The principle I hope OP sticks to is to tell the vendor and give as much information as is available relevant to the break, including a complete description and the date of purchase.
Some precautions that have been mentioned here may or may not have much bearing on fragility of particular materials. (ie. exposure to UV.)
I got away from straps and went to a braided length of three strands of Amsteel blue 7/64". I made one 42" and the other about 60". I use a marlin spike to connect to the whoopie sling of the hammock. They wind up being about 1/2" wide.
The first was a single color and was hard to keep up with loop braid, braided into one end. The next one was tricolor and was much easier to keep up with the braiding.
As much as anything I just did it because I could. I wove the loop into the end went to an 1865 knot book to figure out how to terminate the other end. Don't remember the name of the knot but turned out great. Total wt for both straps is just slightly less than the two that came with the Hennessy hammock, which were both 42".
I have hung to trees that needed more than the 42" standard that came with the hammock.
I think your problem was the fact that you put around 300lbs on a 700lb strap. Many people (including myself at 265lb) have broken 550lb paracord, and 700lb supporting 300lb is only a 2:1 safety ratio. I wouldnt use anything that supports less then 1500lbs for 300lb load.
Well I am not going to read the whole thread - I hope you were not hurt.
So now that you are a little worried - does this mean you tie a safety knot loosely around the tree in case the seat belt strap breaks? Iniitally I was using the sent 1/2 inch cord that mine came with, that proved too heavy. but a concrete string would have broken or slowed the fall? well its a thought....
There was an Old Man with a owl,
Who continued to bother and howl;
He sat on a rail, And imbibed bitter ale,
Which refreshed that Old Man and his owl.WOO
The strap wasn't "seat belt strap."Originally Posted by Wise Old Owl
If it were, it would not have torn because part of the DOT engineering spec assures that seat belt strap is woven is such way that does not happen.
There's more to strength-in-use than tensile strength, no matter how often that single figure of merit gets repeated.
careful there, it sounds like you're saying seatbelt webbing is fail-proof because of it's specs. seatbelt webbing is not tear-proof, no webbing is. folks need to inspect their straps regularly, make sure any hardware is aligned like it's supposed to be, and watch out for anything that might damage the webbing and cause a weak spot. (and don't forget about UV degradation)
i'll agree with that, the tensile strength of webbing is based on breaking it without any stitches or hardware or knots or anything really. most of the time webbing "as used in an application" will break below it's manufactuer rated tensile strength.
A while back I was asked by one of the guys here to make him a set of straps just like mine. I use no tree huggers, just a 14 foot strap, a dutch clip and a cinch buckle on each side. He showed me a frayed place on his webbing where the dutch clip had been abraiding it. I saw that he had the dutch clip on the tree so that when his hammock swung the webbing moved through the dutch clip. I showed him how I bring the dutch clip slightly off center so that it cannot slide. I think he is ok now, because the webbing was the 1 inch seatbelt kind and it was only frayed on the one of the surfaces, not the edges. Be sure your set up is not so the straps have to take the friction of the webbing sliding on the loop or the dutch clip or biner.
Predictions are risky, especially when it comes to the future.
Just got mine in the mail today and will go over them tonight. I was looking for the particulars of how to make the straps, size of the loops etc when I saw this posting. Thanks for posting but I have faith in the suppliers on this website and pass it off as to wear or a bad splice, sure wish you had been able to check it out more before you tossed it away. Glad you weren't hurt though.
I know it's been a few days but i finally took pictures. This is the partner to the polypro strap that snapped on me. It shows obvious wear.
Last edited by SpaceCadet; 07-28-2011 at 20:28.
If you don't try due to fear of failure you've already failed due to fear.
If it were at my house I would be asking the dogs which one chewed on it, but glad to see the problem.
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