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  1. #1
    Senior Member GrizzlyAdams's Avatar
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    Skeeter Beater Pro with internal ridgeline

    So I picked up two Skeeter Beater Pros back when the Chief Hammock Officer announced a 2-for-1 special; FishinFinn is getting the other one when he, me, and my sons go on a float-and-hang this weekend. I'm not part of the review gang for the Travel Hammocks, so I mostly won't comment on the hammock itself, except where it intersects my own personal preferences.

    The SBP is wide and long. It is like an Eno double, but longer, and with a bugnet. The bugnet also is wide, I suspect as wide as the hammock itself, although I have not measured it. Like a Claytor or (I think) Clark the netting has two tabs sewn in, about a foot and a half apart, at the head and the foot. The designer's intention is to lift the netting by the tabs, using extra cords that tie to the tree.

    I've never been fond of that design, even with my DIY dual mode (which has such tabs) I find that I tend to pull up the netting at the center and (in the case of my DIY bag) attach to a ridgeline.

    After trying different styles of hanging in the SBP, I figured in the end that the way I wanted to make use of the hammock's wideness was in the Eno style of hanging with lots of sag, to enable a big diagonal.

    But there was that net. How was I going to keep it out of the way doing that? So I did a very minor mod to sneak in an internal ridgeline. The SBP has channel ends, the netting is sewn into the fabric that forms the channel. At each end I took short (1"-1.5" long) tabs of grosgrain, centered them at the ends such that
    • about 0.25" was on the hammock fabric where the seam of the channel is made
    • one tab was on the inside of the hammock, the other on the outside
    • the two tabs were aligned with each other, sandwiching the netting between them.

    I then sewed the tabs together, and used a hot knife to burn a hole through to allow passage for a ridgeline.

    Through the passage I put a short piece of 2.8mm Spyderline, and tied a bowline on the inside part.

    I swapped out the given cord and hook, replacing with a short length of 3.8mm Spyderline that puts a Prusik on a pair of SMC rings, and has the ends tied off with an overhand knot. Put the knot end through the channel, then put the rings through the loop which serves to cinch up the channel under tension. I then with the outside end of the cord that passes into the SPB I tied a bowline around the stem of this arrangement. The internal ridgeline is a bit of 1.5mm spectra, with a fixed attachment at the foot end, comes up and loops through the head-end's cord-of-passage, then is tied down on the ridgeline using a taut-hitch.

    For connecting the hammock to suspension line I tinkered with a number of things, but for grins I thought I'd try the Garda Hitch I've seen mentioned here. I gotta tell you, that works slick with the Vectran I'm using on the suspension line. I guess I'm going gram-weenie 'cause I cringe now at the thought of the weight of those four rings when I have other ways of tieing things up, but wow is it fast, and convenient.

    Did someone here say they'd wish I'd posted pictures? The ridgeline here is 105 inches.

    Outside view
    sbp-1.jpg

    Note the red Spyderline tied around the lines holding the rings, on the outside, passing through the grosgrain tabs into the inside, where the orange ridgeline is attached.
    sbp-2.jpg

    The ridgeline is at finger-tip level. Lots of room inside, the netting is mostly pulled away from the inside of the hammock.
    sbp-3.jpg sbp-4.jpg

    Grizz

  2. #2
    Senior Member neo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GrizzlyAdams View Post
    So I picked up two Skeeter Beater Pros back when the Chief Hammock Officer announced a 2-for-1 special; FishinFinn is getting the other one when he, me, and my sons go on a float-and-hang this weekend. I'm not part of the review gang for the Travel Hammocks, so I mostly won't comment on the hammock itself, except where it intersects my own personal preferences.

    The SBP is wide and long. It is like an Eno double, but longer, and with a bugnet. The bugnet also is wide, I suspect as wide as the hammock itself, although I have not measured it. Like a Claytor or (I think) Clark the netting has two tabs sewn in, about a foot and a half apart, at the head and the foot. The designer's intention is to lift the netting by the tabs, using extra cords that tie to the tree.

    I've never been fond of that design, even with my DIY dual mode (which has such tabs) I find that I tend to pull up the netting at the center and (in the case of my DIY bag) attach to a ridgeline.

    After trying different styles of hanging in the SBP, I figured in the end that the way I wanted to make use of the hammock's wideness was in the Eno style of hanging with lots of sag, to enable a big diagonal.

