DIY PolyD 1.2 hammock... Fail. (Picture heavy)

[neokei]

Hi!

I received some fabric from Dutch a few days ago, and today my girlfriend and I decided it was time to make our first hammock!

We started with hers: she's 120lbs for 5.6 feet, and we wanted something very light so we bought PolyD 1.2. It seemed enough for her, and it was supposed to be comfortable.

Our goal was to make an asymmetrical hammock. It would be a hammock where we would potentially sleep a lot (touring South East Asia next year), so we wanted the most comfortable lay possible.

We bought 12 feet of fabric. Deeming it was a bit much for her, she removed a feet and a half. NIqXhvL.jpgQF4HaF0.jpgBIxFOQQ.jpg6cVOvjp.jpg



Then she sewed the sides, leaving a bit of space in case we wanted to put shock cord in it. She folded it twice so that it would look cleaner, and double stitched it.

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For the ends, we made it larger.

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She also changed the stitching, and still doubled it.

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Next, we went to the park, to test it!

We used this method, a special asym whipping that I saw in my researches here: https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...evisited/page2

whipping_8.JPG

She sat on it, laid on it... And it broke. She fell on the ground. The fabric ripped down at one end, and made the hammock fall. She'll have a bruise...

Thinking it might be because of the whipping, we went for something simpler: we just folded the hammock. We used different techniques on both ends actually. She took the two corners and folded them into the middle, 3 times, while I folded a corner on another, and again, 3 times. Then we made a big tight knot, with zing it.

Then, I put the whoopie sling, making a constricting loop with the short loop and the cord. Thing is, when she lay in it, it pushed the knot at one end, releasing the hammock completely. Another fall...

Nonetheless, I did the knots, again, and this time I made sure that the ends were always facing down, so that the sling would have the weight on it, and never the knot. It wasn't so easy though: as she turned, the foot end knot would turn, sometimes almost upwards. But in the end, it held, so I tried it. I'm 5.8 feet, 187lbs. I could lie on it, although I felt it stretched when I sat on it. It did while she did too, however.


Then, she sat on it again... And we heard a ripping sound.

The fabric had ripped again, at the knot.

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So, did we do something wrong? Clearly the fabric rips easily. At that point we stopped trying. We do really need hammocks though, and it certainly felt more comfortable than sleeping on the ground, although at the price of a constant feeling of insecurity... Do you guys have any advices? We're waiting for making mine, from PolyD 1.2 and NylonD 1.6. Could it hold the both of us?

[WaffleBox]

That is really surprising. I've been sleeping in a PolyD 1.2 hammock every night for the past 6 months or so with no sign of wear or damage. I weigh ~165lbs, and I'm not particularly gentle with it. I am not sure what could be causing this issue for you.

[ksbcrocks]

It looks like you have the hammock strung way too tight to me. That could definitely be contributing since it multiplies the load on the hammock a significant amount. I doubt that is the only issue though. I always do a sewn channel and run my suspension through that so I can't help with the whipping. I do know that if you want to run suspension through a sewn channel, use three rows of straight stitches (8-10 stitches per inch)

[neokei]

It looks like you have the hammock strung way too tight to me. That could definitely be contributing since it multiplies the load on the hammock a significant amount. I doubt that is the only issue though. I always do a sewn channel and run my suspension through that so I can't help with the whipping. I do know that if you want to run suspension through a sewn channel, use three rows of straight stitches (8-10 stitches per inch)

Interesting, i didn't think of that. Still, if that's all what it takes to rip the fabric, I'm a bit worried about how long it will last.

As for the sewn channel, I thought about it but our end goal is to make an asym hammock, and we could use the channel, right?

[MDSH]

Have I heard of an asym hammock before?

[neokei]

Have I heard of an asym hammock before?

I mean asym as asymetric. Like a hennesy hammock, I believe.

[SilvrSurfr]

I'm not sure why you're aiming for an asym hammock, especially with such light fabric. Personally, I would just use a triple-stitched, sewn channel and be done with it.

I was using a 1.1 oz. BIAS WW Micro hammock, but gave up after two of them failed. Since then, I've been using the Dutch PolyD 1.4 oz. for about 9 months and it seems to be holding up fine.

Since you're trying to find something that will last a year or more, I'd aim for at least 1.6 oz., though I might be inclined to go 1.9 oz.

[neokei]

I'm not sure why you're aiming for an asym hammock, especially with such light fabric. Personally, I would just use a triple-stitched, sewn channel and be done with it.

I was using a 1.1 oz. BIAS WW Micro hammock, but gave up after two of them failed. Since then, I've been using the Dutch PolyD 1.4 oz. for about 9 months and it seems to be holding up fine.

Since you're trying to find something that will last a year or more, I'd aim for at least 1.6 oz., though I might be inclined to go 1.9 oz.

Do you mean that asym take more toll on the fabric? I didn't know that.

I also bought nylonD 1.6 and polyD 1.2 for me, as a double layer. Hopefully this one will hold (even if we both sit on it).

[xxl_hanger]

I'm about 250 and decided to make a hammocks which should not fail below 400 (it is only 60% more than my body weight!). Therefore I made a 1.9oz DL Hammock with the best ripstop nylon quality I could get (in Europe. I'm sorry to say that it's much more expensive for me to buy in the USA because of shipping and extra duty expenses). It is said here.

Even the strongest fabrics can and will occasionally fail due to aging, damage, improper hang angle, etc."

... bad sewing or whipping technique, wrong thread, no proper ridgeline length, too much tension on the sides and sitting on these sides where already the most tension is etc.

I could lie on it, although I felt it stretched when I sat on it.

Then, she sat on it again... And we heard a ripping sound.

Even in my 1.9oz DL Hammock I try not to sit close at the hammock edges. I' worried that the same could happen to me. If I'm sitting in it I try to get as much fabric below my butt as I can and always try to get the butt into the middle of the hammock.

The securest whipping technique is the Warbonnet style of whipping or the Xtrekker method (both are similar) done with two rectangular layers (no cat cut at the hammock ends or whatsoever) of exactly the same size and fabric quality. All other methods can work too, but .... I didn't want to experiment much as a hammock newbie.

[neokei]

Interesting... Maybe a double layer would work better for her then? Double poly1.2d maybe?

It's true we didn't put the ridgeline yet (I do have one), so I guess there was a lot of tension... We always sat in the middle though. I'll do more research on the whipping. For some reason it's still pretty obscure to me.