continuous ridgelines?!?

[MAD777]

My continuous ridgeline for my 11' tarp is 37' long and I've never used it all. I will span between two 18" diameter trees that have 20' clear space between them.

[fhqwgads2005]

Just taking your math for granted, let's say that you tried to hang between two trees 35 feet apart with 4.5 ft. tree straps and whoopies that adjust to 9 ft., with a hammock ridgeline of 8 ft. The tree straps are not going to be 4.5 ft. long because you have to wrap around the tree, so let's call it 2.5 ft. on each end. That's 8 ft., plus 5 ft. in tree straps, plus 18 ft. in whoopies, or approximately 21 ft. You don't have enough whoopie or tree strap to hang between two trees 35 ft. apart. Not to mention that even if you did have longer tree straps and whoopies, you would have to figure out a way to get the tree straps 139.2 inches up the tree (11.6 feet) to achieve a 30* hang angle with minimal shear force (173.21 lbs.).

So let's say you move to a 20* hang angle because you can't get the tree straps up 11.6 feet. Now your tree straps are at 7.8 feet (94.4 inches) but you just increased the shear force by 33 percent (274.75 lbs. vs. 173.21 lbs.). But you can't reach 7.8 feet so you drop the hang angle to 15 degrees so you can hang your straps 6.2 feet up the tree. Now the shear force is 373.21 lbs.

The WBBB ridgeline is not designed for those kind of forces, nor is the WBBB hammock.

As I mentioned before, tarp ridgeline has nothing to do with hammock suspension; they're independent (unless you want to complicate your life and hang the tarp ridgeline off the hammock suspension).

Aright, aright, thanks for the explanation. I didn't think about how much tension would be required to keep the lines close to horizontal under load.

So, after much trigonometry, looks like the largest inter-tree spacing I have to work with is 21 ft -- which allows for my maximum vertical reach of 85", butt 12" off the ground, and a 30º angle.

So, with 21' between the trees, and 17" diameter trees (the largest allowed with my straps), and my 132" tarp, that requires about 40' of line for the ridgeline, including some extra for knot tying. So, not quite so long. That seems doable to me.

[Martyn]

that requires about 40' of line for the ridgeline

Yeah, maybe if you want to take the ridgeline round the tree and all the way back to the tarp even for the widest span, but there is more than one way to get the job done. Firstly, you can split the line into two lengths of say 18' each with a loop in each end. Girth hitch them together to make one long 36' line and use as a CRL. If you find yourself in a spot where you need more, separate the lines and use them as end tie outs. That will give you 18'+tarp length+18' or a 47' span. Additionally, you can use hardware to improve versatility. You can use something like a figure 9 or a tarp flyz positioned near the tarp to tension it in a deep V, but also you can use dutch hooks on each end of the tarp to get maximum span from each line if you need it.

My lines are like this. Two of (both the same) 18' of lash it with a loop spliced in one end, then a dutch tarp flyz, then a dutch hook.

The lines are girth hitched/prusiked together to form a 36' CRL. Tarp is attached to the line with prusik loops. Line is tensioned by either of the tarp flyz. Line can lasso the tree with a ducth hook for maximum span, or taken back to the tarp flyz to make a deep V. Line can be split into 2 and used as end tie outs with the same tensioning options. That gives me spanning options from about 14' up to 42' and anything in between, all using 36' of line, 2x tarp flyz and 2x ducth hooks. If you are feeling really fancy, you can use an additional 2x ducth hooks as a quick release for the prusik loops that hold the tarp onto the ridge for a complete no-knot setup.



Closeup of the prussik loops for the ridge tieouts with ducth hooks spliced in as a quick release. These allow the tarp to be quickly disconnected from the ridge and reconfigured without removing the prusik loops from the ridgeline...



Doesnt get much lighter/simpler/faster/neater IMO.