how long should my suspension be?

**dwightp** · 09-04-2011, 11:02

OK, I'm new to all of this (2nd post on here) but have decided to buy a hammock and I have been reading and watching videos. I have pretty well settled in on the hammock type and know about some different suspension systems.

What I don't see a lot of discussion about is how LONG my suspension should be. In other words, if my hammock is approximately 10 feet long, how much rope or strap or whoopie sling or whatever I decider to use should I have on each end of the hammock? Yeah, I know it depends on the distance between trees and also the circumference around the trees...................but ballpark.....do I need 10 total feet of suspension......30?........50?......how much is normal?

If whoopie slings are, for example, six feet long each, then how long do my straps need to be to be able to hang between trees under most circumstances? Thanks....

**Loneoak** · 09-04-2011, 11:19

If your using 6 foot whoopies, then 6-8 foot straps should work fine, unless you have really large diameter trees.

**lymphocytosis** · 09-04-2011, 11:53

I think most people start with a minimum of around 25 feet of total suspension. 6' whoopies and 6-8' tree straps is a pretty common start point. Obviously, it may take some tweaking to figure out what suits you best. I'd caution against going really long. It's tough to maintain the proper angles.

As an aside, and if you don't mind me asking, which hammock did you pick?

**dwightp** · 09-04-2011, 11:57

Originally Posted by lymphocytosis

I think most people start with a minimum of around 25 feet of total suspension. 6' whoopies and 6-8' tree straps is a pretty common start point. Obviously, it may take some tweaking to figure out what suits you best. I'd caution against going really long. It's tough to maintain the proper angles.

As an aside, and if you don't mind me asking, which hammock did you pick?

Thanks, that helps me and gives me an idea of what to get.

I'm going to go with the eno doublenest......not too expensive but apparently pretty decent and I see a lot of people on here and over at bushcraftusa.com that are pleased with them. But I'm staying away from their slapstraps....read too many complaints about them.

**Bubba** · 09-04-2011, 21:37

ENO DN is a good hammock. I still use mine frequently.
As the others have mentioned, 6 foot whoopies and 6-8 foot webbing will probably do you for most woods.

**Knotty** · 09-05-2011, 01:23

My webbing and cinch buckle setups use 15' of webbing on each side. That's the length Ed Speer sold in his kits so I stuck with it.

**MAD777** · 09-05-2011, 08:38

I have 6' whoopie slings plus 5' of tree strap. (I don't have very many trees larger than 1.5' diameter). I carry an extra 3' of amsteel with a closed loop on each end as an emergency extender. I've used the extender only once.

**jima59** · 09-05-2011, 17:02

Being a new hanger myself with lots of free time I made several sets. I have found like Knotty said about 15 feet works best in my back yard per side. But I got into a whoopie zen mode and spliced like crazy for several nights and have all kinds of lengths as backup.

**dwightp** · 09-14-2011, 17:44

Thanks for all the responses, guys. I order two 6' whoopies, some carabiners, toggles, and two 8' tree huggers. I ordered from two different companies but everything came in today all at once. I also ordered my ENO doublenest hammock and got an email yesterday that it had been shipped and is en route.

Anyway, can't wait.......should get the hammock in a few more days and hopefully, can try all this out this weekend somewhere. It will be my first time in a hammock. Wish me luck!