Diy Suspension Questions.

[ferball]

I got my first hammock done and hung up and it is awesome, but I need to clean up my suspension a little bit. I am using some tie down straps I picked up cheap. They are rated for a 1260lbs work load so I figure they could keep my 300 lbs butt off the ground. That being said I have a few questions:

1. I know that tying knots in rope weakens it, does this hold for straps as well? I want to tie loops in the end, I figure they were manufactured with a "bight" to attach to the hardware so knotting a loop in the end doesn't seem like it would be so bad.

2. I did not notice much of a difference between the 300lbs straps and the 1260 lbs straps, (the 1260 were on sale so I won either way). Is the work load rated on tie downs more about the hardware failure point i.e.. the rachets, or the strap?

Thanks.

[gmcttr]

I believe a figure 8 knot is commonly used to tie a loop in the end of straps.

I don't know the weak point of the straps you have, but I'd hazard a guess that the raw webbing has a higher breaking strength then the assembly.

[ferball]

Thanks for the heads up on the figure eight works perfect. That and a couple of steel rings my suspension is good to go.

The 1260lbs straps are actually 400 lb working load, which is why they looked about the same as the 300lb, I read the fine print on the package, they got me on that one.

[tincan]

Trying webbing together, weather two straps into one or one strap into a loop will for the weight rating by about 40%

[MistaKD]

Im guessing the hardware will not rate as high as the straps, I do some slacklining occasionally and had a pretty bad failure once on a ratchet strap, the strap was fine, the ratchet was most definitely not. Pretty glad on this score, I got a slap with the strap that would have been far more painful if there was a hunk of steel still attached...