My first camping hammock, a Skeeter Beater Pro, should get here within the next few days. I don't have a decent tarp or underpad yet, but I'll improvise for now. I'll try to post some pics this weekend after I get it set up! It's supposed to get COLD here in Coastal Georgia!!!
Not to say that the SBP necessarily needs mods right out of the box, but after you have slept in your hammock a time or two with the bug netting deployed, you just may find yourself leaning towards doing something like this:
*Internal Ridgeline linky*
By the way, I love my SBP.
(edit: Wow, I see that after a year of lurking, this is my first post here. Well, welcome Chum.)
Last edited by ganu76; 01-10-2015 at 22:47.
Did that to mine, best mod for a SB. Welcome aboard Chum.
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Your thread prompted me to finally add an internal ridge line to mine, OP. Only took a couple of hours today.
Thanks for chiming in guys! Alright, so before I can even consider adding a ridge line (which I do want to do...and I have questions) I've run into a little snag...more like a tear. The hammock arrived on Saturday and I promptly found an acceptable spot in my back yard and set it up. Everything looked great, but as I eased into the hammock I heard a 'pop'...the stitching for the zipper ripped and tore a hole in the bug net! I couldn't believe it...the hammock hadn't even been out of it's stuff sack for 30 minutes! I went inside and contacted Grand Trunk via Facebook asking them what I needed to do (I wanted to give them a chance to respond before I posted this on a public forum), but it's been 3 days with no reply. I went back outside to assess the situation more...maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought...maybe I could fix it...NOPE! Eased back into it..."RIIIIPPP...zinggg", the hole in the bug net tripled in size and the zipper shot off like a bullet.
Luckily for me I ordered the SBP directly from Amazon which has a great returns policy. There's already a replacement in the mail and I'll be sending back the busted one tomorrow. What did I do wrong though? I want this hammock to last a while...are there hints and tips to avoid tearing in the future?
Hammock.jpgHammock 2.jpgHammock 3.jpg
Dang! Hate to see that. Maybe there was already a tear there or some other defect? While the majority of my SBP use has been with it upside down (the no-net setup), I've still had zero problems with it the times I did use the netting. Once I even slept under the net with a 5 y/o, so you know there was a lot of squirming going on inside of that thing.
As always, try to never let the hammock touch the ground where it could snag something.
Also, be careful to not have your hammock too taunt when setting it up. You want a 30° angle when setting up. (You can guesstimate this by using your thumb and forefinger to make an 'L', but turning it like you're making a toy finger gun. There's your eyeballed 30°.) There are a lot of extreme forces being put onto your hammock when your tension is too much. A 200 lbs man can put much, MUCH more than 200 lbs of tension on your setup when the hammock is too taunt. (Don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but I know it's crazy high.)
Other than making sure your angle is right, there haven't been any snags from the ground, you don't have anything in your pockets, & you're climbing into the middle, I'd point to a manufacturer's defect.
Anyone else have something?
Found an old thread discussing why we shoot for 30 degrees-ish. Looking at the hammock in your photo, it could be that yours is too tight, though I wouldn't necessarily say that this was the culprit. (Doesn't look too, TOO bad to me, but I consider myself to still be new to this.)
Check out these links.
hanging-hennessy-no-sag-merged2.png
"Why 30 Degrees" thread **link**
Calculator **link**
That's my $0.02. Anyone else?
Last edited by ganu76; 01-12-2015 at 22:53.
The first pic was before I got in the hammock, and it looks close to 30°. I'm 250+lbs, but that's one of the reasons I went with the SBP...it had one of the highs lb rating I could find in my budget range. I'll try to hang the atlas straps a little higher and drop the hammock a few loops to increase sag. Other than that, I'll just try to be real careful until I get the hang of it.
Got it. I've also read where one guy put close to 480 lbs in a SBP during his trial run (himself, a child, & a pack.) He was a big guy to start with at 325.
How was your bug netting attached to the ridgeline? If it wasn't with shock cord I could see how getting in the hammock might stress the bug netting.
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