing hammock with new webbing and ropes to up the weight limit?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shrink

Does that mean I can re-fit an existing hammock with new webbing and ropes to up the weight limit?

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Typically, no. The fabric of the hammock itself has weight-carrying limitations.

Manufacturers often give very conservative numbers for stated ratings, so you may be able to push the boundary some. If you do, just be aware that you are exceeding their recommendations.

Somewhere on the Hennessey web site it states their weight ratings are about half of what you can actually put into the hammocks before they would fail. The site says that if you exceed their ratings, the life of the hammock will be much shorter. If you regularly exceed the rating, the fabric will probably fail before the support ropes do, although it depends on how hard you are on the ropes or webbing. Personally, in about eight years of hammock hanging, I've never had anything break on me. But I tend to replace my hammocks fairly often, going through about four different hammocks in those same eight years.