A little bit disappointed with my whoopie slings

[bmartin1uk]

Recently purchased some whoopie slings and tree straps, to replace the ropes that came with my DD. I'll be honest i found them to be more of a faff than the old ropes - i had hoped that the combination of the slings and straps would give me a much longer and flexible reach when choosing trees, but in fact the added length was a bit of a pain in the thick pine woods i was in.
I just couldn't quite get the trees to allow me to appreciate the use of the slings. The main problem i had was having the trees so far apart, it was quite difficult to get the hammock as tight and as flat as i like to have it - there was just too much line and too much sag.I also found the slings quite hard to adjust to get that last bit of tension.
Am i doing something wrong? Do i just need to learn some knots to make the tree straps as flexible in length too?.....or do i just need to stop moaning.
Does anyone know of any decent knots/methods for making the straps adjustable? I remember seeing an image somewhere of multiple loops sewn into some tree huggers.

[Bomber]

Do you use it with a toggle on the treestraps?

[ShadowAlpha]

Go to about 3:50 in this video - it shows how to attach whoopies to straps at any point with toggle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7NZVqpBUV0

[bmartin1uk]

No i was using a karabiner. Would a toggle be better?

[pizza]

No i was using a karabiner. Would a toggle be better?

The toggle will allow you to adjust how long you want your tree strap to be. I usually attach the toggle to the strap very close to the tree unless I need extra suspension the length from the tree strap which is pretty much never.

[Cogola]

From my experience with a DD Frontline hammock your problems sound like they are coming from trying to get the hammock too tight. I must admit when I first got my DD I was trying to get the hammock tighter and tighter, mainly to combat the sag you'd get during the night. I eventually swapped out to whoopies but the biggest advance I made in the comfort stakes was adding a fixed ridgeline to get a consistent sag in the hammock. After fitting the ridgeline I didn't look back, well not until I got my Blackbird.

[bmartin1uk]

but the biggest advance I made in the comfort stakes was adding a fixed ridgeline to get a consistent sag in the hammock.

What do you mean by a fixed ridgeline?

[brushybill]

get the hammock so it has the right amount of sag, then attatch a piece of cord from one end of the hammock to the other ,so that the cord is tight when you are laying in it.
this way every time you set up your hammock, it will be the same way
i know there are tutorials on here somewhere

[bmartin1uk]

get the hammock so it has the right amount of sag, then attatch a piece of cord from one end of the hammock to the other ,so that the cord is tight when you are laying in it.
this way every time you set up your hammock, it will be the same way
i know there are tutorials on here somewhere

absolutely genius! would never have thought of that. thanks for the advice

[Tobus]

Just chiming in to say +1 on the advice given. Using a marlinspike hitch with toggles, plus a structural ridgeline, should solve your problems. The adjustability of the straps and whoopie slings should let you set up in a wide variety of distances between trees, while the ridgeline gives you the same lay every time.

I use the Adjustable Structural Ridgeline from whoopieslings.com, and it works great.

It's probably worth noting that when your trees are farther apart, it's better to mount your straps higher up so that you're always getting the same angle. This ensures that your structural ridgeline and suspension systems are always seeing roughly the same tension loads, and the only difference in your setup is the length of the suspension.