Ive had a member ask if I could put together a package to lighten the suspension on the JRB BMBH based on Grizzs Vid here.
I am curious if there is enough interest in something of this nature. If there is, Ill get a BMBH for testing.
Ive had a member ask if I could put together a package to lighten the suspension on the JRB BMBH based on Grizzs Vid here.
I am curious if there is enough interest in something of this nature. If there is, Ill get a BMBH for testing.
I would be interested to see what you come up with. Would I be interested in buying it? I dont know. I'm not the type of person to spend big bucks to save an ounce or two. With that said I've been wanting to swap out the suspension for along time more for ease of set up. I believe this would void the warranty on the hammock which is why I've yet to do it.
One of the main drawbacks of modifying the BMBH the way I described in the video is that dealing with the corners the way I did is pretty involved and time-consuming. If opie or me or anyone else was going to go into the business, there's an upfront cost of $20 in shipping, $10 each way.
So opie opined to me that what he'd like to do is figure a way of having a kit you could buy from him, and then do the mod in the privacy of your own home. I was dubious at first, but it got me to thinking and I have a solution that meets the concerns I dealt with in the video's approach.
What I envision now is a device that one slips through the webbing loop, attaches a toggle to it, and then slips fixed-eyed loops from the all-cord suspension system to. Something like this
That's about 20" of 7/64" cord with two sheaths, same stuff I used in the video. I was able to pull a doubled over bit of 7/64 through them both using the loop turner I use in my splicing.
The clear sheath protects the webbing from the cord.
Now that the extender is pushed through the webbing loop, we pull its own end through the exposed loop
Here now a little adjustment may be needed in positioning the clear sheath and length of loop sticking out of it. You want the force to be centered between the top and the bottom of the loop, you want the the extender extending out from the center.
Now there is enough loop, here way more than enough, to put on a toggle at the end.
Ideally the toggle would be more permanently attached to the extender, and ideally the loop here would be continuous and not tied. opie excels at stuff like that.
Now imagine that a cord-only suspension that has arms for each BMBH corner, and a fixed eye at each end. Slip that fixed eye over the toggle.
The white sheath is where the slot on the BMBH spreader bar goes. The stuff I have is polyester, and fits the slot pretty much exactly. The idea here is protect the cord from the edges of the slot in the bar.
Some other pros---you can attach this suspension to try it out before cutting rings and ditching the old one. There's not a lot of point in having both suspensions, but you don't have to commit to doing it before seeing it. Another is having an easily removable suspension. I've found this handy in my DIY bridge hammocks, it makes attachment of accessories like a sock, or minimized bugnet a lot easier.
Cons--you aren't actually saving a lot of weight using the extender and toggle over just having a ring there. You could knock down the weight a little by using Dynaglide instead of Amsteel, there I would be concerned whether that narrow narrow cord would cut the sheath that is protecting the webbing. If I had any Dynaglide I'd try it, but I don't.
so, I think the notion of opie selling kits to mod your BMBH suspension is technically viable. You don't have to sew, but if you want to save the rings you need to have access to a bolt cutter.
Another option here would be to adapt the extender to just lark's head onto a ring. User cuts away webbing, attaches extender, slips cord-only suspension onto the toggles.
Take it away opie....
Grizz
(alias ProfessorHammock on youtube)
Could you put a toggle on the end of the kit, and just put toggle in webbing loop on end of hammock?
I like that simplification, in concept. The webbing loop will admit a toggle, say, of the diameter of an Easton tent stake. More than that even. Not as much as 1/2" oak dowel though.
Bu what happens here is that the force transfer from webbing to cord will be asymmetric, with more being asked of the side (top/bottom) where you inserted the toggle than the side where the toggle jams.
On the one hand, in normal use where there is a ring there, that ring twists to as much horizontal as it can get to when the spreader is in. There is asymmetry in the forces on the webbing then. On the other hand the toggle induced asymmetry might be more extreme.
I would do it on my BMBH after reinforcing the stitching on the webbing at that point. This is no ill reflection on the BMBH design, just a recognition that I'd be asking the hammock to do something it hadn't be designed to do.
Grizz
(alias ProfessorHammock on youtube)
For simplicity's sake I would be most prone to leaving the JRB suspension triangle alone and just putting whoopie from the outer ring running up to the tree (probably what I will end up doing). Although I dont know any better, the spreader bar rings are straight forward and seem more simple than worrying about all the above "stuff". But I suppose this is up to Opie to create something that is convincing enough to buy!
Wow... great ideas. Keepem coming.
Grizz, for your corner attachments...the fishermans loop. I can make that, or anyone, can make that a continuous loop and eliminate the knot.
To bad there isnt a way to introduce a thimble into the corner connection. There are SS and galvanized split thimbles... but for the weight conscience, a split nylon thimble would be best. So far I havent found any split...
Perhaps this...
Can be cut to create a split thimble.
Perhaps I should just buy one, huh.....
Or maybe someone has one to donate?
Taking from Grizz's fertile imagination - you could also replace the triangle webbing with 2 regular whoopie slings. Larks head the fixed eyes to the BMBH rings at the hammock corners and use the whoopie slings to adjust the size of the triangle as desired. This is what we currently do on our Bridges (sans rings). Works great and allows us to adjust triangle size as needed or desired.
Could also make fixed length rope equal to current webbing lengths, fixed eyes on both ends and again larks head to rings.
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