I'm hoping someone of you hammock experts can tell me what I'm doing wrong...
I'm new to hammocks; only slept in mine (Skeeter Beater) a few times now, each time for only a few hours. I've read many of the posts here over the past few months and watched a bunch of hammock videos on Youtube (Shug is very informative).
Today I setup my hammock in my yard, to test out my "cold weather system": a segmented CCF pad with a truck windshield reflector bonded to it, along with a down throw modified with shock cord threaded thru the end seams to cinch it closed on each end.
I was in wool socks, polypro undershirt & pants, light wool overshirt, and balaclava (my neck gets cold otherwise). According to the online weather, it is 40 degrees F right now (I just came inside), and I was definately warm enough. That's not the problem.
I think the problem is the "angle of the dangle", in setting up the hammock. I tried to use the "Hammock Hang Calculator" by Derek Hansen, with these settings:
14' between the trees, ridgeline length of 8' (I think that's what the SB has), and a preferred sit height of 24".
The program gave me a hang point of about 6.5', with 3.5' suspension length. However, I must not understand the exact terms, because when I tied my hammock up using these measured distances, the bottom of the hammock (unloaded) was over 4' from the ground.
So, here are my first questions; is the suspension length measured from the tree attachment point to the gathered end of the hammock? How is the ridgeline length measured? I from gathered end to gathered end while it lay on the ground...Is the sit height measured loaded or unloaded?
4' off the ground was too high to comfortably get into the hammock, so I ran the program with a sit height of 18", and re-rigged it at the modifed hang point of just over 6'.
That brought the unloaded height down to a more comfortable area, and I "went to bed" in the hammock about 10pm. I gave up & came inside the house just now (about 1am) for several reasons: my back, knees, and hips were just too painful to continue even after trying many different positions at several different angles; and when I went to get out of the hammock, I found that the lowest part of the hammock (my butt) was only about 1" off the ground.
That brings me to my next set of questions: do I need a wider (double sized) hammock, to allow me more of an angle to lay at? I was using a combination of tree straps that came with my Hennesey (I decided I didn't like the bottom entry of that hammock), and the ropes that came with the SB...is that what caused the sag over time?
I know this is a lot of questions, but I'm hoping someone here can help me; I'm sure that all these problems are being caused by my ignorance, but I really want a hammock system to work for me.
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