    But there was that net. How was I going to keep it out of the way doing that? So I did a very minor mod to sneak in an internal ridgeline. The SBP has channel ends, the netting is sewn into the fabric that forms the channel. At each end I took short (1"-1.5" long) tabs of grosgrain, centered them at the ends such that
    • about 0.25" was on the hammock fabric where the seam of the channel is made
    • one tab was on the inside of the hammock, the other on the outside
    • the two tabs were aligned with each other, sandwiching the netting between them.

    I then sewed the tabs together, and used a hot knife to burn a hole through to allow passage for a ridgeline.

    Through the passage I put a short piece of 2.8mm Spyderline, and tied a bowline on the inside part.

    I swapped out the given cord and hook, replacing with a short length of 3.8mm Spyderline that puts a Prusik on a pair of SMC rings, and has the ends tied off with an overhand knot. Put the knot end through the channel, then put the rings through the loop which serves to cinch up the channel under tension. I then with the outside end of the cord that passes into the SPB I tied a bowline around the stem of this arrangement. The internal ridgeline is a bit of 1.5mm spectra, with a fixed attachment at the foot end, comes up and loops through the head-end's cord-of-passage, then is tied down on the ridgeline using a taut-hitch.

    For connecting the hammock to suspension line I tinkered with a number of things, but for grins I thought I'd try the Garda Hitch I've seen mentioned here. I gotta tell you, that works slick with the Vectran I'm using on the suspension line. I guess I'm going gram-weenie 'cause I cringe now at the thought of the weight of those four rings when I have other ways of tieing things up, but wow is it fast, and convenient.

    Did someone here say they'd wish I'd posted pictures? The ridgeline here is 105 inches.

    Outside view
    sbp-1.jpg

    Note the red Spyderline tied around the lines holding the rings, on the outside, passing through the grosgrain tabs into the inside, where the orange ridgeline is attached.
    sbp-2.jpg

    The ridgeline is at finger-tip level. Lots of room inside, the netting is mostly pulled away from the inside of the hammock.
    sbp-3.jpg sbp-4.jpg

    Grizz
    wow thats interesting,coolneo
    the matrix has you

  3. #3
    Nicely done, definitely looks to work better than the stock setup for the SB Pro.

  4. #4
    Senior Member headchange4u's Avatar
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    Nice Grizz. I had no idea the SBP was that large of a hammock.
    “Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." -Terry Pratchett



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  5. #5
    Senior Member cavscout's Avatar
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    That internal ridge line would be a nice feature. While using mine, I didn't want to keep putting everything in the attached bag since it put more weight on one side while I was sleeping.

    I had been thinking about making a string circle around all 4 of the bug net tabs and tying a single support line for the bug net from the circle to the tree to eliminate one of the ropes needed for the bug net. By the time I had the hammock, tarp and 2 lines for the bug net tied to a tree it looked like a power line intersection.

  6. #6
    Senior Member rigidpsycho's Avatar
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    I like what ya did Grizz.
    Chris

  7. #7
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    Nice! I also don't like the idea of having to tie those things off to the tree. I am glad you found a way around it...

  8. #8
    Senior Member GrizzlyAdams's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cavscout View Post
    That internal ridge line would be a nice feature. While using mine, I didn't want to keep putting everything in the attached bag since it put more weight on one side while I was sleeping.

    I had been thinking about making a string circle around all 4 of the bug net tabs and tying a single support line for the bug net from the circle to the tree to eliminate one of the ropes needed for the bug net. By the time I had the hammock, tarp and 2 lines for the bug net tied to a tree it looked like a power line intersection.
    One of the things I notice happening using the big sag big diagonal configuration is that the netting gets pulled in the direction of the diagonal too. You might be able to pull the net up with a single line with the style of hang I showed if you tie that line to tabs that are cross-diagonal from each other. The unused tabs are on the diagonal sides your feet and head follow.

    Grizz

  9. #9
    slowhike's Avatar
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    Looks very functional that way.
    Sorry if I missed it (& am being to lazy to look it up<G>) but how does one enter & exit that hammock w/ bug net?
    I too will something make and joy in it's making

  10. #10
    Senior Member GrizzlyAdams's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by slowhike View Post
    Looks very functional that way.
    Sorry if I missed it (& am being to lazy to look it up<G>) but how does one enter & exit that hammock w/ bug net?
    there's a zipper that goes most of the length on one side. Essentially at the bugnet-hammock boundary.

    Grizz

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