Why is this not the rage?

[MedicineMan]

After lying in the hammock fully loading the soft shackle I had NO trouble undoing it and I am prone to jams overall in my life!

[GrizzlyAdams]

This is the reason I exclusively use TeeDee's nacrabiner (soft shacke) variant that uses the scarab instead of the spliced loop. I find the scarab much easier to use than the spliced loop. The spliced loop always has a tendency to close which makes using it one handed problematic, frustrating and downright impossible at times. This is no problem with the scarab variant. The scarab variant is almost as easy to use one handed as a carabiner. Not quite, but close. The hard metal of the carabiner makes it easier to insert into a rope loop than the flexible nature of the narcabiner.

And, as with the wire gate carabiner I can slide the scarab even with the nacrabiner under tension, but as Opie says, why?

I've been too busy with other things to keep up . Had to go digging around to see what you're talking about r.e. scarab. Found a picture. Bingo. I've been putting the functional equivalent on whoopie slings to close them up near their attachment points. So long as they hold in a soft shackle, they are bound to be (i) easy to use and (ii) take longer to make

[BillyBob58]

There is a loop under the knot and the knot prevents the loop from sliding off and opening the whole thing up. You cannot see the loop because the braiding is milked towards it to close it like the adjustable loop on a whoopie sling. To open it you hold the part of the loop that is buried and milk the braid around the bury away from the loop. When big enough just slip the knot through and it is open.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8qKc...layer_embedded

OK, now I understand a little better. But in the test, it is just hooked over a toggle like the whoopie loop would normally be.

So, in normal use, is this soft shackle threaded through the sewn loop of the tree hugger AND the tree side loop formed by the whoopie, then closed up? IOW, a soft version of a biner, as though the biner were clipped through both tree hugger and whoopie sling loops? Is that how it works?

That does seem like it would have a lot of potential. Maybe worth all the "raging" in this thread. I will have to look right into it!

One thing: I can put the Marlin Spike hitch very close to the tree or further out, as needed. This will require me to connect at whatever distance the hugger loop ends up being away from the tree, maybe pretty far with skinnier trees. The whoopie slings already require a little extra distance between the trees to make up for the bury on each end, this may add to it. Or am I hallucinating on this possible problem?

Even if I'm correct, I don't know how much problem this might actually be in the field. ( the whoopies are already a problem with my hammock stand, though a lot of fun in the field). But, even if the hugger loop being 2 or 3 feet from a skinny tree on both ends(am I making any sense? hard to put into words) I guess I could still make a Marlin Spike hitch close to the tree? And thread this shackle through the loop in the MSH rather than the sewn hugger loop which is at a fixed length? Would that still work?

Of course I guess if you had to do all of that then might as well use the toggle system to start with. But the point is you mostly wouldn't have to bother with any of that, because trees would be far enough apart.

[MedicineMan]

yep, you will adjust to distance via the woopie unless you find you need to tie a MSH, then start groveling on the ground looking for one!
You will always have the ability to due the marlin.
Also just to reiterate, the soft shackle I recieved weights the shackle much like the MSH in that the force does not tighten anything to any degree.
It did take me a sec or two to figure out that to loosen tighten the loop that goes around the knot and then tightens down is tightened (or loosened) just like a whoopie where you 'milk' the bury.
It is a beautiful piece of equipment.
When I was playing around with them I used a climbing sling (I think its rated at 13kn) to an eyebolt in the wall....these climbing slings are another thing to consider having in the pack for their little weight--just to increase hanging potentials like the Tricams I've mentioned before (or hexes,etc).

[MacEntyre]

Vintage hardware collection:

[pizza]

There is a loop under the knot and the knot prevents the loop from sliding off and opening the whole thing up. You cannot see the loop because the braiding is milked towards it to close it like the adjustable loop on a whoopie sling. To open it you hold the part of the loop that is buried and milk the braid around the bury away from the loop. When big enough just slip the knot through and it is open.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8qKc...layer_embedded

Thanks for the info and link. That's pretty neat. Might be a useful thing to try with my tarp suspension. That's the only place I use a biner right now. I use an over the top ridgeline on the tarp with one biner at one end and a mini figure nine for adjustment at the other end. I use whoopies with a toggle for the hammock suspension. Not sure how the soft shackle would be of benefit there because I often place the toggle on the strap closer to the tree to effectively shorten the tree strap length when the trees are closer together.

[beep]

Thanks for the info and link. That's pretty neat. Might be a useful thing to try with my tarp suspension. That's the only place I use a biner right now. I use an over the top ridgeline on the tarp with one biner at one end and a mini figure nine for adjustment at the other end. I use whoopies with a toggle for the hammock suspension. Not sure how the soft shackle would be of benefit there because I often place the toggle on the strap closer to the tree to effectively shorten the tree strap length when the trees are closer together.

Pizza, your suspension and tarp arrangement is similar to mine. I am trying out the soft shackles to replace the small S-biner that currently attaches my tarp D-rings to the ridgeline prusik loops. I'm also using them with my WB Traveler with WB bug net combo...connecting the bug net nylon loops (at the ends) to the hammock suspension.

FWIW, I've made a bunch of 'em from 2.2mm Lash-It (grey). I'll be happy to send you a pair if you want try them out. PM your mailing address to me if you're interested.

[TiredFeet]

I've been too busy with other things to keep up . Had to go digging around to see what you're talking about r.e. scarab. Found a picture. Bingo. I've been putting the functional equivalent on whoopie slings to close them up near their attachment points. So long as they hold in a soft shackle, they are bound to be (i) easy to use and (ii) take longer to make

Yes we use the scarab also on the Whoopie Sling fixed eyes on our suspension. That and the Lanyard knot allowed us to eliminate all hardware from our suspension - and as a benefit, it made the suspension even easier to use.

[Frawg]

This post shows how I use the equivalent of a soft shackle, borrowing ideas from TeeDee/TiredFeet and opie. LikeTD/TF, I'm liking the no-hardware aspect. It does take me a little longer to (dis)connect the hammock compared to a toggled setup, but I'm learning to live with it.

[GrizzlyAdams]

Yes we use the scarab also on the Whoopie Sling fixed eyes on our suspension. That and the Lanyard knot allowed us to eliminate all hardware from our suspension - and as a benefit, it made the suspension even easier to use.

I use one on the adjustable eye. Maybe it's just me, but without it my WS tends to jump off the toggle while I'm just starting to hang the hammock and there isn't much weight on it. It's not too tight, just enough to stay in place when it needs to stay in place, but loose enough so that when I'm changing the adjustable eye it doesn't bind.