Let's Talk Weight Limits

[Dblcorona]

Ok, so here is the story. A lot of us on this forum have made hammocks out of the Joann's 1.9oz nylon and have not had really any issues of catastrophic failure. I have made a number of these and slept successfully in said hammocks. Recently, I bought a WBBB 1.0 dbl from a member at BPL. I bought it for possible use with the wife or daughter given the weight limits that Brandon has set for the hammocks. But my curiosity got the better of me and I went to the park to set it up since it's the first BB I have gotten to see in person. Then I went and tried it out. Now I'm not the biggest on the forum but I am by no means the smallest either (6' 1"-285, but down from 325 at the beginning of the year.) And I have to say that it was a mighty fine hammock. Was able to get nice and flat. It stretched a little, but not more then my diy hammocks have without any issues.

So without causing liability issues and lawsuits, what are the realistic weight limits that we are dealing with. I have a knock-off ENO doublenest that is single layer that has the same ENO rating of 400lbs. I'm really just talking fabrics here. I switched the BB to 1/8" whoopie slings and marlin spikes. So the rigging can take the weight.

Let the discussion begin.

[Young hanger]

i have a 1.1 once hammocks and then hold me up fine..

[AduroNox]

In my (somewhat limited) experience, the weight limits the manufacturer puts on products are all LIES!
(ok, maybe not lies, but definatley significantlylower than the actual breaking strength)

-Aduro

[oldgringo]

In my (somewhat limited) experience, the weight limits the manufacturer puts on products are all LIES!
(ok, maybe not lies, but definatley significantlylower than the actual breaking strength)

-Aduro

Would you believe WAGS?

[creativeKayt]

Often manufacturers will test out limits and tolerances, but communicate safe tolerances that are far less than they've proven out. It comes down to an "acceptable risk" of avoiding lawsuits (meaning money paid out or lost if sued) and eliminating potential bad press and/or damage to a company's brand image. Think Toyota's recent brake issues, here. So if they say they tolerate 400 pounds and you can actually put on 700 pounds before failure, they are pretty safe.

[G.L.P.]

to be honest ...if the max weight is 240...the most i would go over is 15-20lbs thats just me

1.0oz ripstop is not as strong as lets say 1.9 ...now will you break it...if your carefull i think you should be OK ..but i wouldn't bounce around in it
but i would look into a dbl 1.7 just to be on the safe side at your weight
you don't want to end up on your back..in pain...trust me it's not fun

[optimator]

I got my 1.0 double today too. I'm 200 and over the rated "max flatness" rating. It was comfortable enough that I went lights out And it wasn't even hung right... Tree straps & whoopies for only the 2nd or 3rd time, I didn't get it right at all.. I'll put the webbing from one of my other WB's on it this weekend and really check it out. But back to the OP, I really didn't notice any more stretch than my 1.1

[lizzie]

I would try it. But I would try it in a nice private spot where I know no one would be looking and possibly filiming if my fat butt were to riiiiiippppppp the hammock along the seams spilling me awkwardly onto the ground.

I've read about others hammock failures on this site, and well

[JumpingJack]

Often manufacturers will test out limits and tolerances, but communicate safe tolerances that are far less than they've proven out. It comes down to an "acceptable risk" of avoiding lawsuits (meaning money paid out or lost if sued) ...

For starters, if I was a manufacturer, I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt simply because I don't want to hurt anybody. Not all manufacturers are solely business so to screw people out of their money.

That said, if you tested a hammock to failure and it failed at say 400 lb, would you tell people the maximum safe limit was 399.9lb? I wouldn't.
There are variations in manufacturing to consider as well as aging and environmental concerns not to mention the added stresses when someone plops down on the hammock, an event that might easily exert forces double their weight.

A good criteria for safety is to rate the product so it won't fail unless there is obvious damage that would alert any reasonable person to the fact that the product is unsafe. As far as I can tell, that's what WB and HH have done.

Regarding the safety of a particular fabric; you can't just consider the fabric. you have to look at the construction of the hammock. Stress points and the amount of fabric used all figure in. A hyperbolic example would be a strip of nylon 1 inch wide used as a hammock. It would break under much less stress than a sheet several feet wide.

[jungleandy]

When getting in and out of a hammock it is often necessary to grab the sides and shift your body around. In these maneuvers you place half or more of your body weight on one hand. That is considerably more stress than the mythical concept of evenly distributed body weight.