Never more than a few inches above the floor while testing!
Never more than a few inches above the floor while testing!
Most of us end up poorer here but richer for being here. Olddog, Fulltime hammocker, 365 nights a year.
Olddog, I had the problem you describe with the loops creeping inward at first. It helped a lot to make sure my eyes were as close to the dowel or spreader bar size as I could manage. Even at that, there is naturally going to be some tendency to bunch toward the middle. Even with my 6" between the holes in my spreaders, I probably ended up with 5" at the channel, which seems like enough to get some improvement over no spreader.
Haven't had any failures. I still prefer just to have a longer hammock...
Some say I'm apathetic, but I don't care. - Randy
I love this thread! I ended up using 6" oak dowels, 4.5" spread, and the redneck lathe/clove hitch method. Being a stagehand, I am definitely a clove hitch gal! The oak
is plenty hard enough that the wood doesn't compress, and found amsteel easy to loosen and readjust the lengths equally. I think this mod is great for my ENO DN at home, made it a much more comfortable hang.
Just curious, but I put the two loops through the channel and then over the end of the spreader. Under weight, I still have the gentle arch under the spreader and the sides have been very good in staying spread. I believe the tension at the holes is what keeps the channel from drifting to the center.
Ellis
Last edited by alrany187; 09-07-2012 at 20:13.
Basically the same arrangement that I was using but the line from the loops thru the channel would pull the channel tight against the bar. The hangs feels a little better to me with a slight arc in the channel which I wasn't getting with the notches. The split resulted when I thought I could put the continous loop thru the channel then into the notch. Thought was that this would keep the ends of the continous loops from sliding down the dowel to the center. Was sidetracked today but did manage a test hang with my original grooved dowel.
Most of us end up poorer here but richer for being here. Olddog, Fulltime hammocker, 365 nights a year.
Olddog, its hard to really see what happened in your photo, but I'd hazard a guess that the notches were cut with the grain instead of across the grain. The mini-spreader that you made is like a self-nocked arrow, the string has to be perpendicular to the grain lines when you look at the end, if not, it splits the shaft.
Sweet, just went through 30 pages of this thread.....one question. Does the spreader bar add ANY noticeable tippy-ness to the hammock like a traditional spreader bar hammock?
Not really. One of the tricks is to get the spreader bar not to slip sideways, if that makes sense. That's why the emphasis on all the loops through the channel and back around the ends of the spreader.
"ANY" tippy-ness? IDK...
Some of the others have spent more time in them than I have though...
Some say I'm apathetic, but I don't care. - Randy
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