Built my first rig

**jontow** · 07-10-2012, 11:14

Bad news, though: now I've gotta build 3 more! (one for the wife, and one for each of my daughters!)

I bought 4yds of 1.9oz ripstop, 50ft of 7/64 amsteel, and a spool of the tex50 thread, and a pair of the 1100lb biners from DIYgear. I have none of the amsteel, a lot of the thread and a nice sized scrap of the nylon left.

First adventure with the amsteel rope: very nice stuff, wasn't too bad to splice: I couldn't find my old sets of guitar strings, so I used some 0.025 solid core welding wire from my MIG to do the splicing with. Worked pretty well, but I had to tape the end so it wouldn't get caught, and the tape left sticky residue which means the splicing tool gets cut back or thrown away.

I made 3 whoopie slings, and a bracelet. The bracelet was for learning to splice, and I'll explain the third whoopie sling in a minute. I used some of the tex50 thread to lock the bury in place on the fixed eye loops.

I ended up using a very small piece of my leftover nylon and an old boot lace to make a stuff sack.

Didn't buy any tree huggers, as I've got some 2ft (turns out: thats a lot too short) 2000lb webbing straps I use to secure my motorcycle in the truck bed that always go with me anyway.

I used the sticky-thread DIY-gathered-end tutorial for the hammock body and suspension itself, and liked the adjustable ridgeline idea; that is, the one that just slips over the suspension. If I was in a place where I couldn't find trees close enough together, I could remove the ridgeline and gain a bit of length.

Now, to explain the third whoopie: I'm a bit fan of having multiple purpose items on hand, and having a spare whoopie sling means if I screw up and somehow manage to damage one of the suspension lines, I can just remove my ridgeline and swap it on. It also after a few test hangs seems to be a fine ridgeline.

Hangs pretty well for a first shot:

While the kids were napping, I cloth-welded up a ridgeline bag, too:

Any ideas on how much length I should use to make kid hammocks? I'm thinking 2.5yds is enough: the girls are 6 and 3, and both on the petite side. If I use a full 2.5yds for each, I think they'll have enough room to grow for a few years?

Thanks for all the great info!

**Brute1100** · 07-10-2012, 11:27

Usually on kid hammocks they suggest height plus 4-5 feet... So i would just make them 10 footer and let them grow in... But that's just me... Plus that way if you wanted a buddy to come along with you would have an adult size or three to share...

**Detail Man** · 07-10-2012, 11:46

I agree with Brute, make the hamocks 9 or 10' long. You'll have options for only a few more dollars. Plus the longer length will make using spreader bars a bit easier for hanging tandem.

If you fold your MIG wire in half and use the loop end it won't snag. Pinch the end with pliers to get the tip almost touching itself. This way it'll still be pointed, but rounded on the very end.

**c0wb0y_hubs** · 07-10-2012, 11:57

I'm in the same boat (taking the whole family for a hang), and I would suggest the Equip from WalMart (for the kids). They're ~8 feet long, so they can use them for several years. They cost $25 bucks. You can still use whoopie sling if you don't want to use the large rope that they come with. Once they out grow them, you can have them as a backup hammock, gear hammock, or make an UQ out of them.

You could use your extra material to make up snake skins, pillow, ridgeline organizer, etc.

**jontow** · 07-10-2012, 12:43

On past suggestion I've checked the local walmart for the cheap hammocks without any luck. The one I just made is 10'8", and both kids fit end to end pretty comfortably. The only reason I'm inclined to make shorter ones is the difference in tree selection they'd get. Being pretty young and apt to flop out randomly, if there's a shorter span with no rocks or roots, I'd be inclined to let them take advantage of that. Theres also one social piece: kids are enamored with things that are their size. After the advice though, I'll go ahead with the math on longer rigs.

Am not going to mislead, after my wife has seen my hammocking success, we're considering getting rid of the pop-up camper entirely

. About time, I'm sick of renewing the registration on another trailer every year.

**tansey** · 07-10-2012, 14:39

Originally Posted by c0wb0y_hubs

I'm in the same boat (taking the whole family for a hang), and I would suggest the Equip from WalMart (for the kids). They're ~8 feet long, so they can use them for several years. They cost $25 bucks. You can still use whoopie sling if you don't want to use the large rope that they come with. Once they out grow them, you can have them as a backup hammock, gear hammock, or make an UQ out of them.

You could use your extra material to make up snake skins, pillow, ridgeline organizer, etc.

my equip hammock is 9' 6" long.
it fits me really well at 5' 9"

**tansey** · 07-10-2012, 16:27

that's a real nice job on the rig you made JonTow

**jontow** · 07-10-2012, 18:34

Well, now that I finally got my kids out of it, I had a chance to lounge in it and read a few chapters of a book. It hangs wonderfully, I think I could have made the ridgeline a little longer, but I was out of amsteel. Oh well, Its easily removed if I want a do-over.

**Detail Man** · 07-10-2012, 19:13

That's great the wife is on board with the hammocks. Now to convince her that the camper sale needs to fund the DIY budget. That'd be a lot of down quilts, cuben tarps, etc.

Keep in mind that if you do short hammocks for the kids, they'll need short tarps to go with them if they'll be hanging solo.