I find with a longer hammock I can lay flatter.
This is why I think this happens. With the shorter hammocks as your feet and head come to the edge of the hammock they will naturally slop up toward the suspension. With a longer hammock I find that my head and my feet are farther away from the whipping and thus can straighten out more.
I hope I have explained what I am trying to say. Its all plain in my head but who knows.
Yosemite Sam: Are you trying to make me look a fool?
Bugs: You don't need me to make you look like a fool.
Yosemite Sam: Yer deerrrnnn right I don't!
Longer hammocks give me less shoulder squeeze when lying on my back. Since I'm farther away from the gathered end.
My DIY is 11.5ft long. Way comfy IMO.
It's not the size of the Hammock, but the happiness of the Hang that counts!
You learn to work what you got ...
Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage
William Shakespeare
"Insert witty and intelligent statement here"
I have short hammocks, HH Expedition and Speer III, and long hammocks, HH Explorer and 11' long DIY gathered ends. To me the difference is night and day. The long hammocks are so much more comfortable. I'm 6'2" 185#.
Knotty
"Don't speak unless it improves the silence." -proverb
DIY Gathered End Hammock
DIY Stretch-Side Hammock
Stretch-Side "Knotty Mod"
DIY Bugnet
This hits the nail on the head for me. My first diy hammock was 128 by 64 inches. It was nice to sleep in, but waaaaaay toooooooooo much fabric for my liking. Packed up, with tree straps and whoopie slings, it made for a daunting bundle.Originally Posted by Captn
The most recent gathered end hammock I made is roughly the same width but considerably shorter at 106 inches (this has a lot to do, for good or ill, with my "devil-may-care" free hand sewing technique). I now have a fixed ridge line of 90 inches which produces about 24-26 inches of total sag. I thought I had seriously F#%@ed up the whole works when I first put it together. However, after a number of trial runs up on Mount Royal, I have decided that I LOVE IT. I'm learning a lot about "sag".
Laying on a maximal diagonal keeps me sufficiently flat when on my back, but more importantly, it gives me plenty of room to go fetal (on my side, which is how i generally sleep in a regular bed). I rarely sleep on my back, so this, by lucky chance has worked out perfect for me. Ask yourself how you sleep, or would prefer to sleep. That will help define your needs (versus wants).
Obviously, the total package is now smaller. I also got rid of the long, one inch wide tree straps and replaced them with shorter 3/4 inch straps, and downsized the woopie slings to 7/64th (it helps that I only weigh 160 pounds soaking wet). Definitely, it is worth playing with different sizes of hammocks that you make yourself (I can't imagine actually buying a production hammock). What you don't like, you can always give away. A simple DIY hammock costs about $20.00 (how does that compare with what is a HH, Clark, or a WBBB is going for these days?)
Summation: questions you may want to ask yourself
1. how tall are you?
2. how much do you weigh?
3. how do you prefer to sleep (what position)?
4. how much weight do you want to carry?
5. how heavy is your wallet?
6. will it (the capital expense) put you in dutch with the wife/husband/other?
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