Ring Buckle Supports

[T-BACK]

Thanks for the recapp Jeff.
During my extended hike I tried three different suspension set ups. I started with the rings because of the weight. I could never get them to hold me up reliably without a knot behind them. My thinking is that if I have to tie a knot, I might as well tie a knot. That is get rid of all the extra hardware and just tie to the tree. I then switched to the cinch buckles. Although costing me an oz. or two the simplicity of them and the fact that I knew that they would hold me without a stopper knot sold me on them. If someone would make these out of aluminum or ti they would be hands down winners in my eyes. I had a failure on one occasion but it was due to operator error. I tried to hang my pack from the buckle with a biner. This skewed the buckle a little. As I entered the hammock the buckle cut the strap in two. It was a clean cut as if from a shear. Fortunately I was not in the best of places to hang and had the strap extended almost its full length so I only lost a few inches of it. I never hung my pack that way again and never had another problem with the buckles.
Youngblood showed me a neat little bend that tied to each end of my hammock. Complete adjustment with no metal hardware. I got rid of all my extra weight and was happy, for a while. I ended up switching back to the buckles and biners and here's why.
Any system will work for me if I'm just going out for a few days. For months on end, I prefer ease of use. To me, the buckles shined because they were no brainers. When I picked out a camp around dusk and it was raining and I was exhausted and my hands were cold enough not to be completely cooperative the last thing in the world I wanted to do was to have to think hard or fiddle with things multiple times. All I had to do was to get my tarp up, snap the biners around the trees, tug on the straps at the buckles to adjust the tension, and pull my skins back and there it was. Home. My sleeping bag stayed around the hammock so it was instantly ready for me to crawl in and go to sleep. Had I not known about these systems I would have just kept tying knots at the trees and been happy. What's that saying?...once you've had adjustable straps, you'll never go back...or something like that.

[Coffee]

I was just going to view and post just to add another view and post, but I found something to add.

With the buckles locking up, also check how tight the know you are using to the buckles from the hammock and ridgeline is. I noticed that when I added a little slack to my taught line it made it easier to use.

[Coffee]

Thanks for the recapp Jeff.
During my extended hike I tried three different suspension set ups. I started with the rings because of the weight. I could never get them to hold me up reliably without a knot behind them. My thinking is that if I have to tie a knot, I might as well tie a knot. That is get rid of all the extra hardware and just tie to the tree. I then switched to the cinch buckles. Although costing me an oz. or two the simplicity of them and the fact that I knew that they would hold me without a stopper knot sold me on them. If someone would make these out of aluminum or ti they would be hands down winners in my eyes. I had a failure on one occasion but it was due to operator error. I tried to hang my pack from the buckle with a biner. This skewed the buckle a little. As I entered the hammock the buckle cut the strap in two. It was a clean cut as if from a shear. Fortunately I was not in the best of places to hang and had the strap extended almost its full length so I only lost a few inches of it. I never hung my pack that way again and never had another problem with the buckles.
Youngblood showed me a neat little bend that tied to each end of my hammock. Complete adjustment with no metal hardware. I got rid of all my extra weight and was happy, for a while. I ended up switching back to the buckles and biners and here's why.
Any system will work for me if I'm just going out for a few days. For months on end, I prefer ease of use. To me, the buckles shined because they were no brainers. When I picked out a camp around dusk and it was raining and I was exhausted and my hands were cold enough not to be completely cooperative the last thing in the world I wanted to do was to have to think hard or fiddle with things multiple times. All I had to do was to get my tarp up, snap the biners around the trees, tug on the straps at the buckles to adjust the tension, and pull my skins back and there it was. Home. My sleeping bag stayed around the hammock so it was instantly ready for me to crawl in and go to sleep. Had I not known about these systems I would have just kept tying knots at the trees and been happy. What's that saying?...once you've had adjustable straps, you'll never go back...or something like that.

Well put. One of the huge things I took from my hike as well. The simplier the better. I estimate that I carry an extra pound or two just to make things easier. Well worth it to me.

