First off I would like to Thank headchange4u and BearChaser for turning me on to the beauty of the SLS.
Their threads are herehttp://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ead.php?t=4719
and here http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=32421
I used a modified version of Bearchaser's sytem last season and loved the ease and speed which it could be set up offering the ability to set the SLS and tarp and allowing the hammock to be hung later while completely covered and protected from any weather. On the version used last year I had short Alpine Butterfly Loops,2", spaced 144" apart centered on approximately 40' of 1/8" amsteel. Whoopies were made in each end of 1/8" amsteel for connecting to tree huggers.The tree huggers on this system need to be placed on the tree at 6.5 to 7' to allow for the deflection when loaded. The tarp with short mason line whoopies and small nitezes biners were connected to the ABLs and handled as a single unit. The hammock with 1100# biners were connected to the same ABLs used for the tarp. It was necessary once the hammock was hung to load the SLS and readjust the tension. Even though this was a great system being the normal hammocker I couldn't just leave well enough alone.
Even though I never had to deal with any rain on hangs last year having both the tarp and hammock suspenion lines on the same ABL raised concerns about rain running down into the hammock. This lead to the idea of moving the hammock connection under the tarp on a seperate set of ABLs so now I would have 4 ABLs. Even though I had tried prussiks on amsteel on previous versions I gave it another try with the same results. While pondering some way to attach loops to the SLS for the tarp I noticed a 7/64" double loop dogbone left over from my play with Redoleary's mini spreader bars. I cut it in half, pic #1, and using my folded wire amsteel tool pulled it inside the 1/8" amsteel SLS outboard of the ABLs, pic #2, and clipped up the tarp. Maybe not any lighter than the ABLs they replaced but seemed neater and cleaner. While examining my handiwork did a little pulling and tugging and realized that the loop was locked and didn't seem to want to move. This lead to the idea that the hammock ABL, pic#3, could also be replaced. Back to the 7/64" amsteel and 2 more loops were placed in the SLS just inboard of the tarp loops approximately 12". Did some weight and pull testing then connected the hammock whoopies to the toogles and gave it the full 220# load test, pic# 4, gravity lost and I won! Pic# 5 shows the relationship of the SLS whoopie tail, the tarp loop and the hammock loop.
Final results, replaced 2- 1100# biners @ 48g with 2 knitting needle toogles @ 8g. Amazing how little it takes to keep an old man occupied.
Approx 40" of 1/8" amsteel
2- 6'x1" huggers
4- alum. toogles
total weight 5.9oz
For those lightweights among us this could probably be done with 7/64's and zingit?
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