Oh boy, I've done nothing but think on this for days. I've recently discovered Grizz's Single Line Suspension with the SMC decender rings and thinking that might be ideal. I love the simplicity of it and the ability to adjust the structural ridgeline at will.
I'm just wondering why it does not seem to be very popular?
Adjusting the ridgeline for me is something done at or near home. When I'm out I don't want to be futzing with things like that. May be one reason why it's not more popular.
I changed the stock suspension off my HH for three reasons. To reduce bulk, increase range of distance between trees, and simplify adjustment. I didn't find doing the lashing difficult in the first place, but dialing it in to just the right length was another story. Also, the stock suspension didn't seem to leave much room for variation in tree distance. I made whoopies and purchased treestraps and toggles from AHE. For about the same weight I've got a much larger window on tree spacing, far easier adjustment, and it all takes up less space. Now that I've done it, I don't see any advantage to leaving it stock other than the cost and time to convert it.
For simplicity, instead of switching out the stock suspension, just attach to rings to each tree. Then you make one loop around the ring pair and finish it with a "half turn" between the two rings - there are YouTube's that show this technique. All you need to do is pull on the unloaded rings to adjust the hang and tension will cause the line to be pinched and held. You can back it up with a "security" slippery half hitch if you want.
It's much easier than tying knots and you keep the stock line suspension in place.
Whew! I FINALLY quit obsessing over this. I don't know why I was agonizing over it so much, I guess because there are sooooo many suspension options to choose from. I felt a little like the mule that starved to death between two bales of hay because he didn't know which one to take a bite out of first.Plus, I'm not hanging until it warms up a bit, so as a noob I have all this stuff and I'm itching to do something with it.
First off, for those who checked in somewhere in the middle of this thread, I do not have a Hennessey, I got a Grand Trunk Double which is a gathered end hammock with a sewn channel, just like the ENO Double Nest. The GT comes with some plastic core stiff cord through the channels and fairly heavy and sharp (in the gate lock) stainless marine carabiners. It works, but I wanted something different and was drawn to the Hennessey system which started this whole thing for me.
What I've decided to try is this. I got some 7/64 Amsteel from Dutch along with splicing tools, and I got a couple of his tree straps. I also got a couple of quality, light-weight climbing biners. I spliced an eye in the end of a piece of Amsteel and tied a figure 8 knot in the other end and burned it with a lighter a bit. I will just run this long cord through the channel in the end of the hammock and run the line through the loop to hold it together. It won't be whipped the way his are, but I'll have a long piece of cord from the hammock a la a Hennessey.
Then I took oldpappy's idea to check out Dejoha's slippery larks head on a biner approach from page 64 of The Ultimate Hang. See post #12, this thread, thanks, oldpappy!Oldpappy uses the stock Hennessey suspension but switched to this knot on a ring from the lashing technique.
Dehoja listed this as, guess what? A way to get away from the lashing on a Hennessey hammock! He says it worked so well he used it on other hammocks later, too. I could not find an online image of that diagram, so here it is in a photo. It is a simple knot, and I'm no expert, but Dejoha is and I'll take his word for it that this will hold under load. It definitely should. And oldpappy's using it too, so it has been pretty well-tested. This hitch over a smooth biner should not stress the rope as much as some tighter knots and I think it is a good system. Obviously, the biner attaches to the tree straps.
A couple of notes--first I should have not labeled that short end short, because it may be long, depending on how far apart your trees are. It's the free end not going to the hammock is all. Also, there is, apparently, a right way and a wrong way to do hitches on biners, although for hammockers as opposed to climbers it is probably not critical. But the loaded line should be closest to the biner spine, not the part with the gate. It is correct in the photo, and, of course, in the book. I doubt any of us will see a failed biner if we goof that up but I thought I'd mention it.
It is very easy to tie and to untie and adjust. I love this method, it's not too heavy, it's elegant in its simplicity, and it is very quickly adjustable. What it doesn't have is a metal piece near the hammock to act as a water break, but then neither do Hennessey's so I am guessing a shoelace or two tied near the hammock as a water break should work.
Thanks for all the suggestions, and please feel free to continue, if you like. But I've settled on this and won't change it now until I've used it on a few hangs. There are a lot of ways to skin this cat, but I'm going with this one for a while. I appreciate the discussion from you experienced folks, thanks!
Last edited by JCinPA; 01-30-2015 at 16:51.
Why not do that knot straight onto the loop in the end of the tree hugger? It would work just as well, and you would save weight without the biner.
It's bad luck to be superstitious.
Because I like the biners and could not care less about that amount of weight. I could do that, no question about it, but when I saw the knot in the book I kinda liked it with the biner. No reason, really.
Can't argue with that! I've got some of those biners and they are very cool.
It's bad luck to be superstitious.
I like the Hennesy suspension. I did have a problem with the tree hungers slipping once, but only when I was using a belt as an additional webbing strap to make it go around a wider tree.
To solve the tree hugger length problem, I picked up some webbing straps from Walmart (I think they were $1.25 each). If I can use the stock tree huggers, awesome. If not, I can wrap the webbing around the tree, hold it in place with a water knot, and do my figure eight behind the knot.
If I ever get or make another hammock, I'll probably switch to a more svelt suspension, but for now, I like it the way it is, and I would rather put my faith in the manufacturers recommendations than my diy skills when it comes to suspension (although that will change)
Finally finished my Amsteel and Zing It splicing and redid the ends of the hammock a la Xtrekker's Youtube. It's pretty sleek, I like it! It's still fairly lightweight even with a couple of tree huggers, and its simplicity appeals to me. I've gotten super quick with that slippery larks head, it's very quick to adjust.
Xtrekker's video is here for those interested. I did not use a zip tie I used a piece of guyline to tie mine up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nU25t8Znx0
Also, consider backing that larks head with a couple of half hitches--it's cheap insurance.
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