[Just Jeff]

Youngblood showed me a neat little bend that tied to each end of my hammock. Complete adjustment with no metal hardware. I got rid of all my extra weight and was happy, for a while.....

Interested to hear more about this...

Good rundown on the rest of it...especially the part about simplicity. After I got my base weight down below 10 lbs, just to see that I could do it, I started adding a few things back in for convenience. Like biners and buckles. I'm still a gram weenie b/c I weigh everything before it goes into my pack...I just have a lower threshold now for whether or not to include it. For me, the difference between 15 lbs and 25 lbs on my back isn't even worth discussing. And I can still go 7 days unresupplied for ~30 lbs, so two extra ounces to save time and fiddle factor are worth it to me. For now at least...I can always change my mind next week!

[warbonnetguy]

I'm really interested in seeing warbonnet's triangle buckles as well...it sounds like they'll work even better than rings for webbings. Has anyone tested them with a Garda Hitch yet?

they might work well that way, you'd have to rig the point of the triangle for the line, which would mean rigging the buckles to the hammock with 1" webbing.

it's interesting that you used the round rings without a backup and still had no slippage, the triangles may not bite webbing better afterall, i thought the round rings always slipped without the backup (i only tried them once) the triangles held me for awhile, but now seem to slip. cannibal had the same experience. i think they become slicker as the oxidizing wears down some. also some seem to slip right away when brand new while others don't. i've just started tying the backup everytime now. once it slips on you a couple times you start to get nervous everytime you get in, it's just much more re-assuring with the backup even though it's never slipped more than an inch or so on me.

[Youngblood]

... When I picked out a camp around dusk and it was raining and I was exhausted and my hands were cold enough not to be completely cooperative the last thing in the world I wanted to do was to have to think hard or fiddle with things multiple times. ...

I call that 'combat conditions'. The first ol' thru hiker I spent a few days on the trail with was trying to teach me about his philosophy on long distance hiking and how things really worked. He was an ultralight backpacker before there was a name for it... Rottin' Rodney was his trail name (and yes there was a story to that name). That was back when every hiker thought GoreTek was the answer to rain and I had GoreTek. He keep taking about combat conditions and would laugh at some of the things I had and how I thought they would work on the trail. He got a big laugh out of me when I tried to use my GoreTek rain suit and I think of that every time I pass a particular ledge on the AT in Georgia where we took a break out of the rain and I got out of my GoreTek rain suit because I was about to pass out from overheating.

[Hoppy]

Apologies if this has been asked before.

Does the size of the webbing have any bearing on the size of the rings you need ?

i.e
1 inch webbing needs x size rings.
1.5 inch webbing needs y size rings.

Cheers.

[Take-a-knee]

Apologies if this has been asked before.

Does the size of the webbing have any bearing on the size of the rings you need ?

i.e
1 inch webbing needs x size rings.
1.5 inch webbing needs y size rings.

Cheers.

I'm not the best guy to answer since I've never used webbing but IIRC most use one inch webbing with the SMC descending ring (it is an aluminum ring used for mountaineering).

[Ramblinrev]

If I understand correctly the theory is the closer to flat the stress is placed on the webbing the more the evenly the wear and abrasion is spread out. So the tri-rings Warbonnetguy sends with his blackbird should show less abrasion over time than a ring. However, there is tradeoff between strength, weight and availability using normal rings. The most common pairing I am familiar with ... and the one I use, is 1" webbing paired with 1.5" I.D. rings. I prefer the SMC descender rings but do have National Hardware welded rings on some of my set ups. The safe working load listed for the National Hardware rings seems sufficient for me. They are heavier, cheaper and readily available to me in the boonies where I live.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Woot, just found some camp nanos at rei for like 8 bucks a pop and made my setup just a bit quicker : ) Already had some hardware store rings on there that have been working out great (not surprising considering I only weight 140 lbs : P). Now I can really make those ground dwellers jealous : P